Book Reviews
Under the Flag of the Nation: Diaries
and Letters of a Yankee Volun-
teer in the Civil War. Edited by Otto F. Bond. (Columbus: Ohio
State University Press for the Ohio
Historical Society, 1961. 308p.;
illustrations and appendices. $5.00.)
In view of the tidal wave of Civil War
publications now threatening
the reading public and the historical
profession, many readers may
recoil at the prospect of fresh
printings of soldiers' diaries from either
side of the conflict. This book,
published for the Ohio Historical So-
ciety, is an entry in the sweepstakes
for the Union point of view.
The book is composed of the letters,
diaries, and reminiscences of
Owen Johnston Hopkins, an Ohio volunteer
at age seventeen, from
Bellefontaine, Ohio, in the 42d Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. It covers in
some degree almost all of the war in the
Mississippi campaign. Hop-
kins rose from private to lieutenant in
the 42d, serving in the battles
of the Cumberland Gap in 1861 and 1862
under Colonel James A.
Garfield; in the Mississippi River
campaigns with the Army of the
Tennessee, climaxing in the siege of
Vicksburg, of which he gives an
admirable first-hand account; in
desultory guard actions in the bayou
country of Louisiana in the department
of the gulf; and finally in
1864 and 1865 as a quartermaster for the
182d O.V.I. stationed in
Nashville.
Hopkins was not in a position to recite
the war's history, or to affect
tactics and strategy, and his most
rewarding comments reflect the daily
life of the common soldier in the Union
army. The grumblings, forced
marches, poor supplies, bad commanders,
weather, and confusion com-
mon to any such army are vividly
revealed in his often humorous
descriptions of the soldiers' life. His
sense of humor, well demonstrated
in his comments on his fellows and
himself, later sharpened into some
talent as a cartoonist. The picture he
paints of daily life on the march
or in the camp is not new, but is colorful,
interesting, and often vivid.
One senses in his pages the change from
boy to man.
The most refreshing note in the book is
the patriotism which Hopkins
sounds, and which does not ring hollow a
century later. Modern
BOOK REVIEWS 263
readers, with the hindsight of two total
wars, often think that the
struggle between blue and gray was
fought without emotion in the
ranks. These pages reveal otherwise. No
one will be embarrassed
or feel cynical when they read such
entries as: "My lot is cast with
the Glorious old Army of the Union so
long as it Battles for Freedom
and the Right, and the only compensation
I ask is a grateful country
Blessed with Freedom and Individual
Liberty" (p. 82). The war to
him and to countless other Union
soldiers was not one of impersonal
mass, but of overriding causes. His
reactions to the presidential cam-
paign of 1864, when General McClellan
opposed Lincoln, are acid and
interesting; McClellan's followers were
"Hospital shirks, play-offs, men
sick of the service, tired of the
arduous though honorable duties of
Campaign" (p. 159). But his sense
of humor, his perspective on
his own and others' actions, surprising
for his age, save his words
from cant.
To the military historian, his
descriptions of battles, Confederate
guerrilla actions, and problems of
supply and logistics, will be important.
To the interested general reader, his
descriptions of the march and of
camp life, ranging from the fascinating
country of Tennessee to the
Mississippi River and the unfamiliar
bayous of Louisiana, will be
uppermost.
The last part of the book is composed of
correspondence between
Hopkins and Julia Allison, whom he later
married. Much of this
material seems questionable; no man
likes to have his love letters
printed, and they add little, if
anything, to the larger story because
they are much too personal.
Editing such a diary is particularly
difficult sometimes precisely
because it deals with the life and times
of an unknown man. Professor
Bond has, on the whole, done an
admirable job. His footnotes and
introduction are clear, but a more
general introduction giving the mili-
tary background to the campaigns would
have been very helpful. The
most glaring omission is maps, even one
of which would help the reader
immensely, particularly in the Louisiana
campaigns.
This is an interesting and worthwhile
book. The Ohio Historical
Society is to be commended for
sponsoring it as a contribution to Ohio's
part in the Civil War centennial.
University of Texas H. WAYNE MORGAN
264
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Ohio State University College of
Medicine. Volume II, 1934-
1958. Edited by N. Paul Hudson. (Columbus: Ohio State Uni-
versity, 1961. xiii??456p.; list of
contributors, illustrations, ap-
pendices, and index. $10.00.)
The first volume of the history of Ohio
State University's college
of medicine, published twenty-seven
years ago, was largely a collection
of items arranged chronologically.
Although useful as a reference
guide to the first hundred years of
medical education, the book did not
pretend to be an integrated narrative
nor did it give evidence of the
critical approach. The second volume
differs from the first in many
ways.
Some fifty individuals, intimately
connected with the medical school,
have written a variety of sketches,
chronological accounts, descriptions,
thumb-nail histories, and reminiscences
of the college, its departments,
its research activities, and its
affiliated institutions. At first glance,
the book gives the impression of being a
hodge-podge of dates, data,
and details. Closer scrutiny, however,
reveals not only careful planning
but also competent organization. The
details, and data, and the dates
belong. In short, the volume is
patterned to a purpose. The objective
has been attained; the study does make
clear the growth and develop-
ment of a distinguished institution
during a period of almost a quarter
of a century.
Dr. Jonathan Forman gets the chronicle
off to a start with a fifteen-
page summary of the first century of
medical education in Ohio. His
chapter provides adequate background for
the remainder of the book.
The historian might wish that the author
had supplied footnotes for
the benefit of future researchers.
Forman's contribution is followed
by accounts of the college's
administration, by an examination of under-
graduate education, by narratives of
both the graduate and the post-
graduate programs.
The bulk of the book--fourteen
chapters--is devoted to recitals of
the several departments within the
college. Thus attention is given
divisions such as anatomy, medicine,
pathology, and surgery. Although
these accounts vary in interest,
content, and style, they are most useful
in that all provide essential, factual
information and will, most cer-
tainly, be helpful to anyone wishing
specific dates, staff changes, altera-
tions in points of view and in teaching
methods. Most of the chapters
would be considered "dull" by
the layman, but they hold interest for
professionals and for historians of the
history of medicine. And,
BOOK REVIEWS 265
although no justification is needed, it
must be said that this book was
not designed for the public.
One essay, however, is such a delight,
is so permeated with wry
humor and penetrating understanding that
this reviewer is obliged to
single it out. Dr. Charles W. Pavey not
only traces progress in the
department of obstetrics and gynecology
but also catches a spirit which
must have marked other areas of
specialization. Pavey is capable of
pungent observation: "It is pretty
evident from reading the faculty
listings of bygone generations that
appointment to the obstetrical faculty
bore no relation whatever to prior
training in the field." Again, "There
were only a few people on the existing
faculty from whom to chose a
leader for the teaching of obstetrics.
Most any of them were willing
to take over and continue the rapidly
obsolescing policy and methods for
teaching students to do minimal
obstetrical procedures." Pavey's
character study of Dr. Andrews Rogers
comes close to meeting all the
criteria for a New Yorker sketch.
Six chapters complete the volume. These
are devoted to the school
of nursing, to a history of research by
departments of instruction, to
the Starling Loving and University
hospitals, to allied hospitals, to the
establishment of the health center, and
to the medical alumni associa-
tion and the 125th aniversary
celebration of 1959. Appendices list
faculty biographies, graduates of both
the schools of medicine and
nursing, and six statistical tables. The
latter show, for example, the
number of graduates annually from 1934
to 1958 inclusive and salaries
and total expenses at intervals of five
years.
All in all, despite some defects, the
book is a solid work and a tribute
to those who, in the course of busy,
professional careers, gave so much
of their time, energy, and knowledge.
Both the college of medicine and
Ohio State University have earned
congratulations for working to-
gether to produce a volume which will be
consulted for years to come.
University of Minnesota PHILIP D. JORDAN
Land of the Long Horizons. Edited, with introduction and com-
mentary, by Walter Havighurst. American
Vista Series: The Mid-
west. (New York: Coward-McCann, 1960. 437p.;
maps and illus-
trations. $12.50.)
Here is a big book--and a good one, too.
It is an anthology about
the Middle West, from Jean Nicolet in
1634 to that penetrating English-
266
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
man (who wrote Midwest at Noon in
1946, perhaps the best single
volume about the Middle West) Graham
Hutton. And between
Nicolet on page 19 and Hutton on page
437 the pages are crammed
with a fine selection of pieces about
our Middle West--Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Minnesota.
The volume is divided into nine
sections: (1) Discoverers, (2) The
Disputed Country, (3) The American West,
(4) Land Seekers, (5)
The Great Migration, (6) Travelers'
Tales, (7) Cities in the Morning,
(8) West Becomes Midwest, and (9)
Interpreters. Interspersed
throughout are well-chosen
illustrations, which add to the overall
importance of the book. It is
regrettable, however, that there is no
index; it is this reviewer's opinion
that an index is an integral part of
such a work as this.
Walter Havighurst has, once again, put
an excellent book into our
hands. But then, in all frankness, we
would be surprised to see him
write anything that is not first rate.
Among the high points in the
Land of the Long Horizons are his introduction and comments. As a
sample of his prose, read this, the last
paragraph in the introduction:
To its own and other people the Midwest
has sometimes seemed
colorless and prosaic. (The first thing
observed in any prosperous
country is prosperity.) But a second
look reveals that its horizons
are not all alike. The Midwest is an
inland region with a 4,000-mile
seacoast, now emphasized by the St. Lawrence
Seaway. It had a "grand
prairie" extending from the Wabash
to the Mississippi, and its northern
woods comprised the greatest pine forest
in the world. It is a level
country, but Mark Twain never forgot the
lift of hills along the Missis-
sippi, and Abraham Lincoln lies buried
on a knoll above the Sangamon
prairie. It is a rural region dominated
by restless cities. It is the
American heartland and yet it is marked
with names from all the nations
of Europe. It is an unfinished country,
still stirring and stretching and
changing, while memories lengthen in the
land.
The verdict on Land of the Long
Horizons was easy to reach. The
book is highly recommended to all who
are interested in American
culture and history. It will be a
welcome addition to their bookshelves.
Illinois State Historical
Library CLYDE C.
WALTON
Indiana Election Returns, 1816-1851. Compiled by Dorothy Riker
and Gayle Thornbrough. Indiana
Historical Collections, Volume XL.
Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau,
1960. xxv??493p.; ap-
denix and index. $7.50.)
BOOK REVIEWS 267
One of the most valuable additions to
source material for pre-Civil
War history, Indiana Election
Returns, 1816-1851, is far more than a
mere compilation. The volume, which the
editors remark may be con-
sidered a companion volume to the Executive
Proceedings of the State
of Indiana, 1816-1836, previously published in the same series, contains
not only a vast quantity of statistical
data but also an editorial note, an
excellent introduction, an appendix (which
lists the acts forming and
organizing counties, the names of the
governors, and the apportion-
ment of congressional representatives
and of members of the general
assembly according to the counties in
each district), and an index with
about 3,200 entries (all but twenty-two
are personal names), identify-
ing, for example, twenty Smiths and
thirty-one Browns.
The central part of the volume consists
of six groups of tables, giving
voting returns (1) by county for
presidential and vice-presidential
electors, (2) by county and district for
United States Representatives,
(3) by ballot in the general assembly
for candidates for the United
States Senate, (4) by county for
candidates for governor and lieutenant
governor, (5) by county and district for
candidates for the state senate
and house of representatives, and (6) by
county on referendums on
calling a constitutional convention, by
county and district on delegates
to the constitutional convention of
1850-51, and by county on the
ratification of the constitution of 1851
and the Negro exclusion clause.
The utmost care seems to have been used
in searching for and verifying
information. Official election returns
in the archives division of the
Indiana State Library have been
supplemented by data from senate
and house Journals, state
executive proceedings, statutes, congressional
documents, newspapers, county histories,
manuscripts in county court-
houses, and other sources. Scrupulous
attention is given to frag-
mentary returns, missing data,
discrepancies, and essential explanatory
information. Editorially an abundance is
provided most economically.
Some users may regret the absence of
data on elections to local and
county office, the omission of
information concerning the structure of
party tickets (although party
designations, Democratic, Anti-Masonic,
Whig, Liberty, Free Soil, and
Independent, are provided for candidates
individually), or the exclusion of
voting figures for towns and town-
ships (which might sustain the thesis,
proposed editorially on p. xvii,
that voters may be classified by
occupational and economic groups).
Others might wish to have more readily
available the census data that
will doubtless often be used to develop
correlations. But the wealth
of information provided here is so
impressive that all must feel grateful
268
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
for the care and labor devoted to the
preparation and publication of
this volume. Scholars in other states
have already remarked how
helpful it would be to have more such
works.
Ohio University HARRY R. STEVENS
Index to West Virginiana. By Robert F. Munn. (Charleston: Edu-
cation Foundation, 1960. x??154p.
$3.00.)
Guide to the Study of West Virginia
History. By Charles Shetler.
(Morgantown: West Virginia University
Library, 1960. vii??151p.;
index. $6.00.)
Two additional aids to researchers have
now appeared as part of the
ambitious program of West Virginia
University to make the resources
for the study of the state available to
scholars. In 1958, West Virginia
Imprints, 1790-1863, by Delf Norona and Charles Shetler, provided
a checklist on printed material, and in
the same year Charles Shetler's
Guide to Manuscripts and Archives in
the West Virginia Collection
described holdings of over three million
manuscript items.
One of the new items, Index to West
Virginiana, indexes twelve
local journals which are not themselves
indexed and do not appear in
other indexes. Included are county
journals, journals published by
colleges, several publications no longer
extant, and similar periodicals.
Not included is West Virginia
History, which has its own index.
The Index is alphabetical, with
subject, author, and title entries.
The subject entries seem to be
limited--at least, this reviewer found
nothing under "miners,"
"labor," "trade unions," "unions," or
"United
Mine Workers." Despite this shortcoming, the Index is
a careful
piece of work, which opens up new
material to historians, particularly
in the economic and social fields. Some
of the journals indexed are
rather rare, but all are held in the
West Virginia University library,
which inexpensively can provide
microfilm or photostatic copies of any
article.
The Guide to the Study of West Virginia
History provides a "basic
bibliography" for the subject. It
does not attempt to be exhaustive,
but does aim at including all
"standard" imprints, plus the more im-
portant periodical articles and many
unpublished theses and disserta-
tions. The work is in two parts: Part I
is by county and region (such
as "Northern Panhandle") Part II is topical, and includes such work-
manlike subdivisions as
"agriculture," "banking, public finance, and
taxation," "church history and
religion," "coal industry and unions,"
BOOK REVIEWS 269
"the Negro and slavery,"
"transportation and communication," and
the like, as well as more picturesque
and romantic topics, such as "folk
lore and folk songs," "Burr
and Blennerhassett," and "feuds"! There
is a useful index. The volume is a first
rate job and fills a real need.
University of Pittsburgh HUGH G. CLELAND
Emotion at High Tide: Abolition as a
Controversial Factor, 1830-1845.
By Henry H. Simms. (Baltimore: bound and
distributed by Moore
& Company, Inc., 1960. vii??243p.;
index. $5.00.)
This is a study in intellectual history.
It is not a history of the
abolition movement nor an assessment of
the contributions of the in-
dividuals who led it. Rather, Professor
Simms has examined the
ideas of the abolitionists which they
used from 1830 to 1845 in their
propaganda against slavery. He has also
traced the effect of those
ideas in the North and the South.
The organization of the book is
primarily topical. The author
examines such questions as the legal
fight over the distribution of
abolition literature, the petition
controversy, divisions within the aboli-
tion movement, and the attitude of the
abolitionists toward the Texas
question, the church, and Anglo-American
relations. There is con-
siderable emphasis on the political
implications of the abolition move-
ment, an aspect of the question which
other scholars have neglected
in the sense that Professor Simms treats
it. He clearly shows that
politicians could not avoid the slave
issue, partly because of the nature
and intensity of the propaganda attack
against it. Although slavery
was only one of a number of significant
national questions of the 1830's
and 40's, the abolitionists'
oversimplified and much publicized analysis
of contemporary events contributed to
its intrusion into nearly every
political question of the time.
This is not an easy book to read. By
restricting himself to facets
of the subject not previously discussed
at length by other writers, the
author necessarily assumes that the
reader is familiar with related
monographs. At times his organization of
the material creates prob-
lems. For example, chapters on the
petition controversy in 1835-40
and 1841-45 are separated by a chapter
on abolition and politics,
1835-40. The chapters seem to be a
series of essays rather than a part
of a unified work.
The author restricts himself primarily
to narrating his material.
Most of the interpretation is implicit,
but he has spelled out certain
270 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
conclusions. According to Professor
Simms, the abolitionist attack
definitely contributed to such
developments in the South as the cessa-
tion of antislavery activity, the
limitation on free discussion, and the
evolution of the proslavery argument. He
views the differences among
abolitionist factions as a family
quarrel and emphasizes their common
zeal and single-minded purpose. They and their more extremist
southern opponents contributed to
"an unhealthy emotional climate
which boded ill for the future of the
nation" (p. vi).
The work relies heavily on printed
correspondence, congressional
speeches, newspapers, and antislavery
publications. The author cites
some related monographs, but he draws
most of his material from pub-
lished primary sources. His footnotes
also indicate a limited use of
unpublished manuscript material.
It is difficult to evaluate intellectual
history, because it is almost
impossible to determine just what impact
certain ideas may have
had on living people. Certainly this
book provides a needed study
in depth concerning some of the ideas
associated with the abolition
movement. It is a work primarily
valuable to the scholar, who must
use it as an addition and supplement to
other writings.
Grove City College LARRY GARA
Lincoln's Manager, David Davis. By Willard L. King. (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960.
xiii??383p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $6.75.)
So overpowering is the figure of Abraham
Lincoln, that apparently
all those who ever knew him are in
danger of losing their own per-
sonalities. In the past few years we
have had books about Lincoln's
Herndon, Lincoln's commando, and the man
who elected Lincoln, to say
nothing of his army, navy, and
Washington. Now we have his man-
ager, David Davis.
Mr. King believes that the most
important thing Davis ever did was
to manage Lincoln's forces at the
Republican convention in 1860.
Although he lived another twenty-six
years, serving almost fifteen
years on the United States Supreme
Court, and six years in the senate,
the rest of his life was anticlimactic.
The result of this approach is
less a biography of David Davis than a
study of Lincoln through the
eyes of a close friend. The nominal
subject of the book does not
appear to interest the author too much.
We learn the usual facts of
his ancestry, birth, childhood,
education, and marriage, along with a
BOOK REVIEWS 271
few other bits, but Davis the man never
really comes to life. Davis
was a man of integrity and independence
of mind. Mr. King makes
that abundantly clear, but Lincoln is
much more interesting and over-
shadows Davis during most of the book.
It is only after the assassina-
tion that Davis becomes the central
figure.
Where Lincoln is concerned, Lincoln's
Manager is delightful, espe-
cially for its picture of his
pre-presidential career. Davis and Lincoln
traveled the circuit together six months
a year for a decade. A warm
and close friendship developed between
the two men that never weak-
ened. Lincoln appointed Davis to the
supreme court, and after Lincoln's
death, Davis served as administrator of
his estate.
It is a human Lincoln Mr. King offers
us, not the Christ-like figure
dear to American mythology. The author
loses sight of Davis for pages
at a time as he discusses events with
which Davis had no connection but
in which Lincoln was intimately
involved. We are offered a novel
explanation for Lincoln's melancholia
during the winter of 1840-41,
when he broke temporarily his engagement
to Mary Todd. This action
was not the result of doubts of his love
for Mary, nor a lingering loy-
alty to the memory of Ann Rutledge
(which used to be said before the
Ann Rutledge story was discredited), but
was caused by the severe
cold of that season. It appears that
tall, thin men suffer especially from
cold weather, and that winter was
especially severe. Mr. King also
gives credence to the story of Douglas'
holding Lincoln's hat at his
inauguration. He believes it is probably
true, and offers a reference that
shows the story was printed as early as
March 28, 1861, so that it is
not a fabrication of the "Public
Man," whoever he may have been.
In this reviewer's opinion, the best
part of the book is the supreme
court material. Mr. King offers a
depressing account of the plotting
and scheming that go on whenever a new
justice is to be appointed. The
problem is basically one of politics and
patronage, and Lincoln always
treated it as such, even going so far as
to announce Davis' appointment
to the bench in order to influence the
congressional elections of 1862.
In American mythology the court is
aloof, impartial, and deaf to the
siren call of politics, but the plain
truth is that the justices, having for
the most part achieved prominence as
politicians, do not cease to be
politicians after their elevation.
Certainly Davis did not change, nor
were his colleagues oblivious of the
political effects of their opinions.
Concerning the problems of
Reconstruction, Mr. King shows clearly
how on important decisions the justices
divided according to their
political views. Yet Davis tried to be
fair, and in his most famous
272
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
decision in the Milligan case, he showed
courage. In his last years he
was considered an independent and was
wooed assiduously by both
Democrats and Republicans, particularly
after he left the court to be-
come senator.
While the book is very good as it
is--the notes grouped in the back
indicate the vast work the author did in
gathering his material--it could
have been better, were there more Davis
and less Lincoln.
Kent State University HAROLD
SCHWARTZ
The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Complete
One Volume History of His
Life and Times. By Reinhard H. Luthin. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1960. xviii??778p.;
bibliography and index. $10.00.)
Mr. Luthin's new work is an attempt to
set forth the Lincoln phe-
nomenon wie es
eigentlich gewesen, free of the
unrealistic image created
by later accretions of anecdotes,
legends, eulogies, and even idolatry.
Since the author has no thesis about the
rise of Lincoln or the nature of
his presidency--there is, for example,
nothing substantial on the Illi-
noian in relation to nineteenth-century
nationalism--the result is indeed
a history without a hero or any final
explanation of its subject, except
that, like Topsy, he just grew. Luthin
becomes distinctly less critical,
in both meanings of the word, as soon as
he reaches the war, but in
general the interpretation of Lincoln
that emerges is that of a man less
vital as an historical figure and less
incomparable as a wartime leader.
On the pre-presidential Lincoln,
however, he is definite and clear: he
presents a man not very attractive as a
person or politician. After
Luthin, it can hardly be maintained that
time has buried Lincoln's
shortcomings in oblivion.
Lincoln's life until the presidency
covers roughly one-third of the
text, proportionately less than Thomas
in his better written and now
standard short life but more than
Sandburg in his recent one-volume
edition. Luthin's avowed purpose is to
supply a corrective to unhistorical
evocations like the poet's; but his
style is too graceless to wean away
Sandburg's general readers. And his
Lincoln is less compelling. Luthin
presents Lincoln as dropping his family
quickly after reaching maturity,
as bearing the impress of the town and the
office much more than the
farm, the prairie, and the frontier, as
excessively frugal, as becoming
the embodiment of the middle-class
American spirit by the fifties, as
"not a prolific student of cultural
subjects" but rather an extensive
reader in "political messages, law
books . . . newspapers and election
BOOK REVIEWS 273
precinct figures," and as being
less the complete democrat and "man of
the people" than he is generally
held to be. Politically, Lincoln was
opportunistic, practical, and
conservative; economically, "most unrevo-
lutionary" in his views toward
capital and labor. Like others, Luthin
writes as though Lincoln's economic
thought merits serious considera-
tion. He does not, however, flatter the
Lincoln of the Douglas debates
and 1860: "Even those celebrated
exchanges . . . revealed him as more
the crass oratorical maneuverer for
votes than the statesman. He had
drifted with the tide, and up to his
election . . . had left no record of
achievement, except the quest for
office."
The Civil War made Lincoln, bringing out
his greatness. Luthin
refrains from saying Lincoln made the
war; but, since "it seems beyond
belief" that his election was
"a voter's mandate against slavery exten-
sion," since the Crittenden
"compromise" had overwhelming public back-
ing, since Lincoln "rejected
compromise" on the territorial issue, since
he committed "colossal" and
"fatal" mistakes in underrating secession
sentiment and concealing his views and
intentions, it would seem his
responsibility was great. That the
president-elect did not consider the
Crittenden proposals true compromise,
seems not to have occurred to
the author. Luthin rejects T. Harry
Williams' case against McClellan
but accepts his radicals-Stanton
connivance argument. Do not that his-
torian's two popular books cancel one
another? Luthin's account of
emancipation and "restoration"
politics is standard; military affairs in
the West in 1863 are well presented; his
1864 chapters, deriving from
his Lincoln and the Patronage, show
improved literary qualities; and
his treatment of the election politics
is good.
A final point. This biography hardly
lives up to its subtitle. Very
little of "the times" -- the
South, its aspirations and leaders, and the
Old Northwest, its political maturation
in the sectional struggle --
appears, and treatment of foreign
affairs is most inadequate, a notable
fault.
Raleigh, N. C. EUGENE C. DROZDOWSKI
Well Mary: Civil War Letters of a
Wisconsin Volunteer. Edited by
Margaret Brobst Roth. (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press,
1960. ix??165p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $4.00.)
Collections of Civil War letters abound
in this first year of the cen-
tennial celebration of what remains,
perhaps, the most intriguing era
in our national history. They serve the
very useful purpose of reducing
274
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to a human dimension events which,
because of the broader concerns
of history, are most often treated from
the perspective of the larger
issues involved, so that the private
chronicle is lost in the statistical
summary, the political analysis, the
ideological explanation. In the
narrative of the single soldier,
however, the major battle becomes the
individual concern and the personal
terror of the charge; the grand
campaign is changed into the private
agony and the simple urge to flee.
It would, of course, be absurd to
suggest that the private soldier had
no part in the ideological conflict. In
the case of Private John F. Brobst
of the Twenty-Fifth Wisconsin Infantry,
it is clear from his letters to
his future wife Mary Englesby that it
was his convictions about his
country and his cause that sustained him
and made it possible to endure
what seemed at times a cosmic
catastrophe, impossible to comprehend,
in which a malignant and desperate force
wantonly destroyed the very
things--the objects of love and
loyalty--that made John's convictions
possible in the first place. His
ideology was crude, based not so much
on rational, ethical principle as on
popular sentiment and regional loy-
alty, confused by shibboleths and
talismans which commanded his alle-
giance or provoked his disdain,
"The Union," "Copperheads," "our
Cause"--magical words which he
repeated as incantations to relieve his
misery and keep him on his feet.
Like many who enlisted as private
soldiers, John Brobst had regarded
the war which he was eager to enter as a
gallant encounter, a ritual
enactment that would restore to eternal
pre-eminence the things John
loved, and give new glory to the
sentiments he lived by. He was poorly
prepared for the loneliness, the filth,
the boredom, and the pain. It was
the curious strength of his character,
however, that the romantic ideal-
ism which made dying for his country an
abstract and lustrous gesture
was not shattered when he was confronted
with the harsh spectacle of
a friend's cruel death. The destruction
of the idealist in his encounter
with reality is a favorite theme of our
later and less romantic age. It
was John Brobst's particular virtue that
what he could scarcely endure,
ultimately gave depth to convictions
that at first seemed too tenuous
to survive the weakest onslaught.
Ohio State University Press WELDON A.
KEFAUVER
After the Civil War: A Pictorial
Profile of America from 1865 to 1900.
By John S. Blay. (New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell Company, 1960.
312p.; illustrations,
bibliography, and index. $12.00.)
This is an illustrated history of the
years from the Civil War to 1900.
BOOK REVIEWS 275
The written text is an extremely
readable narrative that emphasizes
colorful personalities, new economic
developments, catastrophes, and the
ways of life of rich and poor. In short
crisp sentences the author relates
the episodes that once made newspaper
headlines.
The chief merit of the book is a truly
excellent collection of pictures
from the leading magazines of the day.
These are well reproduced and
range from political conventions to
strikes, from Indian wars to the
social life of New York's Four Hundred,
and from the great expo-
sitions at Philadelphia and Chicago to
the battles of the Spanish Ameri-
can War. The new architecture of Henry
H. Richardson and Louis
Sullivan and the paintings of Winslow
Homer, Thomas Eakins, and
John Singer Sargent are all represented.
The theater and musical arts
are likewise included.
The editor's purpose appears to be to
entertain rather than to instruct,
to parade impressions of an era rather
than to analyze. His judgments
of great episodes and leading
personalities reflect those common to
textbooks. In summing up the era he
quotes the New York World of
December 31, 1899: "This has been a
century of mechanical invention
rather than of social reconstruction--a
period of rapidly increasing
wealth production, rather than its just
distribution."
Readers may draw their own conclusions
about the age or may simply
look without thinking at all, but the
more reflective will see that in its
emergence as a great industrial power,
the United States manifested
a degree of crassness and brutality that
often belied the idealistic rhetoric
of a nation conceived in liberty and
dedicated to human values.
Michigan State University PAUL A. VARG
The American Petroleum Industry: The
Age of Illumination, 1859-
1899. By Harold F. Williamson and Arnold R. Daum. Research
associates: Ralph L. Andreano, Gilbert
C. Klose and Paul A. Wein-
stein. (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern
University Press, 1959. xvi??
864p.; illustrations, maps, charts, tables, appendices,
and index.
$7.50.)
A full-scale history of the American
petroleum industry has long been
needed. The present work is much more
than a compendium of data
relating to the industry, 1859-99,
although it will serve this function
admirably enough. The authors have
provided a synthesis marked by
penetrating analysis of the complex
interrelationships of exploration,
technology, production and processing,
transport, business organization,
276 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and entrepreneurship. Their focus,
however, is the evolving competitive
structure within the industry.
Following a brief review of early uses
of oil and of American salt
discoveries prior to mid-century, the
authors discuss the "illumination
revolution" of the 1850's, with
attention to the brief flourishing of the
coal-oil industry. The years 1859-61 are
set forth with fresh discussion
of the pioneering firms and of the sources
of entrepreneurship.
For the period 1862-73, rapid expansion
of output and the impact
of new production techniques are
examined. The introduction of bulk
shipment in those years made proximity
to the oil fields a less critical
factor in refinery location. The effect
of Standard Oil's tight hold on
transport and refining at a time of
unrestrained production of crude oil
is considered against a carefully etched
background, familiar enough,
portraying the competitive structure of
the railroad industry. In sections
on the periods 1874-84 and 1884-99, the
authors describe the introduc-
tion of long-distance pipelines,
expansion of refining capacity, and the
major changes in Standard's policies
that accompanied the opening of
the Lima-Indiana fields.
Williamson and Daum examine some of the
interpretive controversies
surrounding the role of Standard Oil. It
is unlikely that theirs will
prove a final resolution of the problem.
Yet they have provided material
for renewed discussion, particularly by
virtue of their study of the prob-
lems and techniques of competing firms
and their industry-wide focus
of interest. On the one hand, there is
much evidence here that the mores
of Standard Oil, and particularly the
overriding concern for achieving
combination, were common to the industry
at all levels of production
and marketing. This the defenders of the
firm have always maintained.
On the other hand, the authors aver that
"a substantial portion of the
corporation's income was derived by
virtue of its control of pipeline and
transport facilities"; superior
efficiency was not the overriding factor in
Standard's dominance. "It appears
quite unlikely," they state (p. 729),
"that only Rockefeller and his associates
had the qualifications necessary
to create an efficient organization at
this stage of the industry's develop-
ment."
Of particular interest to Ohio
historians is the discussion of the petro-
leum industry in northwest Ohio
following the Findlay-Lima discoveries
of the mid-1850's. By 1896 the Lima
fields were supplying forty per-
cent of the nation's crude oil. The
authors apparently regarded it as
beyond the scope of the book to examine
the local impact of the Lima
boom. That such a study is needed, and
that it has striking possibilities,
BOOK REVIEWS 277
are evident. Innovations in
conservationist practices, organization of
independent producers, and Ohio
manufacturers' conversion from coal to
petroleum fuel, are all subjects only of
intriguing references. And despite
its manifold virtues, this work, like
many other industry histories, gives
far too little attention to the story of
labor.
A second volume, which will carry the
history of the industry to the
present, is to follow. The authors have
drawn fully upon the excellent
secondary studies available. But they
have also employed extensively
contemporary trade journals, state
geological reports, patent records,
scientific periodicals, judicial
records, and a limited body of manuscript
material. Newspaper references are
limited, for the most part, to the
Titusville Morning Herald. Lucid maps and tables accompany the text.
"Endnotes" are cumbersome
enough by nature; they are doubly unsatis-
factory in this case, because chapter
numbers do not appear on alternate
pages to expedite the inevitable
"page-flipping."
The Age of Illumination was written with the aid of a grant from the
American Petroleum Institute and, it
should be noted, was based in part
upon secondary studies encouraged by
individual firms. It is hoped that
other oil companies will expedite study
of the important problems that
remain by opening their records to
historians of the industry.
Dartmouth College HARRY N. SCHEIBER
Readings in the History of American
Agriculture. Edited by Wayne D.
Rasmussen. (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1960. xiv??340p.;
illustrations, chronology, bibliography,
and index. $6.50.)
The Farmer's Age: Agriculture,
1815-1860. By Paul W. Gates. Volume
III of the Economic History of the
United States, edited by Henry
David, Harold U. Faulkner, Louis M.
Hacker, Curtis P. Nettels, and
Fred A. Shannon. (New York: Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, 1960.
xx??460p.; illustrations, tables,
bibliography, and index. $8.00.)
In 1925 Louis B. Schmidt and Earle E.
Ross published their Read-
ings in the Economic History of
American Agriculture, a very useful
selection from books and articles. It
was composed therefore of sec-
ondary writings, had some significant
omissions, and has become out
of date. It might be supposed that Readings
in the History of American
Agriculture would be an improved and modernized version of the
earlier
volume which would incorporate some of
the more valuable contributions
of the last generation of agricultural
historians. Such is not the case.
278
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The principle of selection is entirely
different. It is to throw light on
the evolution of American agriculture by
utilizing the accounts of sig-
nificant contributors to notable
developments. Thus, we have Eli Whit-
ney on the cotton gin, Cyrus McCormick
on the reaper, Elkanah Watson
on the Berkshire agricultural societies,
Theobald Smith on the control of
Texas cattle fever, Stephen A. Babcock
on his butterfat test, Henry A.
Wallace on the introduction of hybrid
corn, and so forth. The material
is interesting and well chosen, with
each extract being preceded by a
statement which places it in its proper
setting. The volume is very much
worth while, especially for the reader
with a sound background in agri-
cultural history.
The Farmer's Age purports to be a history of American agriculture
in the period from 1815 to 1860. This
was a period of highly significant
changes in farming, and to compress the
story into 420 pages is virtually
impossible. As it is, about fifty pages
are devoted to land policy in its
various ramifications, a most unusual
proportion, but one reflecting the
special interest and competence of the
author.
With the exception of the opening
portion, which is a survey of agri-
culture at the beginning of the period
on a geographical basis, the
arrangement is fundamentally topical.
The chapters deal with land pol-
icy, as already noted; cotton, rice,
sugar, tobacco, and other crops
peculiar to the South; grain growing; livestock
husbandry; dairying;
the introduction of machinery; farm
organizations; farm journals; gov-
ernment aid to agriculture; and a
variety of miscellaneous matters. This
approach has the advantage of making
plain the topics considered, but
it has very serious disadvantages.
One disadvantage is that the
interrelationships and rivalries between
various types of farming do not become
manifest. There is no specific
mention of the rivalry between dairying
and wool growing, a subject
much discussed in the agricultural press
of the 1850's, or of the asso-
ciation between horse rearing and wheat
growing, or of the interrelation
of the cattle and swine industries in
the Old Northwest. Another disad-
vantage is that many regions with local
specializations are wholly or
mostly passed over. The Ohio reader will
find nothing to indicate the
tremendous significance of the
techniques of cattle and swine husbandry
evolved in the Scioto Valley and the
surrounding area, and almost noth-
ing about the dairying of the Western
Reserve. The sheep industry is
treated in such a fashion as to lead the
unwary to assume that it was
almost entirely one of the hill country
of New England, not of Wash-
ington County, Pennsylvania, or of Knox
County, Ohio. Still another
BOOK REVIEWS 279
disadvantage is that some regions are
neglected entirely, or dealt with
in a partial or misleading fashion.
Thus, there is no mention whatever
of the agriculture of Oregon during the
period of joint occupation, and
what is said of the period after the
Oregon treaty is fundamentally a
matter of land policy. There is no
really significant mention of any aspect
of the agriculture of Texas, and none at
all of the agriculture of New
Mexico, or of that of California prior to
the Gold Rush. The result is
virtually a complete blank in so far as
the Spanish contributions to the
development of the Southwest are
concerned. The Old Mexican--and
ultimately Peninsular--origin of the
cattle industry, the inherited Span-
ish techniques of the sheep industry,
the Spanish contributions to
irrigation and the evolution of water
laws, are never even mentioned.
For that matter, there is no notice in
either text or bibliography of
Webb's Great Plains, or of any
Southwest travel narrative except Olm-
stead's Journey in the Back Country.
Many important developments are glossed
over or telescoped. Per-
haps it is assumed that the reader will
approach the book with a sound
background knowledge of agriculture.
Lacking this, he will not be
much the wiser for what is said of the
introduction of farm machinery,
the evolution of the dairy industry, the
problems of the mid-century
agricultural societies, and other
aspects of rural evolution.
If the inquisitive student looks for
answers to a few questions, he will
fail to find them. What, for example,
was the system of crop rotation
employed in the wheat counties of
Pennsylvania and Ohio, or the corn-
growing counties of the nascent Corn
Belt? What were the arguments
used by the champions of "native
cattle" in opposing the importation of
"improved" breeds? Was there
really an "agricultural ladder" of hired
man, tenant, and proprietor? Was
farming, especially in the West, a
social safety-valve for the workers in
eastern cities? It seems likely that
the author knows about these matters,
but they are missing from his
book.
There are some errors of fact, and some
statements which are cer-
tainly misleading. Thus, we read (p.
251) that the mower "came into
common use at least on more progressive
farms by the fifties, and, with
the horse-drawn rake and tedder,
shortened the operation of haying."
The mower was "common" only
relatively during the fifties; the dump
rake of the Ithaca or Tompkins County
type was available only shortly
before the Civil War; and the tedder was
scarce till long afterwards. It
is said (p. 157) that grain drills
"were coming into use by the thirties,"
which is between ten and twenty years
too soon, depending on what
280
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
is meant by "the thirties." In
the center of the book there is a repro-
duction of an advertisement, the date of
which is not given. This shows
a steam tractor and a grain separator
which seem to be of the 1880's
or even 1890's, and which are undeniably
anachronistic in this volume.
We are told (p. 48) that "the early
settlers sought land close to the
streams flowing into the Ohio and its
tributaries . . . and all too com-
monly they built their homes and
villages on bottom lands. As clearings
farther inland were enlarged, the land
held back less and less of the
heavy rains, and these locations became
subject to destructive floods
that carried off livestock and buildings
and sometimes took the lives of
inhabitants. Later generations, after
long struggles to protect these
homes and communities by levees, were
forced to move back to higher
lands." Obviously, the author is
not acquainted with the patient, not
to say bored, attitude of the residents
of the low lands along rivers like
the Muskingum and the Scioto to the
frequent floods they experience.
In summary, my opinion is that the book
is reasonably interesting
and worth while overall, and very good
in certain areas, but that in some
portions it could be and should be much
better.
Marietta College ROBERT L. JONES
Sea Power: A Naval History. Edited by E. B. Potter and Chester W.
Nimitz. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1960. xii??932p.;
illustrations, bibliography, and index.
$14.65.)
The term sea power is most
comprehensive, and the authors of this
study, wisely recognizing that a single
volume could not cover all ele-
ments adequately, have accordingly
chosen to emphasize the naval
aspect, as the title indicates.
Beginning with a one-chapter survey of
the age of galley warfare, in
which the story of Greece, Rome, and
Venice is sketched, Sea Power
discusses the age of sail in ten
chapters, with emphasis upon the rise of
Great Britain to her century-long
position of pre-eminence as mistress
of the seas. From this point on, as
might well be expected, the story is
increasingly concerned with the
development of the United States Navy
and the rise of American naval power.
Ten chapters cover the century
from 1815 to the outbreak of World War
I, half of which are devoted
to the American Civil War and the others
to technological developments,
the rise of Japan and the United States
to prominence as naval powers,
and related topics. The remaining
twenty-five chapters, somewhat more
than one-half of the book, sketch in
some detail the story of the past
BOOK REVIEWS 281
half century, devoting four chapters to
World War I, seventeen to World
War II, one to the interim between the
wars, and three to the years
since 1945.
Fortunately, this book is more than a
narrative of war at sea. Through-
out the account, evolution of naval
weapons, evolution of naval tactics,
development of amphibious doctrine,
basis of strategic decisions, char-
acteristics of successful leadership,
and the influence of sea power upon
history are continually kept in the foreground.
This broad perspective
adds greatly to what might otherwise be
a rather routine and probably
dull naval history.
The historical approach provides an
opportunity to observe navies
in action, first under simple conditions
of galley warfare, then under
growing complexities of sail and steam,
and finally in the tri-elemental
present when navies are no longer mere
fleets of ships but extraordi-
narily complicated systems of projecting
power at a distance. The anal-
ytical or philosophical approach sharply
points up the fact that amidst
the changing aspects of naval warfare,
reflecting the constant changes
in weapons, there are unchanging
principles as applicable to missile
warfare as to warfare under oar. For
example, the command of the sea
is equally important whether it extends
to air above the surface and
to the waters below or is limited to the
surface of inland waterways.
Although a multi-authored work, this
book has excellent continuity
and commendable unity in style and
treatment. This success is due in
part to the fact that the twelve authors
have similar professional back-
grounds, having served in World War II
and taught together at the
naval academy for much of the period
since. Several of the authors
have also collaborated on previous
writing ventures over the past fifteen
years, portions of which are
incorporated in the present book. Continuity
and unity have been further gained by
close and careful editing, first by
fellow colleagues, then by professional
officers, and lastly by the assigned
editors of the project.
Finally, the influence of two men served
to bring to this study much
of its authority and unity. Admiral
Chester W. Nimitz, associate editor,
is credited as the one who "set the
general tone of the work" and
"steered the civilian writers away
from the pitfalls of amateur military
analysis." The influence of Alfred
Thayer Mahan is visible throughout,
nowhere more than in the first chapter,
where his concepts of sea
power, communications, concentration,
and command are set forth, with
proper acknowledgment.
Though forthrightly disclaiming that the
study is in any sense an
282 THE OHIO HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
official history, Sea Power nevertheless
gives an assurance of accuracy
and a sense of authority because of the
part which Admiral Nimitz
played in its production and further by
the fact that the chapters on
World War II were reviewed by the major
living participants.
University of Oklahoma WILLIAM E. LIVEZEY
Book Reviews
Under the Flag of the Nation: Diaries
and Letters of a Yankee Volun-
teer in the Civil War. Edited by Otto F. Bond. (Columbus: Ohio
State University Press for the Ohio
Historical Society, 1961. 308p.;
illustrations and appendices. $5.00.)
In view of the tidal wave of Civil War
publications now threatening
the reading public and the historical
profession, many readers may
recoil at the prospect of fresh
printings of soldiers' diaries from either
side of the conflict. This book,
published for the Ohio Historical So-
ciety, is an entry in the sweepstakes
for the Union point of view.
The book is composed of the letters,
diaries, and reminiscences of
Owen Johnston Hopkins, an Ohio volunteer
at age seventeen, from
Bellefontaine, Ohio, in the 42d Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. It covers in
some degree almost all of the war in the
Mississippi campaign. Hop-
kins rose from private to lieutenant in
the 42d, serving in the battles
of the Cumberland Gap in 1861 and 1862
under Colonel James A.
Garfield; in the Mississippi River
campaigns with the Army of the
Tennessee, climaxing in the siege of
Vicksburg, of which he gives an
admirable first-hand account; in
desultory guard actions in the bayou
country of Louisiana in the department
of the gulf; and finally in
1864 and 1865 as a quartermaster for the
182d O.V.I. stationed in
Nashville.
Hopkins was not in a position to recite
the war's history, or to affect
tactics and strategy, and his most
rewarding comments reflect the daily
life of the common soldier in the Union
army. The grumblings, forced
marches, poor supplies, bad commanders,
weather, and confusion com-
mon to any such army are vividly
revealed in his often humorous
descriptions of the soldiers' life. His
sense of humor, well demonstrated
in his comments on his fellows and
himself, later sharpened into some
talent as a cartoonist. The picture he
paints of daily life on the march
or in the camp is not new, but is colorful,
interesting, and often vivid.
One senses in his pages the change from
boy to man.
The most refreshing note in the book is
the patriotism which Hopkins
sounds, and which does not ring hollow a
century later. Modern