The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur
As Confederate Gen. Jubal Early reflected on his reverse at the Battle of Cedar Creek, he lamented not only the battlefield defeat, but also the loss of human life. While battle deaths always were tragic, Early noted that one particular casualty at Cedar Creek hurt not only his army, but the entire Confederacy — the death of Maj. Gen. Stephen Dodson Ramseur. Twenty-seven years old at the time of his death, Ramseur’s rapid rise to major general marked him as one of the Confederacy’s youngest military stars. While some might have viewed Ramseur as emblematic of the Confederacy’s future, his untimely death may also have symbolically portended the Confederacy’s collapse. Despite Ramseur’s significance as the youngest West Point graduate in the Confederate army to attain the rank of major general, it was not until 1985 that he received a full biographical treatment when Gary Gallagher wrote his insightful biography of the general. After a lapse of 25 years in books on Ramseur, retired Army Maj. Gen. George G. Kundahl has produced a most important compilation of Ramseur’s letters that provides even deeper insight into one of the Confederacy’s most promising generals. Kundahl’s volume — edited in a way that provides ample context in non-overwhelming fashion — is divided into eight chapters. The first seven contain 180 letters written by Ramseur from his time at West Point until his final battle in the autumn of 1864, along with a scattering of official correspondence. The book’s final chapter contains accounts of Ramseur’s death, his last will and testament, and reflections on Ramseur’s life delivered in an address at the Ramseur monument dedication at Cedar Creek in 1920 by former Union artillery officer and Ramseur’s longtime friend, Col. Henry A. DuPont. Ramseur’s letters reveal significant insight into the rigors of life as a young cadet at West Point at a time when the nation stood on the precipice of secession. Letters written during the Civil War contain significant information regarding various military actions, including the duel between the Ironclads, Malvern Hill, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and the 1864 Shenandoah Campaign. While historians, including myself, have tapped Ramseur’s letters — the most significant number of which are housed at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina — to understand particular engagements, the totality of Ramseur’s writings in Kundahl’s volume gives greater significance to the young general’s thoughts. His letters provide a valuable window into a myriad of the war’s social aspects. For instance, Ramseur’s writings, particularly after his promotion to major general in the spring of 1864, reveal an increased hatred for the Confederate media. The young general lambasted the Southern press for not fairly presenting the operations of Early Valley’s army. Ramseur particularly seethed with anger after newspapers throughout the Confederacy presented his generalship in a most negative light after his July 20, 1864, defeat at the Battle of Rutherford’s Farm. The letters also reveal important information about interactions between Confederate soldiers and civilians in locales such as Hagerstown, Md., and communities in the Shenandoah Valley. Ramseur’s communiqués also illustrate the toll that war can have on personal relationships. Letters he penned earlier in the war to his future wife, Ellen Richmond, show Ramseur’s clear belief that duty to one’s country trumped love; however, as the war dragged on Ramseur’s attitude clearly changed. The richness of content in Ramseur’s letters should brand Kundahl’s edited volume as an instant classic and an invaluable research tool for Civil War historians who consider not only military aspects of the war in Virginia, but also the conflict’s many social facets. Reviewer: Jonathan A. Noyalas Jonathan A. Noyalas is assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Civil War History at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Va., and the author or editor of seven books on Civil War era history. |
Photographs, bibliography, notes, index, 344 pp., 2010, University of North Carolina Press,