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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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A Fighter From Way Back: The Mexican War Diary of Lt. Daniel Harvey Hill, 4th Artillery, USA.
Edited by Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes Jr. and Timothy D. Johnson.
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 231 pp., 2002. The Kent State University Press, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242, $39 plus shipping.
Daniel Harvey Hill was one of the fighting generals of the Civil War. This diary of his Mexican War adventures shows him undergoing his baptism of fire in the confused, politically charged atmosphere of the United States’ first invasion of a foreign power. Hill served in a fighting unit and his perspective was that of a fighting man who was not personally privy to the “big picture.” Although the Mexican War was a training ground for some of the best of the Civil War generals, Hill was not in a position to see their development. Therefore, if readers are hoping to gain insights into the characters of men such as Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant, they will not find them in this book. Hill did not cross their paths. And, while he has plenty to say about the characters of men such as Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, David E. Twiggs and Gideon J. Pillow, his opinions were not formed by personal acquaintance with any of these men. Rather, they were formed by the effect their decisions had on Hill’s life and the lives of the men who served with him. What Hill did see, and plenty of it, was vicious fighting in most of the major battles of the war. He was there for all of it, from Monterrey and Cerro Gordo to the storming of Chapultepec. He was also there for the end, the guerilla fighting that went on after much of the country was occupied by United States forces. For all practical purposes the war was over, but the government of Mexico had collapsed and there was no one to surrender. Therefore, the war continued to drag on with ambushes and assassinations after the men who fought it were eager to go home. Since much of war consists of intervals between the fighting, so does much of Hill’s diary. He compares the conduct of the Regular Army, which Hill believes did the vast majority of the fighting, with that of the unruly Volunteers. He tells of the devastation brought upon innocent civilians. He shares the prejudices of many Protestants of his day against the Roman Catholic Church and fills many diary entries with these descriptions. He speaks of the Mexican people and of his flirtations with pretty Mexican senoritas. While Hill did not have much respect for the fighting qualities of the enemy armies, he grew to have much admiration for many of the common people of Mexico. I recommend this volume to anyone with an interest in the Mexican War or in Daniel Harvey Hill. This book gives a special insight into the growth of his character. After reading his Mexican War diary, one will have a good understanding of the man and his development into one of the great fighting generals of the Civil War. He was, after all, “a fighter from way back.”
Robert L. Durham
Robert L. Durham is a computer specialist. A longtime Civil War buff, he is also interested in Old West history and has written articles and book reviews for Alamo Journal, True West, Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, and Alamo de Parras web s
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