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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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Alexandria Goes to War: Beyond Robert E. Lee
by George G. Kundahl.
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 387 pp., 2004. The University of Tennessee Press, 110 Conference Center, Knoxville, TN 37996-4108, $45 plus shipping.
Federal troops entered Alexandria, Va., four miles down the Potomac River from Washington, D. C., on May 24, 1861, one day after citizens of the Old Dominion approved secession. From then until war’s end, Alexandria remained an occupied city. Its wharves teemed with ships, blue-clad soldiers walked its streets, and earthworks rimmed the edges. A majority of its residents had opposed secession until the firing on Fort Sumter. When Virginia’s secession convention voted to join other Southern states, scores of Alexandrians volunteered for Confederate service. In all, nearly 100 of these men would lose their lives in defense of Virginia and of the Confederacy. George G. Kundahl chronicles the careers of 15 of these Confederates in this book. His subjects range from generals Robert E. Lee, Samuel Cooper and Montgomery Corse, to private Randolph Fairfax. Other indivi-duals discussed include G. W. Custis Lee, who acted as an aide to Jefferson Davis during most of the war; George Brent, a chief of staff under Braxton Bragg and other generals; David Funsten, a Confederate Congressman; French and Douglas Forrest, father and son naval officers; Orton Williams, a spy; Frank Stringfellow, a spy and scout; Wilson Presstman, an engineer officer; and soldiers Alexander Hunter and Patrick O’Gorman. The author devotes a chapter to each of these individuals. Not all were natives of Alexandria, but all of them, mainly through residence, had close associations to the city. In Robert E. Lee’s case, Kundahl focuses on the famous Virginian’s youthful years in Alexandria. With the other subjects, the author recounts primarily their service to the Confederacy. Conversely, Kundahl devotes few pages to the wartime experience of Edgar Warfield, a member of the 17th Virginia. Warfield was the oldest surviving veteran from Alexandria, and his tireless and long-term devotion to veteran affairs is covered. Kundahl devotes a chapter to Alexandria during the antebellum years and a chapter to Anne Frobel who, with her sister Lizzie, endured four years of occupation in the home on the outskirts of the city. These two chapters are the best in the book. Kundahl uses primary sources and a laudable number of published works. Unfortunately, this book is a difficult read. There are a sameness and a repetition to the chapters on the Confederate subjects. The author rarely places battles in context, and factual errors intrude. The author dwells, at times, on mundane details that stifle the narrative. Kundahl offers solid biographies of his subjects, despite the pace of the text.
Jeffry D. Wert
Jeffry D. Wert is a retired Pennsylvania high school teacher. He is the author of seven books on the Civil War, including his recent The Sword Of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac.
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