The Will to Fight and the Will to Write: Some Recent Books on the American Civil War

Abstract

David J. Eicher, The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997, $39.95). Pp. 432. ISBN 0 252 02273 4.

Gary W. Gallagher, The Confederate War (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1997, $24.95). Pp. 222. ISBN 0 674 16055 x.

Judith N. McArthur and Orville Vernon Burton (editors), “A Gentleman and an Officer”: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin's Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, $30.00). Pp. 382. ISBN 0 19 509311 9.

A. K. McClure, Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times: Some Personal Recollections of War and Politics during the Lincoln Administration (Bison Books edition, with introduction by James A. Rawley; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996, £18.95). Pp. 496. ISBN 0 8032 8228 1.

James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, £20.00). Pp. 256. ISBN 0 19 509023 3.

John Michael Priest, Before Antietam: The Battle for South Mountain (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; pbk 1996, £15.99). Pp. 455. ISBN 0 19 510712 8.

Jack D. Welsh, Medical Histories of Union Generals (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1996). Pp. 442. ISBN 0 87338 552 7.

Donald Yacovone (editor), A Voice of Thunder: The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997, $26.95). Pp. 372. ISBN 0 252 02245 9.

Like Ol' Man River, Civil War historiography just keeps rolling along. It changes course occasionally, leaving behind bayous of stagnant argument, while it carves out new lines of inquiry and debate. The books under review here follow the meandering course of this great river of historical writing. There are two scholarly editions of the writings of Civil War soldiers, one northern one southern, one black one white. There are two reference works, each of them bearing the rather idiosyncratic stamp of its editor. The immensely detailed battlefield narrative, as exemplified by John Michael Priest's book on South Mountain, adheres to a tradition of Civil War historical writing that resists changing historiographical fashions, and continues to appeal to a readership which knows the kind of military history it likes, and simply wants still more of it. Another honoured tradition in Civil War literature is the reprint of a “classic” written by someone who lived through the conflict, and Alexander McClure has good claims to inclusion in this category. Finally, there are two quite brief books by two heavyweight historians, James McPherson and Gary Gallagher, who address some of the perennial Civil War issues, such as why did men fight and go on fighting, and which is more in need of explanation: why did the Confederacy lose, or how did it manage to fight for so long?