Virginia at War, 1864
This is the fourth volume in a five-part series dealing with the effects of the war on the civilian population in Virginia. It covers cultural, economic and political issues that by 1864 had a profound impact on the people in that state and, in many ways, were representative of what the entire South was facing as the military conflict escalated. The short essays are not only interesting and well done, but they complement the earlier works and elicit critical reflection, making them worth reading for that reason alone. The book brings back the familiar structure of the previous volumes in which a brief survey of the military operations is presented, this time by Richard J. Sommers. He gives the military perspective for what follows. The book concludes with the June 1863-July 1864 installment of co-editor James I. Robertson’s edited version of Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War. The war contributed to changes in the political environment and accelerated some that were evolving even before the war. Among those changes Aaron Sheehan-Dean considers are the Confederacy’s wartime elimination of political parties and the centralization of political authority. The disintegration of slavery created new economic and political consequences that affected the normal operation of governmental institutions. Increased pressure from the growing population in the west challenged the political supremacy of those in the Tidewater area and eventually resulted in the partition of the state. Virginians had to modify their concept of government in light of these challenges. Bradford A. Wineman discusses deficiencies in Virginia’s transportation infrastructure and how the state coped with them. The railroad network was fragmented and lacked standardization. Lack of manpower and inability to make the necessary repairs caused deterioration of already strained systems. Railroad administrators faced pressure while maintaining food and mail deliveries at the same time the military commandeered their lines. Ginette Aley focuses on the crises in Virginia’s agricultural system where the South’s reliance on cash crop plantation farming to the exclusion of diversified food production was responsible for many of its later consumer shortages. Virginia, as its other sister states in the South, was unable to sufficiently transform its agricultural base, driven by slave labor, to accommodate new demands presented by the war. Dependent on the country’s Midwest for food supplies before the war, the people of Virginia acutely felt the loss once this market ended, particularly in the Tidewater region. The problem was exacerbated by the sustenance demands of both armies that occupied the state and the1864 “hard war” strategy of the North that targeted civilians. Culturally, Virginia witnessed changes in its institutions of higher learning. Many schools closed when male students left to fight, the University of Virginia being a notable exception. Peter Wallenstein treats this topic in his essay. The loss of men in these schools was compensated by greater enrollment of women and younger students. When the war ended, Virginia was not reticent in accepting federal funds under the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862 to promote agriculture and engineering. Today, some of Virginia’s educational institutions, originally created to educate black students, owe their existence to land-grant funding. Co-editor William C. Davis’ article on the search for a native literary identity is an excursion through the books and periodicals of the period. He suggests that preoccupation with the war, with possibly some of the better future writers being siphoned off to fight, affected creativity that otherwise might have made Virginia’s literary output more lasting. Ted Tunnell offers his view on the war’s effect on the press when the public’s appetite for news from the front was thwarted by simultaneous closures of newspaper offices throughout Virginia. Despite this, some of the better newspapers with excellent reputations were located in Richmond where they linked good reporting with a spirit of nationalism to create a sense of commonality and loyalty among all people of the South. As reverses occurred for the Confederate armies, the press struggled in reporting bad news while simultaneously keeping up a patriotic front. How Virginians reconciled pride in their forefathers’ role in creating the nation with their patriotism toward the new Confederate government is the theme for Jared Bond who examines the way Virginians interpreted the Fourth of July holiday. Rather than commemorating the nation’s founding, the holiday symbolized continuation of the struggle for independence that began in 1776. J. Michael Cobb closes out the essays with his sympathetic look at Gen. Ben Butler whose administration of captured territory in Virginia proved to be a harbinger of the policies of Reconstruction after the war. Construing fugitive slaves as contraband property, Butler cleverly abolished slavery at Fort Monroe under the guise of military necessity. And to the consternation of many Virginians, the draconian approach to pacification and loyalty to the North made him an effective military governor, in contrast with his bad reputation as a military general. In many ways, these essay themes are interrelated. The administration of government was influenced by agricultural supply problems and transportation issues which, in turn, were influenced by that government’s response. Literary output and newspaper content not only demonstrated how Virginias viewed and reacted to the evolving domestic situation, but also shaped it. Through it all, the people were still able to celebrate Independence Day with the notion that the good fight was still to be waged. By 1864, the changes wrought by war were the beginning of a new era for Virginians in ways they could not imagine. Reconstruction would come and local government would be affected by it. Educational, economic and political opportunities for the formerly disenfranchised would take hold. It would be a new day. Reviewer: Frank Piatek Frank Piatek graduated from Geneva College with a B.A. in history. He received his J.D. from Duquesne University in 1972. He is a member of several reenactment groups and past president of the Mahoning Valley Civil War Round Table.
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Notes, bibliography, index, 242 pp., 2009. The University Press of Kentucky, 663 South Limestone St., Lexington, KY 40508-4008, $35 plus shipping.