Kentuckian in Blue: A Biography of Major General Lovell Harrison Rousseau
Even to students of the Civil War, Lovell Rousseau is hardly a household name, but Dan Lee’s study of the Kentucky Unionist, a general he characterizes as “an uncelebrated American hero,” strives to correct that oversight. Born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in 1818, the self-taught Rousseau was admitted to the bar in 1841. Following a move to southern Indiana, he was elected to that state’s legislature. After combat service in the Mexican War, Rousseau moved back to Kentucky. Elected to the Kentucky State Senate in 1861, Rousseau left politics when war broke out that spring. He raised the 5th Kentucky Infantry and by the end of the year was a brigadier general and brigade commander in the Army of the Ohio. Rousseau performed well at Shiloh and, later, leading a division, won accolades for his role at Perryville. Subsequently promoted to major general, he fought his division well on the first day of the fight at Stones River. Sent to Washington before Chickamauga to promote the idea of organizing a mounted force that would secure Union supply lines, Rousseau returned just in time to help shepherd the shattered Army of the Cumberland back to Chattanooga. He soon ran afoul of Assistant Secretary of War Charles Dana, however, and was removed from field command and sent to lead the District of Nashville. Anxious to return to action, Rousseau launched a successful cavalry raid in July 1864, sweeping from Decatur to Opelika, Ala., destroying supplies and structures, and tearing up railroad track before joining Sherman’s army in Marietta, Ga. Returning to middle Tennessee, Rousseau battled Gen. Joseph Wheeler and ended the year driving Confederate Gen. Abraham Buford from the streets of Murfreesboro. In August 1865, Rousseau won a seat in Congress. He resigned from the army that November and took his seat the following month. A supporter of President Andrew Johnson, Rousseau verbally sparred with Republican Congressman Josiah Grinnell. Eventually the pair clashed physically, when Rousseau assaulted the Iowan with a cane. The House voted to reprimand the former general and Rousseau unexpectedly resigned. Soon reelected to his seat, Rousseau returned to Congress in December 1866, but he resigned three months later to accept a commission as a brigadier general in the regular army. He traveled to Alaska to oversee the formal transfer of that territory from the Russians and then moved to command the Department of Louisiana. There Rousseau faced the difficult task of maintaining order during the turbulent election of 1868. He died unexpectedly only a few weeks later. Dan Lee’s major challenge in creating a biography of Rousseau is that no sizeable collection of the general’s papers has survived. As a result, in some cases he must use words like “probably” and “likely” to describe the general’s activities. Despite this handicap, Lee has produced a well-written and quite readable tribute to a Union general who performed well on the battlefield but certainly had problems when not facing an armed enemy. Despite a few minor errors and the surprising omission of certain standard sources from an otherwise extensive bibliography, Lee has succeeded in telling the story of one of the Western Union Army’s most dependable commanders. It is unfortunate that those interested in Rousseau will have to pay a rather steep price for a relatively short book. Reviewer: Jeff Patrick Jeff Patrick is an interpretive specialist with the National Park Service at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Republic, Mo. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in American history from Purdue University.
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Illustrated, photographs, maps, bibliography, index, 254 pp., 2010, McFarland & Co. Inc.,