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BOOK REVIEWS |
HAYES OF THE TWENTY-THIRD: THE CIVIL WAR VOLUNTEER OFFICER. By T. Harry Williams. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. xviii??324??vip; illustrations, maps, and index. $5.95.) I have a subjective judgment on this book and I may as well make it now as later: the first two chapters I liked very much, the other fourteen I found tedious. In Chapter I, "The Golden Years," Wil- liams deals in a general way with the background of Rutherford B. Hayes and offers some very shrewd insights on his Civil War career. Chapter II, "The Good Colonels," describes how a Civil War regi- ment fought, discusses the duties of a regimental commander, and gives an en- lightening analysis of the role of volunteer officers. The remaining fourteen chapters give a chronological account of Hayes's army career. There are few, if any, living military historians who write with greater clarity and dexterity than T. Harry Williams. But not even his very consider- able gifts are sufficient to impart interest to a series of inherently dull episodes. Nevertheless, the West Virginia cam- paigns did occur and it is well to have an account of them by a reputable his- torian. Everyone interested in the Civil War has reason to be grateful for Williams' industry and fortitude in un- raveling the story. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, and was educated at Kenyon College and Har- vard Law School. He practiced law in Cincinnati and became interested in poli- |
tics. Like Lincoln, he was first a Whig and then a Republican. On the eve of the Civil War he is described as "moderately successful, widely respected, and reason- ably certain of a stable future." On June 7, 1861, he volunteered his services and spent four years, almost to the day, in the army. Entering the Twenty-Third Ohio as a major, Hayes was promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 24, 1861, and in November he took command. Late in the war Hayes commanded a brigade and even a division, but his sense of identi- fication was always with the Twenty- Third. He was promoted to brigadier general near the end of the war and even to major general of volunteers, but the last promotion came a year after he had resigned his commission. He never com- manded as a general. Williams concludes: "History ranks him slightly above the average among the Presidents, and by coincidence this should be his rating as a soldier--above the ordinary but not among the great." Hayes himself was frank to say that he would rather be a good colonel than a poor general. The Twenty-Third Regi- ment, in which he took such pride, was probably average--possibly considerably better than average--as a fighting unit. Among its commanding and ranking offi- cers were some of the most prominent men of Ohio and the nation, including, besides Hayes, William S. Rosecrans, Eliakim P. Scammon, James M. Comly, Stanley Matthews, and William McKinley. The |