Worthy of Record: The Civil War and Reconstruction Diaries of Columbus Lafayette Turner
Edited by Kenrick N. Simpson
(February/March 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, map, biography, index, 228 pp., 2008. North Carolina Office of Archives and History, Historical Publications Section, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622, $34.69 ppd.

Reviewer: Richard M. McMurry
Richard M. McMurry's latest book (edited) is An Uncompromising Secessionist: The Civil War of George Knox Miller, 8th (Wade's) Confederate Cavalry.

Review:
In 1861 19-year-old Columbus Lafayette (“Lum”) Turner, a student at Trinity College (now Duke University), enlisted in what eventually became Co. A of the 33rd North Carolina Infantry, He was captured at the battle of New Bern, North Carolina, on March 14, 1862 and held at Fort Delaware until exchanged the following July.

On July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg Turner was captured in the great charge (sometimes known in the Old North State as “the Pettigrew-What’s His Name Charge”) that marked the climax of the battle. He was confined at Fort Delaware and Johnson’s Island, Ohio, until released at the end of the war.

 In the postwar years Turner taught school, worked in his father’s store, and went into the milling business. He won election to the state legislature in 1872 and served until 1874. He died in November 1918.

This book contains Turner’s account of his two periods of wartime captivity, short entries covering part of his legislative service, and some of this postwar writings and speeches to memorial and veterans’ groups.

Turner’s account of prison life (some parts contemporary; some written later) fill 68 pages. The legislative diary takes up 27 more. The remainder of the book consists of biographical material, Turner’s postwar narratives, and the editor’s sometimes mind-numbing notes.

CWN readers will find the prison material to be of great value for the light it sheds on the life of the captives. The legislative diary is of little interest and consists mostly of a dreary catalog of various pieces of legislation. The postwar writings and speeches are pretty much routine Lost Cause lore.

Recommended for those with an interest in the regiment and/or Civil War prisons.