THE " CENTURY " SECESSION WAR PAPERS.* COLLECTED and bound
up in four stout quarto volumes, the papers on the American Civil War, as the editors prefer to call the prolonged conffiet, which have appeared in the Century form what we venture to call a unique military book. For it is not a body of information and description of great events gathered from various quarters and put together by an enter- prising editor. It is the result of a plan to obtain articles from officers on both sides which succeeded so well among men who, before they were ranged under hostile flags, were old comrades, that the series naturally expanded, and so came to represent the war as seen from both camps. Imagine the Roundheads and Cavaliers Bitting down, after the fight was over, to supply detailed accounts of their shares in our Civil War, and performing the unwonted task in a spirit of amity which showed no trace of surviving bitterness ! What could not be done in our country has been done across the Atlantic, and the truly significant spectacle has been afforded of these soldiers of all ranks fighting over again their battles, month after month, in the same columns, not by accident, but design. The fruit of this is an instructive mass of information and much admirable writing relating to the whole war, afloat as well as ashore, profusely illustrated by portraits, sketches, maps, and in addition, which may be more important, a striking and pleasing proof that, among the soldiers at least, animosity had died out ; so that each section of warriors seems to take almost a common interest in defeats and victories, which, be it remembered, tell alike, one way or the other, for the breed of men by whom they were lost or won. It is the all-round, hearty co-operation of the com- batants, no matter what their uniform, blue or butternut, and the careful editing, which make this astonishing series such a valuable supplement to the strictly official papers, returns, and reports of both sides.
The articles cover the whole period of hostilities, opening with an admirable description of "Washington on the Eve of the War," by General Charles P. Stone, and ending with "The Last Days of the Confederacy," by General Basil W. Duke, the first a Federal, the second a Confederate officer. Between these papers lie those dealing with the main limbs of the struggle, arranged in large groups, all the matter relating to each phase or event being brought under one heading, so that any section may be readily studied, if desirable, apart from the others. The contributors are mainly principal actors,— such as Grant, Sherman, Longstreet, D. H. Hill, Rosecrans, Bide, Beauregard, J. Johnston, Slocum, Hood, Howard, Hunt, McClellan, Pope, and others ; while the Navy furnishes David Porter, Rodgers, Welke, and many more naval officers, like Cushing and the Ellets, who have exciting stories to tell. These are only specimens of the quality of those sources whence the floods of personal testimony are drawn ; but we might also refer to the privates who give their experiences, to the ladies, and to Mr. Cable's impressive paper on " New Orleans before the Capture," and not even then exhaust the indication of the tributary streams which swell these bulky volumes. We have referred to the plentiful illus- trations, which, of course, differ in quality, but they are, on the whole, well done, being very useful as well as ornamental, while many are excellent from an artistic point of view. The hundreds of portraits, large and small, bring the actors in both camps bodily before us, and form a fine assembly of notables,—the soldiers, sailors, and statesmen who did the heavy work during those four terrible years. The maps and plans, to our thinking, although accurate, are not good, as a rule, being overlaid with a profusion of useless and bewildering detail, and not presenting the action illustrated with the needful clearness. But the thing seems done on principle, and these defects, as we think, are common to American war- maps and plans, which usually want simplicity. The marked exceptions, such as General Doubleday's Gettysburg series, are not numerous. The ardent student can comprehend all of • Battles and Loaders of the Civil War, being for the most part Contributions by Union and Confederate Officers, based upon "The Century War Series." Edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Bell. 4 vols. New York: The Century Company. London: T. Fishcr Unwin. them, if he tries laboriously; but the labour should not have been required of him.
Amid such a series of military and naval events, it is not easy to select those which are most graphically told. Each set of large operations presents some striking point of interest derived from the special narrative of the actor or actors on the spot where the decisive blow was given or resisted. But taken as a mass, we are inclined to rate the set of papers on the Battle of Gettysburg as the most interesting on the whole. The narrative of General Henry Hunt, who com- manded the artillery; the sturdy and soldierly paper contri- buted by General Longstreet, which has a tragic force of its own ; the story of the critical encounter so vividly told by General Alexander, bringing out the hopelessness and grandeur of Pickett's famous charge ; the straggle about Round Top, described so well by General E. M. Law,—impart that personal element to the varying phases of the battle which enables one to realise the awful and heroic scene. Gettysburg and Vicksburg were the turning-points in the tide of the war. After the events of July, 1863, the progress made by the Federals was steady, though checked for a moment by Bra,gg's victory at Chickamauga in the winter; and in 1864, despite Early's energetic dashes in the -Shenandoah Valley, and Hood's unwise march upon Nashville, the Con- federacy was reduced to that kind of dogged defensive action which ended in Lee's famous surrender. To the whole series of moving events, however, from the outset to the close, the papers in these volumes impart that specially attractive kind of interest which is derived from personal narratives as opposed to official reports. We see, and seem to hear, the actors, and to live and breathe with them in the exciting and deadly
adventures of their heroic career. It was once the fashion to underrate the teaching value of the Secession War. It is so no longer ; and few can doubt that every unprejudiced soldier- student must profit by the detail of such vast and varied experiences of march and battle as those born of this conflict.
These campaigns stand between the old and the new organisa- tions, methods, and arms, and if they perforce retain much of the former, they also foreshadow something of the latter. The troops, indeed, were raised, armed, and drilled within the period embraced by the beginning and ending of the strife ;
but they had the immense advantage of a body of officers trained in a good school, and it was to West Point that both
sides owed the educated officers who were the very soul of the armies they led or commanded. These papers show, not less than their actions—indeed, more, for they reveal character— what kind of men they were, and it is that quality which makes this mighty collection a monument to the officers and men of the opposing hosts, and shows once more what a for- midable body of leaders and combatants the millions swarming in the United States could put in the field.
The papers furnished by the sailors, are in some respects more valuable, and certainly more interesting, than those of their brethren ashore. But we have noticed Admiral Porter's bulky History, which covers the whole range of maritime and river activity, and need not travel again over that field. Yet, taken separately, as told by the officers, we must say that their illus- trated narratives give fresh point to the story of the Merrimac and Monitor,' so that in reading them we seem to share the emotions felt by actors and spectators of the extraordinary combat in Chesapeake Bay. Here the excellent illustrations impart additional force to the spirited narratives, which, as usual, are derived from both sides, and show not only the ships and their evolutions, but the officers and men who are worthy sons of the sea-people whence they sprung. Not less vigorous, realistic, and impressive are the accounts of the fighting in the Mississippi, from Cairo to New Orleans, in Mobile Bay, and on the shores and sounds of the Carolinas. Very instructive also are the reports from the Cumberland and Tennessee ; so that, on the whole, as we have said, the naval experiences are to a seafaring folk even more attractive and useful than those recorded in the papers on the land war- fare. Here, again, invention has outstripped the means and appliances of those not remote days, so that the fighting con- ditions afloat are radically altered ; but as the race is the same, both here and over the ocean, we may see from these virile actions of Federal and Confederate what can be done, even with imperfect means, by the children of the sea. 'Whether, therefore, we look to the sailor or the soldier as he appears and acts in these volumes on a stupendous scale, we
shall see that, at bottom, he had not degenerated either in daring or endurance, from his stout, obstinate, warlike, and inventive forefathers.
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