Voices from Cemetery Hill: The Civil War Diary, Reports and Letters of Colonel William Henry Asbury Speer (1861-1864) by Allen Paul Speer (review)

Abstract

or fails, and this book does a good deal ofthe former and a bit ofthe latter . Selections from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, Earl Hamner's On Spencer's Mountain, and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are as powerful as they were in their original settings. But then again, they are engaging, at least in part, because we are familiar with those settings. Other selections are engaging because of their relative obscurity, coupled with the historical importance-ifnot the literary abilities —ofthe writers. It is intriguing to read the complaints ofthe King of France on his Shenandoah Valley holiday, to learn the ornithological expertise of Theodore Roosevelt, or to experience the way the war in Vietnam intruded on the mountain retreat of Washington journalist Charles Seib. Less engaging are selections from a handful ofwriters who, while rightly included (given the book's focus), have neither the intrinsic power to engage us as quickly as briefselections necessarily demand, nor the historical familiarity to make their works interesting despite a lack of literary merit. While all or many ofthese writers may be excellent in larger doses, the single thematic commonality-that they deal in some way with the region under study-is sometimes insufficient to maintain our sincere interest. But compensations abound. To begin, the descriptions of certain natural and human phenomena create continuities which interest us regardless ofwhether a particular writer fails to engage. Perceptions of the Natural Bridge, for example, develop a cumulative power, and the more the perspectives differ, the better. Too, certain political progressions , such as the creation of the Shenandoah National Forest, allow selections to become mutually enriching which might not have engaged us alone. And ifsome ofthe relatively obscure writers might just as well have remained obscure, the opposite is also true: we owe Branch and Philippon our thanks for rescuing from relative obscurity such superb pieces as Archibald Alexander's "The Sublime and the Beautiful," Havilah Babcock's "Hunting Bee Trees," and the selections from The Journal ofJohn Fontaine. In sum, despite the occasional lapse, this collection is a superb addition to the literature of the Appalachian region. And as a focused scholarly introduction to the nature writing of a region, it presents an excellent model and exercises it with exemplary rigor. -William Jolliff Speer, Allen Paul. Voices from Cemetery Hill: The Civil War Diary, Reports and Letters ofColonel William Henry Asbury Speer (1861-1864). Johnson City, Tennessee: Overmountain Press, 1997. 217 pages. Paperback $19.95. 70 Allen Speer ofLees-McRae College has compiled and edited a book here that is a monumental exercise in family history. Yet Dr. Speer's task is only partly done. When Speer's Aunt Nellie Dobbins died in 1980, a large family archive was left to him, and he has vigorously supplemented these family documents by drawing upon the Official Records ofthe War of the Rebellion, the Vance Papers, letters and diaries of family friends, broad reading in standard Civil War titles and North Carolina local history , research in the National Archives and local newspapers. Yet there are more stories to tell from this family stretching across the eight generations buried in the old Methodist cemetery on the Speer farm in central Yadkin County, North Carolina. Most of this volume involves the remarkably detailed diary, letters, and reports ofWilliam Henry Asbury Speer, which covers his Civil War experience between August 1861, when he enlisted in the Confederate service, and his death at Ream's Station, south ofPetersburg, on August 29, 1864. Together they follow Colonel Speer from the Battle of Hanover Court House (May 27, 1862), where he was captured; his incarcerations at Fort Columbus, in New York harbor, and Johnson's Island near Sandusky, Ohio; then his return to the Confederate army and action at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. Civil War scholars will find important insights into the battles ofHanover Court House and Chancellorsville not found elsewhere. James I. Robertson has called these memoirs what a "family wartime chronicle should be." Colonel Asbury Speer was an able officer and died a hero of the Confederate cause. Yet he opposed secession and attacked slavery...