Ohio History Journal

BOOK REVIEWS

 

The Taft Story. By William S. White. (New York, Harper & Brothers,

1954. [x]+282p.; illustrations and index. $3.50.)

Within certain limits, William S. White, a very able New York Times

Washington correspondent, has produced a useful study of the late Senator

Taft. It should be added quickly, however, that the limits are indeed

limited. The book does not pretend to be a biography; in fact, it is without

documentation, woefully out of balance, and loosely put together. Still

there emerges a valuable portrait of "Mr. Republican," and one which

cannot help but contribute to our understanding of that sometimes mis-

understood man.

On the debit side the most striking omissions relate to Taft's ancestry,

nativity, adolescence, and early maturity. Only 52 of the book's 282 pages

have anything to do with background, and even there the data is so scattered

as to be something less than clear. After this brief introduction, one is

quickly propelled into 1945, and the remaining 230 pages deal with the

last eight years. Mr. White went to Washington in 1945, and his sole

sources are personal conversations with and observations of Senator Taft

after that time. In essence then this is a case study of Taft under eight

years of Truman and six months of Eisenhower.

As a case study what does it reveal? Several controlling factors at once

deserve comment. Taft, in the author's view, seldom understood that which

he did not experience. For example, his isolationism and his insistence on

cutting military expenditures, is explained by the fact that he never was in

the army. Then again, Taft never experienced anything resembling economic

insecurity. This, says Mr. White, is why he looked askance at "socialistic

nonsense," which was supposed to help those who had experienced economic

insecurity.

Another factor which conditioned Taft's outlook was the Bull Moose

defection in 1912. The lesson learned here was that unless party regularity

was maintained the party would be destroyed. This was at the bottom of

the senator's differences with Thomas E. Dewey. Taft felt that Dewey

represented a "me too-ism," which was so close to "Eastern internationalism"

and "New Deal socialism" as to sap the party's vitality. It left the rank

and file Republican with no chance to vote for honest to goodness "Old

Guard" Republicanism. When Taft negotiated the "Morningside Surrender"

with Dewey's man Eisenhower, the latter acceded to Taft's demands for a

program based on this traditional Republican philosophy. On that basis

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alone was the Taft-Eisenhower alliance cemented. Despite deep respect for

the senator, Mr. White believes that Taft was fighting a losing battle. The

old philosophy was on the way out, and Taft's failure to win any of the

three nominations he sought, accurately reflected the party's thinking on the

matter.

Chronologically, Taft's post-war career is broken down into three sections:

(1) "Onset of the Power"--1945-48; (2) "The Sad, Worst Period"--

1949-52; (3) "The Last, Best Taft"--1953. The first period covers the

Republican 80th congress, where Taft was at the peak of his power as a

party leader. This was the era of Taft-Hartley and of some of the more

salty Taft-Truman exchanges. The second--"sad, worst"--period provided,

for this reviewer, the most revealing passages of the book. The party's

repudiation of Taft himself as well as the work of the 80th congress at

the 1948 convention, so embittered the senator that he became a changed

man. From then down until the 1952 convention he adopted an attitude of

cynicism and pettiness, which was totally out of character. He said and did

things which alienated many followers and indulged in what Mr. White

considers unfair sniping at Truman and Acheson. The largeness of the man

was lost in these years.

The last period, which covered the six months of the Taft-Eisenhower

alliance, saw the senator execute an about face and blossom into the mature,

responsible, national (as against party) statesman which he had not hereto-

fore been. Here he was the prime minister, educating the inexperienced

president, pushing his program, and dominating the congress. The author

believes that with Taft's untimely death the nation lost a leader of unique

qualities, perhaps the outstanding statesman of the age. It would not be

surprising if history were to sustain this early judgment.

Rio Grande College                             EUGENE C. MURDOCK

 

The Real Americans. By A. Hyatt Verrill. (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons,

1954. x+309p.; illustrations, glossary, biographies, and index. $5.00.)

"This book," according to its author's own statement in the introductory

pages, "is not intended to be a scientific ethnological work" but rather aims

to convey "a better knowledge and understanding of our Indians of the

United States" by telling "of their lives, customs, arts and industries, their

psychology and mental reactions, their religious myths and their legends--in

short, their 'human' characteristics." The author has carried out this plan

as completely and consistently as possible in a book of slightly more than

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300 pages. Moreover, he has done so with such vivacity and immediateness

of presentation as to make The Real Americans eminently attractive reading,

not only to the more or less educated adult but especially to adolescent

youngsters of high-school age who in its pages will discover a treasure trove

of fascinating and thought-provoking information.

The reader, be he young, old, layman, or even a serious student of

ethnology, anthropology, history, and what not, can be safely assured that

the one or other of his notions about American Indians, preconceived or

studiously acquired, will be shattered by the facts presented by Mr. Verrill.

Most of these he assembled "during more than an average lifetime"--he is

a man of eighty-three--on occasional visits or even prolonged stays with

"innumerable tribes." Having been adopted into several of them, and

having attained to high tribal honors in others, Mr. Verrill rightfully claims

to know his Indians "about as well as it is possible for any white man to

know them." Moreover, both he and his wife (so he states) have sufficient

Indian blood in their veins to make them Indians, "officially and by Indian

rules."

Moreover, in writing this book, the author has "had the wholehearted

assistance and co-operation" of his "Indian friends." The names of only

part of them cover more than half a printed page. This personal method of

acquiring facts has essentially contributed to the fascinating vividness of

Mr. Verrill's style. It also helps to explain why most of the countless events

and incidents, as related throughout the work, are seen with Indian eyes and

hence almost exclusively presented from the Indians' standpoint. This is a

novel approach. So far, the history of the white conquest of North America

has been written by the white conquerors, who have consistently tried to

silence the disturbing voice of their collective conscience by harping on the

congenital evilness of their "perfidious and bloodthirsty" victims. Con-

sidering this, one cannot welcome enough Mr. Verrill's passionately breaking

a lance for the conquered. Once in a while, though, his affection for his

Indians may have guided his pen to extol them too much, and to blame

the whites and their government too severely. However, without detailed

investigation and appraisal of source material it would be difficult to prove

him in error. He himself cites next to no literature of any kind in support

either of his accusations against the whites, or of his condoning of question-

able Indian actions. It seems to this reviewer that even a popular presenta-

tion of historical events, such as this book, ought to contain a minimum of

source references, indispensable for the sake of fairness to either side.

Apart from those controversial issues, the one or other statement along

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different lines calls for a confirming reference. For example, one would be

grateful to learn the source of the author's claim that "we know now, . . .

that maize or Indian corn was known in Egypt and India ages before the

coming of Columbus" (p. 7).

These minor shortcomings, however, are as nothing in view of the general

excellence of Mr. Verrill's work. It is a most remarkable book, which

everybody interested in these only real Americans must read, if for no other

reason than to rid himself of innumerable absurd notions about Indians,

both of the past and of the present day.

Ohio State University                              AUGUST C. MAHR

 

Inside Lincoln's Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase. Edited

by David Donald. (New York, London, and Toronto, Longmans, Green

and Company, 1954. ix+342p.; introduction, bibliographical notes, and

index. $6.50.)

Salmon P. Chase was the first of a long line of Ohioans who have held

prominent posts in almost every Republican administration from the Civil

War to the present. As secretary of the treasury and later as chief justice of

the supreme court he played a major role in the Civil War and Recon-

struction era. Despite the important positions he held, Chase is one of the

less well-known characters of American history. The reasons for his relative

obscurity are various. Chase's personality, though strong, lacked lustre. Con-

temporaries differed as to various facets of his character, but all agreed that

he was humorless, pompous, and ambitious. Furthermore, he held a post

that was lacking in glamor. While others were engaged in making military

strategy or planning political maneuvers, Chase was obliged to give the

greater portion of his time to such thankless tasks as trying to persuade

congress to vote higher taxes or pleading with bankers for loans with which

to wage the war. Worst of all, perhaps, he dared differ with Lincoln, and

to certain of his contemporaries and many later historians this was an

unforgivable sin.

One way of securing a place in history is to produce a brilliant set of

memoirs. This, Chase did not do. Despite skillful editing, the diaries

reproduced in this volume are disappointing both in quantity and quality.

Though ostensibly running from 1861 to 1865, the journals have many

large gaps. As best one can make out, Chase actually made entries during

only about eighteen months of the four years of the war. As to the quality

of the material, one is inclined to agree with the editor's comment that there

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Book Reviews                           423

 

is a "curious objectivity" about the diaries. They are in fact a stark record

of events, intended, as Chase said, not for publication but "in memoriam."

Chase records the names of people he saw (a habit that provides quite a

job of identification for the editor); what he said at cabinet or other im-

portant meetings; his ideas on the emancipation and enfranchisement of the

Negro; and his ideas on how to win the war. With the exception of

Lincoln and McClellan, there is little comment on personalities. There is

hardly more than a hint of the hustle, bustle, and intrigue that characterized

war-time Washington. Family life and personal affairs are scarcely men-

tioned. Since his daughter, Kate Sprague, was the "hostess with the mostess"

in her day, Chase stood at the vortex of the social swirl, yet we are per-

mitted hardly a glimpse of high society. This unadorned record is all the

more surprising in view of the fact that, as a young man at least, Chase

revealed in his writing a warm, perceptive, and sensitive nature. Perhaps

he was too occupied with the business of the day, perhaps high office had

made him too egotistical; but whatever the reasons, these diaries are, as the

editor points out, revealing mainly in a negative sense.

After Chase's death there was a legal battle over the disposition of his

voluminous papers. The result was that the records became divided and

there are now two main bodies: one in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

and another in the Library of Congress. The papers printed in this volume

have been drawn from both depositories. The diary from July to October

1862, which constitutes a considerable portion of the present volume, was

published in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association of

1902. Other excerpts from the diaries are given, often imperfectly, in the

highly laudatory biographies of Chase by Robert B. Warden and Jacob W.

Schuckers published in 1874. All three of these earlier works have long

been out of print and both historians and general readers are indebted to

Mr. David Donald for providing a reliable and neatly edited text.

In addition, Mr. Donald has written an excellent introduction, in which

he traces Chase's military interests, antislavery 'activities, political intrigues,

and accomplishments as finance minister of the Civil War. In his short but

artfully woven narrative Mr. Donald also traces Chase's declining influence

in the government and his simultaneously mounting ambition. Lincoln, who

understood the man as well as anyone, once said that he was a little insane

in his passion to gain the presidency. That his incurable ambition impaired

his usefulness and blinded his judgment can scarcely be denied. At the

same time, however, he had faith, vision, and undoubted ability. He entered

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424     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

into no corrupt bargains and, while he possessed a high degree of moral

courage, he was not a fanatic. Again paraphrasing Lincoln, he was about one

and a half times bigger than most of his contemporaries.

Ohio State University                               HARRY L. COLES

 

The Western College for Women, 1853-1953. By Narka Nelson. (Oxford,

Ohio, Western College for Women, 1954. xiv+248p.; illustrations,

appendices, and index. $4.00.)

The Western College for Women at Oxford, Ohio, has completed a

century of service. In a spirit of devotion to her alma mater, Narka Nelson,

professor of classics and adviser to foreign students, has written a history of

that century of service, sincerely and in lively style. She has created a

panorama of the development of the college from a female seminary that

stressed the preparation of women for homemaking and missionary work

to the new and broad program of international education upon which the

institution is now embarking. From Helen Peabody, first lady principal of

the Western Female Seminary, to Herrick Young, president of the Western

College for Women, the college has had a continuing interest in the people

of foreign countries. By the end of Miss Peabody's first twenty-five years,

the seminary had sent out thirty-nine missionaries to nine foreign countries

and two home mission fields.

The Western Female Seminary was the first school to follow the plan of

Mary Lyon's Mount Holyoke Seminary. Helen Peabody, a graduate of

Mount Holyoke, made it a true daughter of the mother school. Western

College has always had two or more on its faculty from Mount Holyoke.

In 1888 Miss Peabody was succeeded by Leila McKee, a Western alumna

and graduate of Wellesley. It was Leila McKee's task to guide the institu-

tion through the trying days of transition from seminary to college. The

seminary became "The Western College for Women" in 1902. Lilian

Wycoff Johnson (1904-6) and Dr. John Grant Newman (1908-12), by

prodigious effort, raised the endowment substantially. The college enjoyed

its greatest academic and material prosperity under the presidency of Dr.

William W. Boyd (1914-31). Through the efforts of Dean Mary Sawyer

in 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Stillman Kelley were brought to the college,

Mrs. Kelley to teach piano, Mr. Kelley to compose in freedom from financial

care. Some of his finest works were written in Oxford. Western College

enjoys the distinction of having been the first college in the United States

to provide a resident fellowship for creative work.

The statement on page 18 that students did not come to Miami University

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Book Reviews                          425

 

until 1824 is not quite true. James Hughs, a Presbyterian minister and

trustee of Miami, opened the school in the new college building in 1818.

The trustees had instructed him to raise the infant institution to real col-

legiate standing. Robert Hamilton Bishop, who became president in 1824,

had a faculty of three, not two, as stated on page 18. The railroad was

opened from Hamilton to Oxford and College Corner late in November

1859, not 1858, as stated on page 34.

The author has done much careful research and has produced a valuable

contribution to the history of the education of women in the Midwest.

Oxford, Ohio                                       OPHIA D. SMITH

 

Out of the Red Brush. By Kermit Daugherty. (Cleveland and New York,

World Publishing Company, 1954. 251p. $3.50.)

Ohio Diary: The Saga of Raccoon Valley. By Charles B. Kincaid ("Jim

Blaine"). (New York, Exposition Press, 1953. 268p.; illustrations.

$4.00.)

The two books under consideration deal with Ohioana, and the sketches

that go to fill their pages treat matters of interest to local historians, sociol-

ogists, and folklorists. Both books give the reader an insight into the manner

in which people lived in the rural Midwest of the nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries. Both books are written "firsthand" by men who have

lived with the culture pattern about which they write. And Ohio Diary

even includes a number of references to well-known historical figures and

events. Yet neither book indicates that the author has something to say, or

really knows how to say it if he has.

Out of the Red Brush is "billed" as a novel. But it is in reality little

more than a series of sketches centering around the youthful love-life of

Bill Brennan. And while from time to time the reader gets to see how the

Red Brush community actually lived, for the most part he is bogged down

in various forms of seduction, rape, and mayhem. The only unifying theme

is the struggle Bill has to recover from being jilted by Vinnie, his child-

hood sweetheart--a struggle that racks him abnormally and for a surprising

length of time until the whole thing (the book and Bill's troubles) ends

abruptly in the arms of sweet Sue. This rather juvenile motif is told in a most

annoying "pseudo-dialect" with fillips of realism designed to startle, if not

shock. Mr. Daugherty could have gotten away with this story in 1900.

Then it would have been "fresh," "in revolt," "earthy." Today, such realism

is passe. Today, a novel must stand on more than emasculations, illicit love,

and ruptured virginities.

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426     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

Ohio Diary is not a novel, but a series of memories, and, thus, its lack of

structure is not as annoying as the same fault in Out of the Red Brush. Never-

theless, it is so lacking in ideas, insights, and fresh facts that one is not even

kept interested by much of it. There are forty-six essays in the Diary, some

of them no more than a couple of pages. They all deal with the settlement

and growth of Raccoon Valley. Famous figures like Daniel Boone, John

Chapman, and John Morgan are given special chapters, but in each case

the treatment includes some insignificant anecdote or local legend sandwiched

among a mass of facts available in any encyclopedia. Beyond this, such

pregnant subjects as gypsies, tramps, country courts, frog-hunting, and the

evolution of evangelism are allowed to miscarry; standard folktales like

"Clever Elsie" (Aarne-Thompson Type 1450) are given as charming rural

yarns; and "cracker-barrel" philosophies from urban Dale Carnegies to the

local colored mammy are sprayed over all.

These are works on areas, people, and events dear to the hearts of the

authors and many students of history. It is a shame that the books them-

selves can't be given kinder treatment by an honest reviewer. It is a tragedy

that raw memories--so significant to a writer--frequently seem trite, even

dull to the mechanical scholar.

Denison University                             TRISTRAM P. COFFIN

 

Cyclone in Calico: The Story of Mary Ann Bickerdyke. By Nina Brown

Baker. (Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1952. 278p.; frontispiece,

notes, bibliography, and index. $4.50.)

This is a lively biography of the Civil War nurse whose courageous,

tireless efforts to improve the care of the sick and wounded common soldier

won her the affectionate title "Mother." In presenting the material on Mrs.

Bickerdyke's life in Mt. Vernon and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Galesburg,

Illinois, before the Civil War, the author has made a contribution to the

picture of the preparation of one type of Civil War nurse. Much color is

also added to the well-known facts of Mrs. Bickerdyke's career as a nurse.

The author does have a tendency to overemphasize the importance of

the kind of care which Mrs. Bickerdyke gave. At one time she states, "What

she did would not have been too different from what a visiting nurse does

now." There was little or nothing which Mrs. Bickerdyke could or did do

which could be compared with modern nursing. The level of medicine in

the Civil War period did not make possible any kind of nursing other than

the attendant type.

It does not seem that Mrs. Bickerdyke's motivation for serving as a nurse

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Book Reviews                          427

 

on the battlefield has been sufficiently explored or explained. Other women

who became nurses had husbands or sons in the war or were inspired by the

example of Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. Not only did Mrs.

Bickerdyke lack this interest, but she was a widow of forty-four with two

young sons. Why did she leave her sons in the care of strangers in order to

care for the wounded in the Civil War? For the duration of the war she

showed almost no concern about her own children. It seems rather a

strange choice.

Mary Ann Bickerdyke is credited with the establishment of some three

hundred hospitals for Union soldiers during the Civil War. She insisted,

however, on working alone--often at odds with the medical corps and the

sanitary commission. As a result, her work was of a temporary character.

There is no permanent contribution which Mrs. Bickerdyke made to the

development of modern nursing or the establishment of hospitals.

The author has given us a study of a rugged individualist and an account

of the care and treatment of wounded before the development of modern

medicine and nursing in the United States.

Columbus, Ohio                             MARY JANE RODABAUGH

 

The Old Country Store. By Gerald Carson. (New York, Oxford University

Press, 1954. xvi+330p.; illustrations, appendix, chapter references, and

index. $5.00.)

Readers of this Quarterly might recall the admirable article, "The Country

Store in American Social History," by Professor Thomas D. Clark in the

April 1951 issue. In that same issue was a fine source material, "The

Journal of a Vermont Man in Ohio, 1836-1842." Whoever enjoyed those

works, and indeed anyone interested in American history, will find ample

pleasure in Gerald Carson's The Old Country Store.

Mr. Carson, A.B. and A.M. of the University of Illinois, for several years

a leading advertising copywriter, relinquished business for writing. He did

prodigious research for this book. The author has a superb bibliography

of primary and secondary sources. Furthermore, his acknowledgments refer

to ninety-two persons.

The Old Country Store contains two divisions. Part I covers the years

1791-1861 in 156 pages, while Part II treats 1861-1921 in 134 pages.

Equally adept in each period, Mr. Carson played a role in eliminating the

second stage because of his promotion of automobiles, breakfast foods, and

packaged soaps.

The author adequately substantiated his choice of outstanding dates. The

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428     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

year 1791 marked the revival of the country store because of the growing

financial stability caused by Hamilton's measures. Around 1861 improved

mail service, advertising, consumer packages, and the railroad brought a

commercial unity to the country which ushered in the golden age of the

country store from 1865 to 1885. The year 1921 witnessed the end because

of the automobile, paved roads, city department stores, and mail-order

catalogs.

Profuse are the fascinating details pertaining to the country store. The

architecture, the varied contents for use from the cradle to the grave, and

the financing are delineated with enthusiasm and often depicted in appro-

priate black-and-white illustrations. Characters--the ambitious clerk, the

cheating housewife, the sly deacon, the profane loafers, the ubiquitous

peddler, the long-suffering drummer, the ingenious quack--are keenly etched.

Above all we come to know and respect the country store merchant--a

wondrous combination of salesman, banker, shipper of farm crops and local

manufactures, postmaster, militia captain, politician, undertaker, physician,

lawyer, and all-around counselor.

There are several picturesque references to Ohio. One is the narrative of

the adventures of an Amesville storekeeper, Daniel T. Brown, who brought

farm produce down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Enthralling are

stories about Yankee peddlers in the Buckeye state. The high pressure sales

campaign exerted on country store owners by Dayton's National Cash

Register Company is amusingly related.

The reviewer suggests a few improvements. Slightly larger print would

be appreciated for the sections, "Some Museum Country Stores," "Notes on

Sources and Authorities," and "Chapter References." One might prefer that

footnotes not be relegated to the back of the book. Picture credits should

be inserted below the particular illustration rather than lumping all such

acknowledgments in a packed manner on one page in the rear. Ohioans

will be disappointed in the index, which lists only one item under their

state's name.

Mr. Carson has presented a very entertaining and comprehensive study

of an institution fundamental to the study of American history. He would

perform another service by producing regional histories of the old country

store. Perhaps his present work will stimulate other historians to the

same end.

University of Dayton                          ERVING E. BEAUREGARD

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Book Reviews                          429

 

Mr. Jefferson's Disciple: A  Life of Justice Woodward. By Frank B.

Woodford. (East Lansing, Michigan State College Press, 1953. viii+

²¹²p.; bibliography and index. $3.75.)

"A Gentleman of the first influence of the country has declared . . . that

the first law that is passed that does not please him, he will kick the

government to hell" (p.67). This defiant and rebellious attitude was typical

of frontier America. From New Orleans to Detroit liberty outbalanced

order in the early years of the republic, and territorial governments enjoyed

but a precarious tenure. To many people the tax collector was an agent of

oppression, the federal judge an unwelcome representative of a distant

power. It required a wholesome mixture of tact and ingenuity to command

the respect and allegiance of these noncompliant frontiersmen.

Augustus B. Woodward, a close friend of Thomas Jefferson but hardly

his disciple, served as a judge of the supreme court of the territory of

Michigan from 1805 to 1824. Although eccentric and quarrelsome--the

author calls him  "high-handed" and "unorthodox"--Woodward brought

the rule of law to the frontier. Few cases were of real importance. In fact,

lax courtroom procedure created many humorous incidents. The author tells

us that "Woodward might request the clerk to mark him absent; then he

would tilt back in his chair and snooze until things livened up. Once a

lawyer, pleading before the court, took the opportunity while Woodward

napped to launch a spirited criticism of one of the chief justice's decisions"

(p. 94). Nevertheless, out of such daily routine there evolved a new body

of American law which "provided the Territory with a sound, stable legal

base upon which it was able to develop and mature, economically and

socially" (p. 190).

Judge Woodward never rose above the clouds of mediocrity to touch the

stars of genius. He was a penumbral figure, flitting about the famous and

near-famous of his era. Yet, aside from his important judicial labors, he

deserves recognition for other accomplishments. Woodward foresaw that

Detroit was destined to become "a great interior emporium, equal, if not

superior, to any other on the surface of the . . . globe" (p. 51). Impressed

with the work of L'Enfant, he adopted many of the Frenchman's techniques,

drawing up plans to suit the needs of a future metropolis. But he was a

century ahead of his time. His opponents, lacking this vision, rejected his

blueprints and subjected Woodward to ridicule. More successful were his

educational schemes, for out of them there eventually developed the Uni-

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430     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

versity of Michigan. Woodward titled his institution "the Catholepistemiad,"

classifying the sum of all human knowledge into thirteen branches, to which

he assigned an appropriate Greek nomenclature. Once again he was ridiculed,

but this vision bore fruit. The Catholepistemiad may have been impractical--

as well as snobbish--for its day, but it familiarized the people of Michigan

"with the conception of a state system of public instruction conducted on

a scale co-extensive with its territory and with the needs of society" (p. 160).

This is a capable and competent biography but, like the title, suffers on

occasion from overstatement. For example, there have been many other

governments with "less auspicious beginnings" than the territory of Mich-

igan (p. 53). The comparison of Woodward and Jeremy Bentham is un-

fair (p. 152). On the whole, however, Frank Woodford has turned out

a work that is at once useful and enjoyable.

Ohio State University                              MORTON BORDEN

 

Sheridan the Inevitable. By Richard O'Connor. (Indianapolis, Bobbs-

Merrill, 1953. v+400p.; illustrations, maps, notes on sources, and index.

$4.50.)

Already the biographer of Civil War generals George H. Thomas and

John B. Hood, Richard O'Connor has now turned his attention to General

Philip H. Sheridan. The effort here is to supply a full-length portrait of

Sheridan and his career as well as to correct the mistaken notion that

Sheridan was all "fire and fury," impetuous, impulsive, and reckless.

The author uses the narrative approach, relating his tale in chronological

but lively fashion. Sheridan's career is described in clear, fast-moving

English, from his boyhood days in Perry County, Ohio, to his final years as

the nation's highest military chief. Rising from poor, immigrant parentage,

Sheridan finished his West Point course after some tumult and a one-year

suspension. Following eight years of obscurity in military posts in Texas

and the Pacific Northwest, Sheridan began his ride to fame in mid-1861 at

pedestrian pace as supply officer at General Henry W. Halleck's St. Louis

headquarters. Not till a year later did Sheridan finally wangle an active

field command as colonel of the 2d Michigan cavalry. In his first engage-

ment near Corinth he doggedly snatched victory from a Confederate force

six times his own in number. After the Union debacle at Chickamauga,

Sheridan as a division commander helped lead the recovery at Missionary

Ridge two months later. Impressed with his subordinate's brisk performance,

Grant took Sheridan east with him in March 1864.

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Book Reviews                          431

 

Placed in command of the Union cavalry, Sheridan at last had a chance

to test his own view that "a cavalryman was only an infantryman with four

detachable legs." He reversed the former practice of using cavalry only for

scouting and guard duty, introducing the idea that "mounted men with

repeating revolvers and carbines could bring heavy fire power swiftly to a

critical point" in an engagement. Sheridan's new tactics paid large dividends

in defeating Jeb Stuart at Yellow Tavern, in crushing Jubal Early's forces

in the Shenandoah Valley (the Cedar Creek battle of this campaign inspired

Thomas B. Read's celebrated poem), in tightening the noose around Rich-

mond, and ultimately in forcing Lee's final surrender. Little wonder his

enemies called him "Sheridan the inevitable!"

Following the war's end, Sheridan's command along the Rio Grande was

used as a counterweight to push Napoleon III into withdrawing military

support of Maximilian. For almost twenty years thereafter Sheridan di-

rected the wars against the Plains Indians and urged the government to

enforce a strict policy of keeping the Indians on their reservations.

O'Connor seems to have mined thoroughly the Sheridan Papers at the

Library of Congress, the Official Records of the war, and Sheridan's Memoirs.

His story well achieves its purpose of supplying the full-length portrait of

Sheridan. Although analysis and interpretation are not systematically at-

tempted nor is Sheridan's insistence upon the importance of mobility in

modern warfare fully developed, this volume constitutes the best biography

of Sheridan to date.

Baldwin-Wallace College                             DAVID LINDSEY

 

The Rise of Methodism: A Source Book. By Richard M. Cameron. (New

York, Philosophical Library, 1954. xv+397p.; tables, notes, and index.

$4.75.)

The author (or editor), professor of church history at one of the leading

theological seminaries of the Methodist Church in the United States, Boston

University School of Theology, has compiled a useful source book of

materials concerned especially with the origins of Methodism in eighteenth-

century England. He endeavors to present from the "lengthy journals, count-

less letters, tracts, controversial pamphlets, theological treatises and sermons"

of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield (which of course fill

many volumes) the particularly significant materials which are of interest

not only to scholars but to all "who are interested in the Christian

pilgrimage" (Preface, xiii-xiv).

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432     Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly

 

The selected materials, cemented together by interpretative paragraphs,

are organized under seven main headings: (1) The Rectory Family; (2) The

University; (3) Georgia; (4) The Nascent Revival; (5) Charismata; (6)

The First United Societies, 1739-1741; and (7) The Development of

Discipline.

Here the layman may learn that the family name had originally been

Westley (p. 4), and that one great-grandfather and two grandfathers of

the founders of Methodism were sturdy upholders of the Puritan tradition

within English church circles and suffered accordingly at the hands of the

Anglican Establishment, but that the father of the Wesley brothers entered

the ministry of the Church of England and continued in it until his death.

The extensive influence of the gifted mother of John and Charles Wesley,

Susannah Wesley, is clearly shown. How her ideas of child training differ

from many modern views may be gleaned from her statement:

I insist upon conquering the will of children betimes, because this is the

only strong and rational foundation of a religious education, without which

both precept and example will be ineffectual. But when this is thoroughly

done, then a child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of

its parents, till its own understanding comes to maturity, and the principles

of religion have taken root in the mind (p. 25).

Of especial interest to Americans will be the presentation of John Wesley's

career of almost two years in Georgia and his troubled and abruptly termi-

nated romance with Miss Sophia Hopkey.

The reader will find instructive material on the way in which Wesleyan

Methodists, partly through the early influence of Susannah Wesley, rejected

the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination which continued to influence the

thinking of Methodists in Wales and western England and the preaching of

George Whitefield. The part played by the Moravian Brethren in shaping

the spirit of Methodism is also indicated, as are the circumstances which

prompted the eventual parting of the ways for the two religious groups.

The role of preaching in the open fields as an aspect of the eventual break

(after John Wesley's death) of Methodism with the established church is

clearly revealed, as is the development of distinctive Methodist institutions

and procedures, such as the Classes, the Conference, the Watch Night, and

the Love Feast.

For the purpose for which the volume is intended it should render a

useful service.

Ohio State University                     FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER

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