Crimson Confederates: Harvard Men Who Fought for the South By Helen P. Trimpi
Harvard’s Memorial Hall, dedicated in the 1870s, honors the university’s alumni who died for the Union during the Civil War.Unlike Yale or Princeton, for more than a century Harvard has repeatedly declined to memorialize her Confederate dead. Although the printed page is no substitute for a lasting inscription in marble or bronze, Helen Trimpi’s splendid new biographical register of the 357 Harvard alumni who fought for the South is surely some consolation for these largely forgotten men. Crimson Confederates brings together the stories of the Harvard men who saw either military or civilian service on behalf of the Confederacy. The register of those who served in the Confederate army or navy takes up the great bulk of the book. A short appendix covers other Harvard men who served in Confederate or Southern state government positions. A second appendix presents a statistical analysis of Harvard’s Rebel sons, including: their birth states (South Carolinians, we learn, were the most numerous, with Georgians second); their ages (the oldest, Pvt. Peter Manigault of Charleston, was killed in action in his late 50s, and Virginian George Washington, a sergeant in the Stonewall Brigade, died at age 21); their ranks achieved (two were major generals and another 13 were brigadiers in line appointments, though 43 remained privates throughout their service); and their mortality rates (71 died in the war, 20 percent of the total). Harvard Law School contributed more than twice as many Confederate soldiers (227 by Trimpi’s count) as Harvard College (104). Three medical school alumni saw Confederate service but none from the divinity school. Each biographical sketch concentrates on the individual’s war record, preceded by a very brief account of his prewar life and, for those who survived the conflict, followed by an equally brief account of his postwar life and death. The register entries for prominent Confederates, such as Gens. W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee, John Sappington Marmaduke and William B. Taliaferro, amount to thumbnail biographies of 10 pages or more. Some of the more obscure Rebel alumni claim only a paragraph or so in the register. Bibliographical notes conclude each entry, making it easy for readers to look further into the life of a particular alumnus. An asterisk denotes those Harvard men who died in service, and photographs accompany about 20 entries. Dr. Trimpi, a Harvard English Ph.D. and poet, writes clear, concise prose. Her book lacks a bibliography, but the text, in combination with the notes, evinces the prodigious, painstaking research that the author devoted to Crimson Confederates. The fact that Harvard’s Confederates served in all theaters of the war and participated in every major military action required Dr. Trimpi to familiarize herself with virtually the entire military history of the Civil War, a task she aptly fulfilled. Physically, thisis an attractive book. It is oversized and printed in double columns on relatively heavy paper. The editing of the book is truly superb, with a minimum of typos and factual errors. Crimson Confederates will fit well into academic libraries and fine collections of Civil War reference works. This reviewer also enthusiastically recommends it to readers with ties to Harvard or to others looking for a gift for friends or family members with Harvard connections. Reviewer: C. Michael Harrington C. Michael Harrington is a member of the Houston Civil War Round Table and Civil War Aficionados. He has written several articles on South Carolina Confederates. A practicing lawyer, he has degrees in economics from Yale and Cambridge and a law degree from Harvard.
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Photographs, notes, appendices, 408 pp., 2010, University of Tennessee Press,