The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat (review)

Abstract

140CIVIL WAR HISTORY The War Between the States is central to a multifaceted inspection from the tactically analytical to the numerous aspects of what constitutes the New Military History. Furthermore, despite this exhaustive appraisal, each year produces at least one work that unearths new evidence or examines the tried and new in such an innovative manner as to constitute something exceptional. Shook Over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress Vietnam and the Civil War is such a work. It must be stated at the outset that, save for a concluding chapter, the impact of theVietnam War on itsAmerican participants serves only to frame Eric Dean's discussion. In the course of two concise, but nonetheless informative chapters, Dean examines the changing interpretation ofthe effects of the Vietnam War on those who survived and the history of military psychiatry from the GreatWar to Vietnam. Upon this foundation he proceeds to establish the parameters of that special hell created by a close formation and the rifled musket. A time of suffering and tribulation which found focus in such works as Gerald Linderman's Embattled Courage, "Seeing the Elephant," by Frank and Reaves, or The Union Soldier in Battle, by Earl J. Hess. This work is not, however, a further explication of battlefield behavior. Rather, Shook Over Hell addresses the post-war experiences of a specific group of veterans, 29 1 men committed to the Indiana Hospital for the Insane from 1861 to 19 19. The sample is not statistically valid nor sufficiently random; the author takes pains to establish that fact. Notwithstanding, the information revealed, when placed in the context established by the preceding chapters, is indeed compelling . Within the frame of reference previously elaborated, and in accord with the assumptions derived therefrom, Eric Dean avers that post-traumatic stress made its appearance in the United States more than a century before the first American involvement in South Vietnam. Shook Over Hell fills a vital niche in the historiography of American Civil War combat studies. It will stand as a significant signpost directing any future endeavors in this area. Eric Dean deserves a commendation for this expansion of what began as a seminar paper at Purdue University in 1987. Unfortunately, Dean did not see fit to leave well enough alone. He chose to reconsider what he views as the mythology of the Vietnam veteran. In a confrontational, perhaps irrelevant concluding chapter Dean offers what he may view as a breath offresh air. Others may see it as the ultimate victimization of those who found it necessary to serve their country in a war whose merits are still subject to debate. J. K. Sweeney South Dakota State University The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal ofCombat. By Earl J. Hess. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. Pp. xii, 244. $29.95.) In recent years, when historians are marching away from drums and trumpets to help us understand the nature of the Civil War, Earl Hess marches back to the BOOK REVIEWSI4I trenches to help us understand the nature of combat. His latest volume, The Union Soldier in Battle, fills a void on the short shelf of works devoted to the Union soldiers' combat experiences. His book compliments the works of Gerald Linderman, Reid Mitchel, Randall Jimerson, and most recently James McPherson in helping to place the soldiers' experiences in a proper political, social, and philosophical context. Though he never leaves the battlefield, he nonetheless focuses on the relationship among the nature of battle, soldier morale, and the sustaining ideological and emotional framework from which the soldiers drew. The result is a disturbing examination of how soldiers interpreted the war and their role in it. In the first few chapters, Hess weaves a perceptive analysis of what Union soldiers experienced before, during, and after combat. It comes as no surprise that the experience of the combat environment helped shape soldiers into warriors . Battle was a comprehensive physical experience of the senses that surrounded the soldier, yethe had no control overthe environment. Forthose soldiers who could bring themselves to discuss the physical and emotional horrors of combat, chaos was the theme most consistently used to describe their experiences . It wrecked the military discipline that they had...