The Battlefields of the Civil War (review)

Abstract

l82CIVIL WAR HISTORY book that everyone interested in nineteenth-century technology, naval history, and the role of the blockade in the Civil War will need to read. Joseph G. Damson III Texas A&M University The Battlefields ofthe Civil War. By William C. Davis. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. Pp. 256. $19.95.) In 1989 and the following two years, the prolific William C. (Jack) Davis produced three reference works (one each year) on the combatants and contests of the Civil War under the general title Rebels and Yankees. Two of the oversized, coffee-table-type volumes, all of which were intended for a general audience and/or military history enthusiasts, told the war's story through a topical approach to the lives ofcommon soldiers (The Fighting Men ofthe Civil War) and commissioned officers (The Commanders of the Civil War), respectively; the third, The Battlefields ofthe Civil War, charted the course ofthe strugglethrough an account of major engagements. The book reviewed here is a paperback reprint of the latter. Slick and glitzy, Battlefields offers summaries of thirteen battles (with Chickamauga and Chattanooga treated as one). Each summary includes archival photographs, illustrations of soldiers of different ranks in authentically detailed uniforms, and a full-page map of the combat site that indicates troop positions and movements and principal geographical features. An introduction on the siege of Fort Sumter and an epilogue on the war's concluding campaigns complete the tactical synopses, all of which offer portraits of key personalities and insights on issues of strategy. Photographic spreads of collections of artifacts (e.g., ordnance, uniforms, flags, personal effects) from major repositories appear throughout the book; an appendix by technical advisor Russ Pritchard, who is affiliated With the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia and the Museum ofthe Confederacy in Richmond, complements each layout's descriptive caption with added material in a human-interest vein. The author offers a balanced assessment or his subjects in generally lucid prose. He also corrects some long-held misapprehensions that recent scholarship on Civil War military history has started to address. In the main, however, there is no new ground broken here. The Official Records, Battles and Leaders, and writings of participants as well as established secondary works on specific campaigns inform the reiteration of essentially standard interpretations. As publisher of this reissue, the University of Oklahoma Press had a chance to rectify the uneven editing job in the original, with which it was not involved. Unfortunately it did not take advantage of the opportunity, so the 1996 Battlefields ofthe Civil War has the same misprints and grammatical problems as the book reviews183 1 99 1 edition. A more accurate title is in order as well, for the current one does not describe the work's contents adequately. While Davis carefully traces the impact ofgeography on the strategy and tactics ofeach contest, thus underscoring the intrinsic relationship between site and event, his study spotlights battles ratherthanbattlefields. Potential readers—and truth in advertising—would benefit from a simple name-change. Despite its limitations and the existence of other books with similar information , The Battlefields of the Civil War is a helpful addition to the libraries of bibliophiles interested is in concise guides to the walk decisive military actions. Loyola University Chicago Mary Munsell Monroe Prince John Magruder: His Life and Campaigns. By Paul D. Casdorph. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996. Pp. xiii, 386. $30.00.) Perhaps the most charming drunk in a war with thousands of commissioned alcoholics, John Bankhead Magruder has at last found a biographer worthy of him. This splendid, illustrated, full-length study describes his childhood and his education at the University ofVirginia and West Point; his unremarkable career in the old army, admission to the North Carolina bar is in a style worthy of William T. Sherman, and Mexican War laurels; and his unhappy marriage and troubled personal life. Rounding off the portrait, the author recreates Prince John's lisp, colorful uniforms (which must have made Custer's look rather subdued ), and love for parties and theatrics; his popularity with the ladies and resentment by enlisted men; his absence from the battlefield at key moments and generous praise ofsubordinates; and his...