LSU Press to Publish Book on Sherman and the Confederate Home Front

Sherman’s War on Women

A Study of Home Front Hostilities on Sherman's March

Baton Rouge—Lisa Tendrich Frank’s book The Civilian War, to be published in April 2015, explores home front encounters between elite Confederate women and Union soldiers during Sherman’s March, a campaign that put women at the center of a Union army operation for the first time. Ordered to crush the morale as well as the military infrastructure of the Confederacy, Sherman and his army increasingly targeted wealthy civilians in their progress through Georgia and the Carolinas. To drive home the full extent of northern domination over the South, Sherman’s soldiers besieged the female domain—going into bedrooms and parlors, seizing correspondence and personal treasures—with the aim of insulting and humiliating upper-class southern women. These efforts blurred the distinction between home front and warfront, creating confrontations in the domestic sphere as a part of the war itself.

Historian Lisa Tendrich Frank argues that ideas about women and their roles in war shaped the expectations of both Union soldiers and Confederate civilians. Sherman recognized that slaveholding Confederate women played a vital part in sustaining the Rebel efforts, and accordingly he treated them as wartime opponents, targeting their markers of respectability and privilege. Although Sherman intended his efforts to demoralize the civilian population, Frank suggests that his strategies frequently had the opposite effect. Confederate women accepted the plunder of food and munitions as an inevitable part of the conflict, but they considered Union invasion of their private spaces an unforgivable and unreasonable transgression. These intrusions strengthened the resolve of many southern women to continue the fight against the Union and its most despised general.

Seamlessly merging gender studies and military history, The Civilian War illuminates the distinction between the damage inflicted on the battlefield and the offenses that occurred in the domestic realm during the Civil War. Ultimately, Frank’s research demonstrates why many women in the Lower South remained steadfastly committed to the Confederate cause even when their prospects seemed most dim.

Lisa Tendrich Frank received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Florida. She is the author and editor of numerous works relating to the Civil War, including Women in the American Civil War and the forthcoming The World of the Civil War: A Daily Life Encyclopedia.

April 2015
256 pages, 6 x 9
978-0-8071-5996-5
Cloth $42.50s

New Book by Earl Hess To Be Published in April 2015

Civil War Infantry Tactics LSU Press to Publish Earl Hess’s Groundbreaking Military History in April 2015

Baton Rouge—For decades, military historians have argued that the introduction of the rifle musket—with a range five times longer than that of the smoothbore musket—made the shoulder-to-shoulder formations of linear tactics obsolete. Author Earl J. Hess challenges this deeply entrenched assumption. He contends that long-range rifle fire did not dominate Civil War battlefields or dramatically alter the course of the conflict because soldiers had neither the training nor the desire to take advantage of the musket rifle’s increased range. Drawing on the drill manuals available to officers and a close reading of battle reports, Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-unit Effectiveness demonstrates that linear tactics provided the best formations and maneuvers to use with the single-shot musket, whether rifle or smoothbore.

The linear system was far from an outdated relic that led to higher casualties and prolonged the war. Indeed, regimental officers on both sides of the conflict found the formations and maneuvers in use since the era of the French Revolution to be indispensable to the survival of their units on the battlefield. The training soldiers received in this system, combined with their extensive experience in combat, allowed small units a high level of articulation and effectiveness.

Unlike much military history that focuses on grand strategies, Hess zeroes in on formations and maneuvers (or primary tactics), describing their purpose and usefulness in regimental case studies, and pinpointing which of them were favorites of unit commanders in the field. The Civil War was the last conflict in North America to see widespread use of the linear tactical system, and Hess convincingly argues that the war also saw the most effective tactical performance yet in America’s short history.

EARL J. HESS is Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at Lincoln Memorial University and the author of fifteen books on the Civil War, including Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign; The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee; and The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi.

April 2015
368 pages, 6 x 9, 15 halftones, 20 charts
978-0-8071-5937-8
Cloth $45.00
Civil War / Military History

Spring 2014 LSU Press Catalog

The Spring 2014 LSU Press catalog can be downloaded here. There are several interesting looking titles included.


Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) The Union army's overwhelming vote for Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864 has led many Civil War scholars to conclude that the soldiers supported the Republican Party and its effort to abolish slavery. In Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln Jonathan W. White challenges this reigning paradigm in Civil War historiography, arguing instead that the soldier vote in the presidential election of 1864 is not a reliable index of the army's ideological motivation or political sentiment. Although 78 percent of the soldiers' votes were cast for Lincoln, White contends that this was not wholly due to a political or social conversion to the Republican Party. Rather, he argues, historians have ignored mitigating factors such as voter turnout, intimidation at the polls, and how soldiers voted in nonpresidential elections in 1864. While recognizing that many soldiers changed their views on slavery and emancipation during the war, White suggests that a considera-ble number still rejected the Republican platform, and that many who voted for Lincoln disagreed with his views on slavery. He likewise ex-plains that many northerners considered a vote for the Democratic ticket as treasonous and an admission of defeat. Using previously untapped court-martial records from the National Archives, as well as manuscript collections from across the country, White convincingly revises many commonly held assumptions about the Civil War era and provides a deeper understanding of the Union Army.


Gateway to the Confederacy: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862-1863   A collection of ten new essays from some of our finest Civil War historians working today, Gateway to the Confederacy offers a reexamination of the campaigns fought to gain possession of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Each essay addresses how Americans have misconstrued the legacy of these struggles and why scholars feel it necessary to reconsider one of the most critical turning points of the American Civil War.

 

The first academic analysis that delineates all three Civil War campaigns fought from 1862 to 1863 for control of Chattanooga—the transportation hub of the Confederacy and gateway to the Deep South—this book deals not only with military operations but also with the campaigns’ origins and consequences. The essays also explore the far-reaching social and political implications of the battles and bring into sharp focus their impact on postwar literature and commemoration. Several chapters revise the traditional portraits of both famous and controversial figures including Ambrose Bierce and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Others investigate some of the more salient moments of these campaigns such as the circumstances that allowed for the Confederate breakthrough assault at Chickamauga. 

 

Gateway to the Confederacy reassesses these pivotal battles, long in need of reappraisal, and breaks new ground as each scholar reshapes a particular aspect of this momentous part of the Civil War.

 

CONTRIBUTORS

 

Russell S. Bonds

Stephen Cushman

Caroline E. Janney 

Evan C. Jones 

David A. Powell 

Gerald J. Prokopowicz 

William Glenn Robertson 

Wiley Sword 

Craig L. Symonds

Loathing Lincoln: An American Tradition from the Civil War to the Present (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) Winner of the The Jules and Frances Landry Award

While most Americans count Abraham Lincoln among the most beloved and admired former presidents, a dedicated minority has long viewed him as not only the worst president in the country’s history but also as a criminal who defied the Constitution and advanced federal power and the idea of racial equality. In Loathing Lincoln, historian John McKee Barr surveys the broad array of criticisms about Abraham Lincoln that emerged when he stepped onto the national stage, expanded during the Civil War, and continued to evolve after his death and into the present. 

 

The first panoramic study of Lincoln’s critics, Barr’s work offers both an analysis of Lincoln in historical memory and an examination of how his critics—on both the right and left—have frequently reflected the anxiety and discontent Americans felt about their lives. From northern abolitionists upset about the slow pace of emancipation, to Confederates who condemned him as a “black Republican” and despot, to Americans who blamed him for the civil rights movement, to, more recently, libertarians who accuse him of trampling the Constitution and creating the modern welfare state, Lincoln’s detractors have always been a vocal minority, but not one without influence.

 

By meticulously exploring the most significant arguments against Lincoln, Barr traces the rise of the president’s most strident critics and links most of them to a distinct right-wing or neo-Confederate political agenda. According to Barr, their hostility to a more egalitarian America and opposition to any use of federal power to bring about such goals led them to portray Lincoln as an imperialistic president who grossly overstepped the bounds of his office. In contrast, liberals criticized him for not doing enough to bring about emancipation or ensure lasting racial equality. Lincoln’s conservative and libertarian foes, however, constituted the vast majority of his detractors. More recently, Lincoln’s most vociferous critics have adamantly opposed Barack Obama and his policies, many of them referencing Lincoln in their attacks on the current president. In examining these individuals and groups, Barr’s study provides a deeper understanding of American political life and the nation itself. 

Book Review--Greyhound Commander: John G. Walker's Civil War West of the Mississippi

Lowe, Richard, editor. Greyhound Commander: Confederate General John G. Walker's History of the Civil War West of the Mississippi. Baton Rogue: LSU Press. 2013. Maps, index, bibliography, footnotes. 135 pages, 120 pages of text, ISBN 9780807152508, $36.00.

If the war in the west is overlooked in comparison to the war in the east the fighting done in the trans-Mississippi area is many times buried and forgotten about without a second thought. First hand accounts written by commanders from the area are rare thus making John G. Walker's work a must read for anybody studying the war in the trans-Mississippi theater of the war.

The book opens with an interesting and easily readable treatment by editor Richard Lowe. Lowe is the author of Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War) and The Texas Overland Expedition of 1863 (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series) and is the perfect editor to have taken this work from the vaults at the U. S. Army Military History Institute and presented it to a wider readership. Lowe gives readers a nice biographical introduction to John Walker allowing those who do not have a strong background in the trans-Mississippi theater of the war (myself included) to have a better idea of what is going on in Walker's writings.

Walker was an officer in the regular army before resigning in 1861 to join the Confederacy. He began fighting in the east, under Robert E. Lee, earning rapid promotions. He particularly distinguished himself during the Antietam Campaign. By November 1862 however Walker found himself sent westward, a move generally given to those who had failed to meet expectations. Editor Lowe puts forth that this move was probably due to Walker's association with Theophilus H. Holmes, who had served as a mentor and helped Walker receive his promotions. Holmes was a friend of President Jefferson Davis so when Holmes was sent to the trans-Mississippi it is likely that he asked for Walker to be sent west as well. (p. 13) Walker was a division commander in charge of three hard marching brigades of Texans. These men covered hundreds of miles in a short period of time thus earning the nickname "Greyhounds." General Walker was wounded during the Red River Campaign but returned to command later in 1864.

The editing of Walker's text is light with only minor adjustments to the text. First names are added in order to help the reader. It appears that all of Lowe's adjustments are bracketed [ ] for easy spotting. Where Lowe's editorial pen is most evident though are in the large amount of footnotes (yes FOOT notes, no having to flip to the back of the book) that are included. These notes provide readers with further source material, provide information on people and events as need be, and where necessary make corrections and clarifications to Walker's statements.

After having left the United States after the war, due to fear of prosecution, Walker dictated his work to his daughter while they were living in England during 1866-1867. Walker's story begins in 1861 discussing events in Missouri and concludes with the ending of the Red River Campaign in May 1864. The major events covered are the previously mentioned Red River Campaign and the Texas Overland campaign. While the text portion of the book runs 120 pages Walker's narrative is approximately 85 pages long.

A common theme in Walker's writing is a condemning of higher leadership with Edmund Kirby Smith receiving plenty of negative commentary. Walker wrote that had Smith gone after Ulysses Grant's lines between Milliken's Bend and New Carthage Grant would have had to suspend actions against Vicksburg and allow a reinforcement of or an orderly retreat of, Confederate forces. Walker went further in claiming that by John Pemberton not following orders from Joseph Johnston regarding a retreat led to a loss that "was one of the principal links in the chain of misfortune by which the Confederacy was dragged down to failure and ruin." (p. 68). Smith is later condemned during the Red River Campaign for having sent Texas troops to Arkansas instead of leaving them to support Richard Taylor as he followed the retreating Union troops of Nathaniel Banks (p. 101).

While certainly not a complete telling of any of the trans-Mississippi battles this is a resource that should no doubt be consulted. Lowe has included eight maps:  the trans-Mississippi theater, Civil War Missouri, Civil War Arkansas, Civil War Louisiana, Battle of Milliken's Bend, Battle of Mansfield, Battle of Pleasant Hill and Battle of Jenkins' Ferry that are a considerable help. Strongly recommended.

Thank you to LSU Press for sending a complimentary review copy.

New Arrivals From LSU Press and Southern Illinois University Press

A couple of new books have arrived in the mailbox recently. Both look interesting.

From Southern Illinois University Press comes The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29-May 18, 1863 (Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland) edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear.

From the publisher:

Ulysses S. Grant’s ingenious campaign to capture the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River was one of the most decisive events of the Civil War and one of the most storied military expeditions in American history. The ultimate victory at Vicksburg effectively cut the Confederacy in two, gave control of the river to Union forces, and delivered a devastating blow from which the South never fully recovered. Editors Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear have assembled essays by prominent and emerging scholars, who contribute astute analysis of this famous campaign’s most crucial elements and colorful personalities.

Encompassed in this first of five planned volumes on the Vicksburg campaign are examinations of the pivotal events that comprised the campaign’s maneuver stage, from March to May of 1863. The collection sheds new light on Grant’s formidable intelligence network of former slaves, Mississippi loyalists, and Union spies; his now legendary operations to deceive and confuse his Confederate counterparts; and his maneuvers from the perspective of classic warfare. Also presented are insightful accounts of Grant’s contentious relationship with John A. McClernand during the campaign; interactions between hostile Confederate civilians and Union army troops; and the planning behind such battles as Grierson’s Raid, Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River Bridge.

From LSU Press and author Brian Steel Wills comes Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War).

From the publisher:
During the Civil War, North Carolinian William Dorsey Pender established himself as one of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's best young generals. He served in most of the significant engagements of the war in the eastern theater while under the command of Joseph E. Johnston at Seven Pines and Robert E. Lee from the Seven Days to Gettysburg. His most crucial contributions to Confederate success came at the battles of Second Manassas, Shepherdstown, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. After an effective first day at Gettysburg, Pender was struck by a shell and disabled, necessitating his return to Virginia for what he hoped would be only an extended convalescence. Although Pender initially survived the wound, he died soon thereafter due to complications from his injury.

In this thorough biography of Pender, noted Civil War historian Brian Steel Wills examines both the young general's military career and his domestic life. While Pender devoted himself to military service, he also embraced the Episcopal Church and was baptized before his command in the field. According to Wills, Pender had an insatiable quest for "glory" in both earthly and heavenly realms, and he delighted in his role as a husband and father. In Pender's voluminous correspondence with his wife, Fanny, he shared his beliefs and offered views and opinions on a vast array of subjects. In the end, Wills suggests that Pender's story captures both the idealistic promise and the despair of a war that cost the lives of many Americans and changed the nation forever.

 

Book Review--Lincoln and McClellan at War

Hearn, Chester G. Lincoln and McClellan at War. Baton Rouge, LSU Press. 2012. Index, notes, bibliography, 4 maps, 257 pages, 221 pages of text. ISBN 9780807145524, $45.

The  difficult relationship of Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan is certainly not a new one to readers of Civil War literature. Thus, while not breaking much new ground here, Chester Hearn has written an interesting and easy to read volume on the strained relationship between president and general.

What we have here are two people new to their commands. Lincoln was still a relatively inexperienced politician and McClellan, despite already being called the "Young Napoleon" in some circles, was new to leading an army this large. Of course McClellan might say leading an army this small but that's another issue.

Lincoln put his faith in McClellan to be able to end the war quickly. However Lincoln was unable to stay out of the way and McClellan bristled at what he considered to be the interference of Washington. In McClellan's eyes Lincoln was a gorilla and an unwelcome distraction. In Lincoln's eyes McClellan had a case of the "slows" and he even went so far as asking McClellan if he could borrow his army it he wasn't going to use it. The mutual distrust and sarcasm did not bode well for their relationship.

McClellan was a Unionist and certainly wanted to end the war however he and Lincoln had different strategies on how to do such. Lincoln wanted an aggressive general who would attack Robert E. Lee while McClellan preferred to be more cautious and fight a war of maneuvers. When Lincoln proposed a campaign to take the Rebel army located near Bull Run McClellan declined immediately and countered with what was to become the Peninsula Campaign. In traditional McClellan manner this was a slow and plodding campaign that while ultimately getting near Richmond did not achieve what McClellan had promised.

An area that is covered multiple times is the continued requesting of troops by McClellan. He consistently tells Washington he is out manned by the Confederate forces and promises to attack if only he had X number more troops. When the Secretary of War provided more men suddenly the Confederate army had even more. Whether McClellan actually believed the numbers provided by his spy Allan Pinkerton or if Pinkerton is providing numbers to prop up claims by McClellan is an interesting aspect to ponder. Of course Washington was on to McClellan and several times Lincoln called him on soldier counts.

After much back and forth McClellan was given what amounts to a final chance when the Confederate army went north of the Potomac in September 1862. The battle of Antietam gave McClellan a chance to inflict a large amount of damage on Robert E. Lee's troops. While certainly not a grand victory the major opportunity was lost when Union forces did not follow the damaged Confederates out of Maryland despite having fresh troops with which to carry on the battle. McClellan made what to him would be another blunder by calling the battle a Union victory. This proclamation gave Abraham Lincoln enough to go on in order to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. McClellan, not being an abolitionist, despised that the war was turning into one of emancipation rather than reconciliation.

By November 1862 the president was left with few options and removed McClellan from command. It does appear though that Lincoln learned from his time with McClellan as future generals were not given the time and leeway that McClellan was.

While not a cut and dried book saying that McClellan was bad and Lincoln was good as is so often the case, the book does seem to come down harder on McClellan and his failings than it does on Lincoln and his inexperience. Time and research have shown this to be the correct assessment however.

Overall, this was an interesting and easy book to read. I would have liked to have seen a couple of more maps and maybe some illustrations throughout but that is just me. Really just a minor quibble in what is otherwise a fascinating read for anybody interested in the eastern theater of the Civil War. Recommended.

Thanks to LSU Press for sending a complimentary review copy.

Summer 2013 Civil War Book Review Now Available

The Summer 2013 Civil War Book Review published through LSU Special Collections is now available online here. There look to be a couple of interesting books being discussed this quarter. Well worth a look.

Press Release--Andrew Jackson, Southerner From LSU Press

Mark R. Cheathem’s New Book Argues for a Reassessment of Andrew Jackson

LSU Press to Publish "Andrew Jackson, Southerner" October 2013

Baton Rouge— Many Americans view Andrew Jackson as a frontiersman who fought duels, killed Indians, and stole another man’s wife. Historians have traditionally presented Jackson as a man who struggled to overcome obstacles and helped create a more democratic United States. In his compelling new biography of Jackson, Mark R. Cheathem argues for a reassessment of these long-held views, suggesting that in fact “Old Hickory” lived as an elite southern gentleman.

Cheathem contends Jackson had already started to assume the characteristics of a southern gentleman by the time he arrived in Middle Tennessee in 1788. After moving to Nashville, Jackson further ensconced himself in an exclusive social order by marrying the daughter of one of the city’s cofounders, engaging in land speculation, and leading the state militia. According to Cheathem, through these ventures Jackson grew to own multiple plantations and cultivated them with the labor of almost two hundred slaves. His status also enabled him to build a military career focused on eradicating the nation’s enemies, including Indians residing on land desired by white southerners. Jackson’s military success eventually propelled him onto the national political stage in the 1820s, where he won two terms as president. Jackson’s years as chief executive demonstrated the complexity of the system of elite white southern men, as he earned the approval of many white southerners by continuing to pursue Manifest Destiny and opposing the spread of abolitionism, yet earned their ire because of his efforts to fight nullification and the Second Bank of the United States.

By emphasizing Jackson’s southern identity, characterized by violence, honor, kinship, slavery, and Manifest Destiny, Cheathem’s narrative offers a bold new perspective on one of the nineteenth century’s most renowned and controversial presidents.                                       

Mark R. Cheathem is an associate professor of history at Cumberland University and the author of "Old Hickory’s Nephew: The Political and Private Struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson."

October 2013
320 pages, 6 x 9
978-0-8071-5098-6
Cloth $39.95, ebook available
Biography / Southern History
Southern Biography

LSU Press Fall 2013 Catalog

I just received the Fall 2013 catalog from LSU Press. The catalog is available online here. There are several titles of interest that will be available soon. Clicking the photo link will take you to Amazon while clicking the title link will take you to the LSU Press page with more information. Amazon doesn't have much information up at this point but the books do appear to qualify for their low price guarantee so if you order and the price goes down before they ship the book you will get the lower price. Also, don't forget that LSU Press has a great sale on Civil War titles going on right now with books ordered at their site at 40% off cover price. Check the titles available by clicking here.*

Andrew Jackson, Southerner--written by Mark R. Cheathem










Greyhound Commander: Confederate General John G. Walker's History of the Civil War West of the Mississippi--edited by Richard Lowe










Confederate General William Dorsey Pender: The Hope of Glory--written by Brain Steel Wills











Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era--edited by Ben Wright and Zachary W. Dresser










The Martyrdom of Abolitionist Charles Torrey--written by E. Fuller Torrey










William Lloyd Garrison and Giuseppe Mazzini: Abolition, Democracy and Radical Reform--written by Enrico Dal Lago









Narrative of James Williams, An American Slave: Annotated Edition--edited by Hank Trent










*Full Disclosure--LSU Press does not pay to have their books advertised or promoted on my blog. They do occasionally send a review copy of a book. There titles are fully disclosed when reviewed.

LSU Press 40% off Civil War Titles-Limited Time

LSU Press Civil War Titles 40% Off Until June 25

 

Baton Rouge—Hundreds of fascinating Civil War titles can be yours at a 40% discount until June 25. This offer includes classic hardcover and paperback titles, as well as new releases like Alfred C. Young III’s Lee's Army during the Overland Campaign with a foreword by Gordon C. Rhea. For the Civil War buff and historian this is a great opportunity to affordably deepen your understanding and broaden your library. Through this offer only you can also buy the newly released, commemorative boxed set Generals in Blue and Gray at 20% off! Visit www.lsupress.org to discover more Civil War titles at up to 40% off. Order online at http://bit.ly/LSUPCW or call 800.848.6224 and use the code 04CIVILWAR.

This limited-time offer includes titles like Lincoln and McCellan at War by Chester G. Hearn, Mark Stegmaier’s Henry Adams in the Secession Crisis, and new releases like David C. Keehn’s Knights of the Golden Circle and Linda Barnickel’s Milliken’s Bend.  Visit our site through this link to explore more titles: http://bit.ly/LSUPCW.

All purchases require immediate payment and are non-refundable and cannot be combined with any other offers. Excludes reference titles.

 

Press Release--"The Problem of Democrary in the Age of Slavery

W. Caleb McDaniel Reveals New Insight into Garrisonian Abolitionists
LSU Press to publish "The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery" in May 2013

“W. Caleb McDaniel carefully captures the complex relationship between abolitionism and American democracy, but his research will also change the way we think about the tensions, both creative and destructive, wrought by international support for a national anti-slavery crusade.”—Richard Huzzey, author of "Freedom Burning: Anti-Slavery and Empire in Victorian Britain"

Baton Rouge—In "The Problem of Democracy in the Age of Slavery," W. Caleb McDaniel sets forth a new interpretation of the Garrisonian abolitionists, stressing their deep ties to reformers and liberal thinkers in Great Britain and Europe. Between 1830 and 1870, American abolitionists led by Garrison developed extensive networks of friendship, correspondence, and intellectual exchange with a wide range of European reformers—Chartists, free trade advocates, Irish nationalists, and European revolutionaries. Garrison signaled the importance of these ties to his movement with the well-known cosmopolitan motto he printed on every issue of his famous newspaper, "The Liberator": “Our Country is the World—Our Countrymen are All Mankind.” That motto serves as an impetus for McDaniel’s study, which shows that Garrison and his movement must be placed squarely within the context of transatlantic mid-nineteenth-century reform.

Garrisonians’ transatlantic activities reveal their deep patriotism, interest in using public opinion to affect American politics, and similarities to other antislavery groups. McDaniel argues for an image of Garrison’s band as politically savvy, intellectually sophisticated liberal reformers, all well informed about transatlantic debates regarding the problem of democracy.

W. Caleb McDaniel is assistant professor of history at Rice University.

May 6, 2013
360 pages, 6 x 9
978-0-8071-5018-4
Cloth $48.00s, ebook available
Slavery Studies

Press Release-LSU Press to release book on "Secret Southern Society"

LSU Press to Release Knights of the Golden Circle: Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)

Book Traces Expansion of Nineteenth-Century Secret Southern Society

Baton Rouge-Based on years of exhaustive and meticulous research, David C. Keehn's study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret southern society that initially sought to establish a slave-holding empire in the "Golden Circle" region of Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. Keehn reveals the origins, rituals, structure, and complex history of this mysterious group, including its later involvement in the secession movement. Members supported southern governors in precipitating disunion, filled the ranks of the nascent Confederate Army, and organized rearguard actions during the Civil War.

The Knights of the Golden Circle emerged in 1858 when a secret society formed by a Cincinnati businessman merged with the pro-expansionist Order of the Lone Star, which already had 15,000 members. In 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to "colonize" northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading pro secession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South.

According to Keehn, the Knights likely carried out a variety of other clandestine actions before the Civil War, including attempts by insurgents to take over federal forts in Virginia and North Carolina, and a planned assassination of Abraham Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore in early 1861 on the way to his inauguration. Once the fighting began, the Knights helped build the emerging Confederate Army and assisted with the pro-Confederate Copperhead movement in northern states. With the war all but lost, various Knights supported one of their members, John Wilkes Booth, in his plot to assassinate President Lincoln.

Keehn's fast-paced, engaging narrative demonstrates that the Knights' influence proved more substantial than historians have traditionally assumed and provides a new perspective on southern secession and the outbreak of the Civil War.

David C. Keehn is an attorney from Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a history degree from Gettysburg College and a juris doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

April 15, 2013
328 pages, 6 x 9, 41 halftones
ISBN 978-0-8071-5004-7
Cloth $39.95

New releases from LSU Press

A couple of new releases from my great friends at LSU Press have arrived in the mail in the last couple of weeks.

First up from prominent western theater author Larry J. Daniel is Battle of Stones River: The Forgotten Conflict Between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland. This three day battle led to nearly 25,000 casualties. Daniel uses seldom used primary sources to tell the story of this battle pitting William Rosecrans against Braxton Bragg. While there was no clear cut winner the Union army portrayed this as such helping keep "peace Democrats" at bay. This looks to be a massively researched volume. The bibliography stretches to over 20 pages and the notes section is over 40 pages. 13 maps are also included.


Chester G. Hearn brings us Lincoln and McClellan at War. This book looks to take a look at the differing strategies for pursuing the war. McClellan being more defensive minded while Lincoln wanted the war to be fought offensively. This difference of opinion and McClellan's personal dislike for the President helped lead to his ouster and the start of a revolving door of  generals leading the Army of the Potomac. The bibliography is seven pages and there are nearly 20 pages of notes. A brief glance shows four maps.

Press Release--LSU Press to Release New Book on Stones River

I recently received this press release on what looks to be a great new book on Stones River. The Amazon link below currently shows the book on at a pre release price of $21.87 or 43% off the cover price.


LSU Press Book News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 5, 2012

Battle of Stones River: The Forgotten Conflict Between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland


"Prolific Civil War military historians, Larry J. Daniel has done it again."-John F. Marszalek, author of "Sherman's March to the Sea"


Baton Rouge-Three days of savage and bloody fighting between Confederate and Union troops at Stones River in Middle Tennessee ended with nearly 25,000 casualties but no clear victor. The staggering number of killed or wounded equaled the losses suffered in the well-known Battle of Shiloh. Using previously neglected sources, Larry J. Daniel rescues this important campaign from obscurity.

The Battle of Stones River, fought between December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, was a tactical draw but proved to be a strategic northern victory. According to Daniel, Union defeats in late 1862-both at Chickasaw Bayou in Mississippi and at Fredericksburg, Virginia-transformed the clash in Tennessee into a much-needed morale booster for the North.

Daniel's study of the battle's two antagonists, William S. Rosecrans for the Union Army of the Cumberland and Braxton Bragg for the Confederate Army of Tennessee, presents contrasts in leadership and a series of missteps. With only a few hundred yards separating the lines, Rosecrans allowed Confederates to surprise and route his right ring. Eventually, Union pressure forced Bragg to launch a division-size attack, a disastrous move. Neither side could claim victory on the battlefield.

Union commanders and northern newspapers portrayed the stalemate as a victory, bolstering confidence in the Lincoln administration and dimming the prospects for the "peace wing" of the northern Democratic Party. In the South, the deadlock led to continued bickering in the Confederate western high command and scorn for Braxton Bragg.

November 2012
344 pages, 6 x 9, 15 halftones, 13 maps
978-0-8071-4516-6
Cloth $38.50, ebook available

Interview--Meredith Henne Baker: The Richmond Theater Fire

Meredith Henne Baker

photo by Amanda K. Gille

I was recently able to read a very interesting and well written book by first time author Meredith Henne Baker titled The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America's First Great Disaster published by LSU Press. What a great read! Please see my review here.

 

 

Ms Baker has been kind enough to answer some questions about herself, her book, and her writing process and I am honored to share this with my readers.

 

 

Please be sure to check her website here or the book Facebook page here. Both are great informational resources.

CBR: Welcome and thank you for taking time to answer a few questions. First, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Thank you for hosting this interview! I'm a writer with an interest in history because of what we can learn about the present from the past. My particular interest is American religious history. I previously taught at a girls boarding school, worked in museum education, and developed educational programs for urban charter schools. Although I've won grants and awards for my historical work, I currently spend a lot more time hanging out at teeter-totters than archives, thanks to my toddlers. My husband and I do tote them around to lots of museums though.

CBR: Your book deals with what I consider to be a little known event in American history. What sparked your interest in the Richmond fire and led you to write a book about it?

I ran across about a dozen sermons about the Richmond Theater fire when I was a graduate student at William & Mary. They included sermons from the founder of Princeton Theological Seminary, from an English Quaker abolitionist, from a suicidal Unitarian schismatic--and I wondered "it was clearly an international incident...but whoever heard of this fire in Richmond?" The more I dug in local archives, the more amazing sources I uncovered besides these feisty sermons--sheaves of letters, unpublished and heartbreaking memoirs, riveting survivor accounts, and candid obituaries in the local papers among others. Here was a trove of fascinating primary sources about this fire, ample evidence that it directly affected influential men and women of the time (Monroes, Marshalls, Madisons, among others) and I couldn't find a single book about it.

I became completely taken by this story and the people who experienced it. (If I didn't find it fascinating on a personal level, I never could have stuck with it for the past seven years!) I went on to write a thesis focusing on the changes the disaster brought to Virginia's religious climate and culture, and over the next few years, various professors and writer friends urged me to be the person to write that first book about the Richmond Theater fire. It was such an amazing opportunity, to be the one to unpack the story of a long-forgotten but very significant event in American history.

CBR: Can you describe your research and writing process? Were there any particular obstacles that had to be overcome in telling your story? Any groups or people that particularly helped you that you would like to thank?

I relied heavily on Virginia archives--the Virginia Historical Society, the Library of Virginia, university libraries, and the Library of Congress. Their staffs were unfailingly helpful. Once I left graduate school and was employed full-time, I had to make day trips to these places from a distance and became really efficient at cramming a lot of research in a short time. I'd pack a sandwich and a bottle of water in my purse, show up with those triplicate request forms pre-filled, and just plow through stacks of material until the place closed. It made a huge difference when libraries began to allow digital photography, because then I could skip time-consuming transcriptions or expensive copy machine tabs and just snap a shot of a letter or document and deal with it once I arrived back at home.

As for my writing process, I treated it like a job and made myself write for x hours a day for about a year until I had the manuscript finished. My goal was to have it the book ready by the 200 year anniversary of the fire (December 26th, 2011), although I missed it by a few months. There were a few reasons for this, but I will say the writing process slowed down considerably after my two
children were born. I wrote mostly late at night then, or whenever I had an hour or two where someone kept an eye on the kids for me. I have a new found respect for writers with young children. It's not easy! Especially when working on a manuscript that requires a lot of original research. In my acknowledgements I probably thank as many people for pitching in with child care as I do historical institutions.

CBR: You point out the connection of the Richmond theater fire to Edgar Allen Poe. Can you give readers a sense of this connection and do you think it played any part in his later writing?

Poe's mother Elizabeth Arnold Poe was a popular member of the Placide & Green theater troupe, which was performing on December 26th, 1811, the night the Theater burned. He probably would have been taken inside the theater on various occasions. (Historian Martin Shockley supposes that little Edgar might even have performed on the Richmond stage in an ensemble with other cast children that season.) Eliza Poe had died from an illness earlier in December although Edgar would, I understand, claim in later years that she and his father were both victims of the blaze. In December the Poe children were taken in by local families, and Edgar went to the family of John "Jock" Allan, who lived a few blocks from the site of the theater. Poe was only about 3 in 1811, but certainly this was a memorably tragic time in his life and an event that haunted Richmond for decades. He couldn't have escaped its shadow. I don't doubt that this dark occurrence and his family's proximity to it made a lasting impression on him.

CBR: In comparison to disasters today the death toll of just over 70 seems relatively small. Can you put in perspective the impact this had on Richmond and Virginia as a whole?

I think "impact" is the key concept here, and that doesn’t always have to do with an enormous body count. Percentage-wise, though, those 72 deaths (more in the months to follow) were significant. In a town of ten thousand, this single fire killed nearly one percent of its citizens. If 9-11 had resulted in 81,000 New York City deaths instead of around 3,000, that would be comparable. Fires were common, yes, but (surprisingly) didn't often result in mass fatalities.

 

This was like the Titanic or the Hurricane Katrina of its day--a disaster that (to that point) was just unparalleled. Newspapers from New Hampshire to South Carolina printed breathless updates for weeks after the blaze. U.S. Congress wore black armbands for a month, the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. wore them for two. Cities across America sent resolutions to Richmond expressing their sympathy, and commemorative events were held in major cities like New York and Philadelphia. It even captured international interest--Americans overseas wrote home about it, and a
press in York, England published a religious booklet about the Theater fire. I suspect one reason for the interest in the blaze was that it happened in a large public building, the likes of which could be found in many urban areas. It was easy for people to imagine that the victims' fate could (but for the grace of God) have been theirs. Additionally, the higher social status of most victims meant people recognized the prominent family names of the dead. George Smith, the governor of Virginia was among the dead. Also, the fact that many of those killed were young women captured great public interest and sympathy—similar responses can be seen in later tragedies like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire or the U.S. Arsenal explosion in 1864 where teen aged women lost their lives.

CBR: What impact did the fire have on public safety in general?

Horace Townsend, a journalist who wrote in 1883 about the Richmond tragedy in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, summed up the public response to 19th c. theater fires rather succinctly: "Editorials are written in the newspapers, articles by experts appear in the leading magazines; the receipts of theatres and opera-houses suffer from a temporary diminution; the Fire Department officials bestir themselves and present voluminous reports; everyone comes to the conclusion that each and every place of public entertainment is a death-trap, and that “something ought to be done,” and the general result is that matters go on much as they did in the past."

CBR: We often think of early America as being a highly religious society. It seems your book actually paints a different scene. You point out the large growth in the four main churches, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Baptist, and Methodist after the fire. Can you discuss the impact of the fire on both the church and the theater?

Virginia wasn't much of a church-going society in the early 19th century. After disestablishment in 1786, the dominant Anglican Church lost all public support and had to be self-sustaining. It floundered, and took a real hit financially and in terms of their membership. Other denominations struggled as well.

Richmond wasn’t any exception. Far from being the “city of churches” it would later be called, in 1811 there were only five houses of worship—Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, and a synagogue— for ten thousand inhabitants. In The Richmond Theater Fire I have the chance to describe religious life in Virginia in the Early Republic—ruined chapels, revivalists on horseback, and the kind of world where a church service was followed by a horse race and a drink. It's interesting--I was reading Lauren F. Winner's book A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith where she describes how everyday faith was lived out by gentry Anglican colonists in Virginia. Winner remarked that the church's fortunes turned around perceptibly after 1811. I propose that the Theater fire was the 1811 event that was the catalyst for that transformation and describe how in the book.

As far as the fire's impact on local theater, another wasn't built for nearly a decade. I write about the bickering over opening another one, the resistance from churchgoers, and the truly awful entertainment alternatives they had as substitutes for theatrical performances. A new theater was eventually built, of course, and John Wilkes Booth (among other notable actors) trod the boards there for a time.

CBR: The new Monumental Church was built on the location of the old Richmond theater. What role did the new church play in the growth of religion during this time?

I think Monumental—a Protestant Episcopal Church—made evangelicalism a viable option for the influential gentry class. To give a slapdash definition, evangelicalism (the brand of faith practiced mostly by Methodists and Baptists) emphasized missionary work, the preaching of the gospel, and a dramatic conversion experience. Evangelicals emphasized that Christians were to be separate and different from “the world.” Winner points out that Virginia’s gentry practiced their faith in a way that was comfortable with the world. You might play a hymn on your violin or a dance tune, and either was just fine.

The gentry (often Episcopalians) were very skeptical of evangelicals, who were considered “fanatics”, and their rowdy camp meetings which were spreading across the South—with convicted men and women shrieking and flailing over their sins—were just too over the top.

Yet when a new Yankee Episcopal minister showed up in the pulpit at Monumental, he gradually introduced evangelical practices, like emotional sermons and prayer meetings in a way that the congregation could accept. Mostly.

CBR: As talk of a new theater came about many people saw it as disrespectful in some way. Do you see any similarity to the way Americans respond today after a disaster either man made or natural?

Around 1816 one editorialist in Richmond argued “Four years have however now elapsed, since the disastrous event, which called forth all our sympathies—The population of Richmond has greatly changed, and is ever changing—Few persons are left in it, who were the immediate sufferers in that ever-to-be-lamented calamity…If they are convinced of [the theater’s] general good tendency … they will generously sacrifice their feelings to the public interest.” In other words: times change—eventually we need to switch out of the mourning garb, enjoy our lives, and not be mired in the past. Critics thought this man was disrespectful and callous. One suggested that every ticket for a performance at his new theater be sold at the monument to the old one—so purchasers would be forced to read the names of the dead.

There’s often controversy over how to properly memorialize the victims of a tragedy—just look at Ground Zero in New York City or the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.

CBR: While this time frame is generally considered a white man's world how did the fire affect others such as women and African-Americans?

Wow, good questions. Women made up about two thirds of the victims (which didn’t say much for Virginia chivalry, some alleged), which drew a lot of sympathy from the public.

But in terms of how the calamity affected women, let’s take a look at the survivors. Most of the adult men who died were married and were the family breadwinners. In these days before life insurance, this meant that their wives were almost immediately in financial peril. In the papers, auction notices go up: the Governor’s family, now that he’s dead, is auctioning off their furniture, their slaves. A shop owned by a prominent Jewish family that lost five people in the fire is liquidated. And on and on. The story paints a very dire picture of how quickly fortunes could turn.

The story of enslaved hero Gilbert Hunt shines a light on the immense injustices suffered by African-Americans in this time. After Hunt saved the lives of about a dozen women who were jumping from the Theater’s windows, many expected him to be granted his freedom. (As a member of a volunteer fire brigade, he later saved dozens more.) Instead he labored for years until he paid for his manumission himself. Society insisted black men and women remain in a subordinate place, separate and unequal, even when they clearly deserved great public respect. Even the black and mixed-race victims’ names were placed in a lower spot on the memorial.

CBR: Your book is the winner of the 2012 Jules and Frances Landry Award. Overall, what has been the reception to your book?

The award was such an honor. What a wonderful surprise to be among the ranks of previous awardees: four Pulitzer Prize winners and such notable names as John Hope Franklin, Robert Penn Warren, Drew Gilpin Faust, and Lewis P. Simpson.

As for the reception of the book, I've had a number of historians and archivists tell me, "We've been waiting for someone to use this material and write about the fire!" The Library of Virginia hosted a marvelous book signing event (detailed on my blog at www.theaterfirebook.com), the lovely staff at the Historic Richmond Foundation has invited me to speak on several occasions, and I’m lined up to deliver a Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society this December. There’s also been interest from various churches because of the religious history aspect of the story.

CBR: Do you have an idea on what you will be working on next?

Right now I am mostly writing shorter pieces—articles and the like. I can’t wait to dig in to my next big project, though, and have a few ideas and historical characters that have captured my interest. (And there are other books I want someone else to write. For instance, I don’t have time or know enough French, but could someone please write a good biography of Louis Hue Girardin? That man must be one of the most dashing, fascinating, pulled-up-by-his-bootstraps characters in the Early Republic.)

Thanks for the interview, Robert, and readers are always welcome to send me questions or contact me through my website.

Upcoming Posts

Here are a couple of recent titles that have been sent along by publishers.


1) From Simon & Schuster comes the new book from Fergus M. Bordewich titled America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union. Read more about the book on the publishers website here. There is also a three minute video of the author briefly discussing the time frame.




2) From LSU Press comes Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri written by Aaron Astor. The publisher has a nice information page here.