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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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"Him on One Side and Me on the Other": The Civil War Letters of Alexander Campbell, 79th New York Infantry, and James Campbell, 1st South Carolina Battalion.
Edited by Terry A. Johnston Jr.
Illustrated, maps, endnotes, bibliography, index, 190 pp., 1999. University of South Carolina Press, 937 Assembly St., Carolina Plaza, 8th Floor, Columbia, SC 29208, $24.95 plus shipping.
This volume is well worth reading not just for the fact that it contains the wartime letters of two brothers who fought on opposite sides in the war, but even more so because the two brothers faced each other in battle and then shared their mutual concerns afterwards. Three-quarters of the book’s 79 letters were written by Alex-ander Campbell, a native Scotsman who settled in New York City in the early 1850s and was a member of the 79th New York "Highlanders" when the war broke out. He was a member of the regiment’s color guard for much of his service, and his accounts of the action at First Bull Run, Secessionville, and Chantilly (where he was wounded) are all well worth reading. His letters also leave a strong impression of camp life, his love for his wife and family, and the daily tensions of life in the 79th, which was a rather rowdy unit that had its colors taken away for a while in late 1861 for insubordination. Alex-ander tired of army life long before the war ended and left the service in the spring of 1863. Alexander’s younger brother James settled in Charleston, S.C., before the war and maintained his allegiance to his adop-tive state when the war started, joining the militia and later the 1st South Carolina Infantry Battalion ("Charleston Battalion"). He also saw active service until he had the misfortune of being captured at Fort Wagner in July 1863. Most of his letters date from the time of his imprisonment to the close of the war. Alexander and James occasionally wrote letters to or about each other, most poignantly after they learned that their units had faced each other for a short while at the battle of Seces-sionville, S.C., on June 16, 1862. Alexander wrote home to his wife that night that his unit had had a bad fight, and that he had just learned that his brother James was in the fort that the 79th had attacked. He expressed concern that his brother might have been a casualty. James showed the same concern for Alexander’s safety when he sent a letter across the picket lines stating, "I was aston-ished to hear from prisoners that you was colour Bearer of the Regt that asalted the Battery the other day. When I first heard it I looked over the field for you where I met one of the wounded of the Regt and he told me he believed you was safe. I was in the Brest work during the whole engagement doing my Best to Beat you but I hope that You and I will never again meet face to face Bitter enemies in the Battle field." After urging his brother to give up the fight and go home, James sent his best wishes to their sister Ann in New York. The brothers’ political animosity, however, did not overcome their fraternal affection, as is well attested by their mutual cor-respondence when James was a prisoner during the last two years of the war. The letters are amply footnoted, and the book contains an excellent introduction and epilog narrating the brothers’ lives before and after the war. The only difficulty in reading the let-ters is their occasional use of Scottish slang, and the editor’s choice to retain their frequent phonetic misspellings. But these are only minor inconveniences. This book is highly recom-mended for its unique presentation of soldier life in a war that was, for the Campbells, fought literally by brother against brother.
David Martin
David Martin earned his Ph.D. in ancient history from Princeton and has published war games and numerous ar-ticles on military history. His Civil War books include Confederate Monuments at Gettysburg, Carl Bornemann's Regi-ment (41st NY) and The Shiloh Campaign. He is a Latin teacher and editor of Longstreet House Publishers.
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