Lee’s Last Casualty: The Life and Letters of
Sergeant Robert W. Parker, Second Virginia Cavalry
Edited by Catherine M. Wright
(February/March 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, maps, endnotes, bibliography, index, 231 pp., 2008. The University of Tennessee Press, 110 Conference Center, 600 Henley St., Knoxville, TN 37996-4108, $34.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Michael Russert
Michael Russert, a member of the North Shore Round Table of Long Island and the Company of Military Historians, has a MALS plus 60 hours in American Studies. He is Coordinator of The New York State Veteran Oral History Program.

Review:
The University Of Tennessee Press’s “Voices of the Civil War” series mission “makes available a variety of primary source materials…[that] expands established knowledge by offering new perspectives, new materials, and new voices.”

The correspondences of Sgt. Robert W. Parker of the Second Virginia Cavalry, the most recent addition to this fine series, is a wonderful collection that offers insight into the daily life of a Confederate cavalryman and into the inner thoughts of a soldier in the ranks.

Catherine M. Wright has performed yeoman service as editor of the Parker letters by bringing them to life through her compelling introduction and her extensive footnoting. Former curator at the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, Va., she presently works as collections manager at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.

In her introduction and footnotes, Wright fills in gaps in the letters by providing detailed background and anecdotal information. She notes, “correspondence was an integral part of creating strong relationships in the mid-nineteenth century United States…”

She observed how important letter writing was to creating and sustaining morale. These letters also reflect the immediacy of religion during this time period in American history. Wright stresses the role of Southern women, as personified by Parker’s wife Beck and his mother in selected examples of their letters which are included in the book, in maintaining the justification for the war.

Parker’s letters add a human dimension to the cost of war on soldiers and to those on the home front. Initially, his letters bloomed with confidence and enthusiasm when food was plentiful and the Confederacy was so successful in the Eastern Theater — “Get plenty to eat for men and horses.”

By 1863 he was not as positive as he wrote, “our horses are starving,” and in a January 1865 missive he concluded he was, “more despondent than I ever was in my life.”

Like many Civil War letter writers, Parker’s concerns were immediate and provincial, focusing on his farm, his family and on the friends who were serving with him. His letters discussed all aspects of his military life — health of himself and those around him, camp life, his travels and his battles. He listed members of his regiment killed and wounded, yet he failed to mention the death of Confederate cavalry chief Stuart.

Robert Parker’s letters are of great value since he enlisted in 1861 and served until the conclusion of the Appomattox Campaign. The Second Virginia Cavalry was organized in Lynchburg in 1861 from companies representing seven Virginia counties. They were in action from First Manassas to Appomattox, including participation in both Valley campaigns.

On the morning of April 9 at Appomattox Court House, as part of Thomas Mumford’s Brigade, the Second Virginia Cavalry broke through the Union lines and reached Lynchburg, where on the 10th the unit disbanded.

Parker, however, was killed in the breakthrough and was buried near where he fell. Hence, this is the origin of the book’s title, Lee’s Last Casualty.

The Robert W. Parker Collection includes 350 documents and was donated to the Southern History Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in 2006.

Lee’s Last Casualty is recommended for its rich and emotional perspective of life in the ranks of a veteran Confederate unit. Parker’s love of his family and his homesickness are very moving. His matter-of-fact style of writing provides an insightful look into the thoughts of a common soldier and his everyday concerns.

The editor has added to the importance of this new voice through her thorough footnoting and her well-written and documented introduction.