Wars Within a War: Controversy and
Some of the best recent Civil War scholarship has appeared in essay anthologies. Among the virtues of such works are that they expose readers to a variety of subjects and perspectives in a single book and provide an alternative to academic journals for worthy scholarly essays. They also bring to print examinations of subjects that might not be large enough to justify book-length treatment yet merit a larger audience than those traditionally reached by academic journals. Few have done more to demonstrate the value of these works than Gary W. Gallagher, whose edited anthologies, especially those on Civil War campaigns in the East, have provided fine examples of how a group of essays can be combined into a single volume whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In Wars Within a War Gallagher teams with Joan Waugh to produce yet another example of how a well-done anthology can be both enriching and enjoyable. They have assembled a first-rate team of contributors, whose essays, originally presented to a 2006 conference in California, are all impressively researched, clearly written, and offer insights that will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Civil War.
A number of the essays offered previews of works then in progress that have since been published. Thus, while addressing topics of undeniable importance in useful and interesting ways, James McPherson’s essay on the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan and Joseph Glatthaar’s on Robert E. Lee’s first month in command of the Army of Northern Virginia offer little that will surprise anyone familiar with their recent books on Lincoln and Lee’s army. The same can be said of Drew Gilpin Faust’s essay on the effort to provide a proper burial for Union soldiers in the aftermath of the war, whose findings have been presented in her This Republic of Suffering, and of Gallagher’s study of how the Lost Cause image has been less evident in recent Hollywood productions on the war, a prominent theme in his Causes Won, Lost & Forgotten. Nonetheless, by bringing these four essays together under one cover, Waugh and Gallagher make a fine contribution to Civil War literature. But this is not all they offer. Readers will also find value in Stephanie McCurry’s study of how Confederate soldiers’ wives claimed a public role by engaging in what she calls a “mass politics of subsistence” and William Blair’s revisionist examination of the Second Confiscation Act. Readers will also enjoy Harold Holzer’s delightful and insightful essay on how Lincoln and Jefferson Davis fared at the hands of political cartoonists. Walt Whitman’s writings on the war are the subject of Stephen Cushman’s essay, while James Marten provides a riveting and revealing look at controversies surrounding postwar pensions and Soldiers’ Homes and the experiences of some who ended up in the latter. In her essay, Carol Reardon offers a wonderfully compelling look at the evolution of William T. Sherman’s image in postwar Georgia and how it reflected the influence of factors other than his wartime exploits. Waugh’s fine study of Grant’s tomb closes the volume while providing insights into both the history and memory of the Civil War, forces whose interaction is a major theme in recent historiography and one that informs much of this excellent book.
Ethan S. Rafuse Ethan S. Rafuse is associate professor of military history at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College. His publications include A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas; George Gordon Meade and the War in the East; and, most recently, McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union.
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Illustrated, index, 292 pp., 2009. The University of North Carolina Press, 116 South Boundary St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808, $30 plus shipping.