The Most Promising Young Officer: A Life of Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (review)

Abstract

86CIVIL WAR HISTORY describing the entire incident with convincing detail. His source for this claim is an orderly on Reno's staff, A. H. Wood, who wrote an article concerning Reno's death for the National Tribune in 1883. Yet Priest fails to explain in his notes that Wood was not actually present when Reno was shot. He also does not mention that three other Ninth Corps veterans responded to Wood's article in the Tribune, challenged it, and claimed instead that Reno was fatally wounded by enemy fire. Why did he discount the testimony of the majority to accept that of the minority? An explanation is necessary. In another instance he criticizes McClellan's 12:00 p.m., September 13, dispatch to Lincoln , which informed the president that he had "all the plans of the rebels" (113), an effort by the general to absolve himself of any blame if the effort to relieve Harpers Ferry was unsuccessful. It may well have been, but the author claims in his notes that he arrived at this conclusion based upon his experience as a "school teacher and manager of personnel," which qualified him to "judge when a person is covering his rear." Besides the textual and historiographical problems which plague this book, the text lacks an overview that places the battle in the context of the campaign . There is also little comprehensible analysis or summary to link the chapters together to weave an understandable story. Adding to the confusion are the seventy maps. Positions of troops are hand-drawn black lines upon a black-and-white map, leaving the reader puzzled over whether they are looking at fence lines or troop positions. The accuracy of troop positions on some maps is also questionable. Another irritating point is the fact that the print is not typeset. Considering the book's cost, the reader should expect this. D. Scott Hartwig Gettysburg, Pa. The Most Promising Young Officer: A Life ofRanald Slidell Mackenzie. By Michael D. Pierce. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. Pp. xiii, 304. $24.95.) With this biography of Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, Michael D. Pierce attempts to correct what he sees as an omission in the scholarship of the leaders of the Civil War and postwar army. Mackenzie was a West Point graduate who served successfully in the Civil War and held commands in the West, where, according to Pierce, he had major successes but still remained lesser known than such contemporaries as Nelson Miles, George Crook, and George Armstrong Custer. Pierce is correct in saying that Mackenzie's short career lessened the recognition he received. This biography attempts to place Mackenzie at the same level as better-known generals of the era, especially Miles, whom Mackenzie continually competed with for promotions and better postings. Using a variety of primary sources but also an abundance of secondary sources, Pierce provides a solid, though perhaps too favorable, sketch of BOOK REVIEWS87 Mackenzie's life. Mackenzie was born in 1840 and was a son of a prominent naval officer. Eschewing his father's career, Mackenzie entered West Point in 1858. The Civil War shortened his time there, and he received his commission a year early in 1862. Mackenzie's first combat experience was at the Second Battle of Manassas, where he was wounded. He quickly rose through the ranks. In November of 1864 he was breveted a brigadier general, and by the end of the war he was breveted major general. Soon after the war, Mackenzie assumed command ofthe 41st Infantry Regiment , a black unit, and, as Pierce points out, he took the posting mainly because it offered a chance for faster promotion. This incident is important, for it was his first service in the West, and it offers a good example of Mackenzie 's characteristic ambition. He was willing to take a less appealing assignment to more quickly advance in rank. Mackenzie held commands and served in various commands throughout Texas and the West for the rest of his career. He gained his greatest renown as a leader in the army's efforts to quell Indian hostilities that erupted in the Red River War and other Indian-white conflicts on the Southern Plains...