Book Reviews — March 2023
Originally published March 2023 · pp. 34–37
First hand Accounts of Iowa Soldiers Iowa and the Civil War; Volume 3: The Longest Year 1864–1865 by Kenneth L. Lyftogt. 2022, Camp Pope Publishing, www.camppope. com, Iowa City, Iowa. 543 pp., Cloth, $40.
Civil War News book reviews provide our readers with timely analysis of the latest and most significant Civil War research and scholarship. Contact email: BookReviews@CivilWarNews.com.
Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart
Excellent Biography on Beauregard Dreams of Victory. General P.G.T. Beauregard in the Civil War. By Sean Michael Chick. Index, Appendices, photos, Illustrations, Savas Beatie, 2022, 169 pp., softcover, $16.95. Reviewed by Joseph Truglio
In all my years of studying the Civil War I know little of Beauregard. A “Fop,” the loser of Shiloh, an enemy of Jefferson Davis, and various other short comings. So, when the opportunity arose to read this book, I jumped at the chance. Beauregard was born in 1818 to an Italian mother and a father of French/Creole heritages. They were a prominent family in New Orleans. He attended West Point, became an engineer of note, rose to be Commandant of the Academy for a day, before resigning when Louisiana seceded. He was in command of troops at First Manassas, and was very successful in orchestrating the Confederate victory. His prickly personality put him in bad stead with Jefferson Davis. This animosity lasted till Davis’s death. It diminished his career throughout the War. He never got due credit for his actions as a result of this animosity. Confederate authorities
blamed him for the loss at Shiloh, an unfair assessment. His excellent engineering skills saved Charleston and contributed to the repulse of Grant and Butler at Petersburg. These accomplishments were never recognized nor rewarded. Beauregard wanted field command of an army, but Davis denied him. R.E. Lee recommended him for command of the Army of Tennessee, but Davis gave it to John Bell Hood. This was one of Davis’ biggest mistakes as we all know how that turned out. Davis was a proponent of the ‘crony’ system. Beauregard does well in the post war era, but because of several decisions and beliefs he went unheralded. He was not a proponent of ‘The Lost Cause,’ believed in equal rights for African Americans, and did not believe in the canonization of Lee. Although he got along with Lee, I believe he was a bit jealous of his fame. Perhaps his biggest mistake was joining the board of the Louisiana Lottery, a thoroughly corrupt enterprise. It made him financially secure but left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Southern people. He never left his beloved New Orleans and died there in February 1893. This is an excellent biography, filled with information, a short reading list, and notes. In reading it I tried to compare him to a Union general of similar traits. I failed. Beauregard is unique. There has not been a new bio of Beauregard since T. Harry Williams wrote “Napoleon in Gray” back in 1955. Perhaps Mr. Chick will take up that task in the near future. I certainly hope so. Joseph Truglio, of Manchester, N.J., is a retired Motion Picture Technician who has a lifelong interest in the Civil War. He is past President of the Phil Kearny CWRT in N.J.
This is the final volume in Mr. Lyftogt’s trilogy of Iowa in the American Civil War. Volume 1 covered the period 1850–1862; Volume 2 examined the years 1862–1864. During the course of the Civil War Iowa, provided the Federal government with 48 infantry regiments, nine cavalry regiments, and 4 artillery batteries. Iowans would fight in the Trans Mississippi, the Eastern, and the Western Theaters. The highest commanding officer from Iowa was Major General Grenville Dodge who commanded XVI
Corps. The author skillfully weaves the story of Iowa’s involvement in the various theaters into a comprehensive narrative. He details Iowa’s involvement in General William Sherman’s campaign that led to capturing Atlanta, the efforts to bring General John Bell Hood and General Nathan Forrest to battle following the capture of Atlanta, the march to the sea, taking Savannah, and the final battles in South Carolina and North Carolina. During this period, Iowa soldiers also participated in the Battles of Franklin and Nashville, took part in the capture of Mobile, the defeat of General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley, rode with General Wilson during his raid into Alabama and Georgia, foiled General Sterling Price’s invasion of Missouri, and fought various guerrilla groups on the Western Frontier. The book’s story of Iowa in the Civil War is enhanced by the author adding first-hand accounts of events under discussion into the text. The contemporary accounts provide the reader with a feel of the emotions generated within individuals, families, and communities by the political turmoil and battlefield casualties taking place around them. Chapter Eight details the 1864 Presidential election and is a must read. Many forget that in 1864 the American people were not only deciding who would be President of the United States for the next four years but whether the war would continue
and slavery be ended. Also, the people would be electing a new Congress whose new members might finally approve placing the 14th Amendment before the states. This chapter provides a clear summary of the emotional issues that tugged at Iowa voters. The Republican Party itself was not in total agreement with Lincoln’s war policies, some finding them too lenient and some too demonic. How this all played out in Iowa is a fascinating story. I personally found the last three chapters of great interest. Here, the author looked at the effect the assassination of President Lincoln had on Iowa’s soldiers and the state’s home front. Plus, he delves into post war Iowa. Hopefully this examination of post war Iowa will become an additional book in this series on Iowa in the Civil War. The author touches upon the fact that the fighting war did not end with the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The war continued for some time in the TransMississippi Theater; the effects would continue to plague and shape the social and political patterns of Iowa long after fighting ended. I was amazed that some post-Civil War political and social problems that plagued my home state of Kentucky, a border state, also played out in Iowa. I found this book to be a fascinating read, and I have ordered volumes 1 and 2 of the series. The author provides a thoughtful insight into why Iowa believed it needed to support the Union cause both politically and militarily. I only wish the author had covered Iowa’s involvement in the the purchasing of Federal revenue bonds that were issued to fiancé the war. All in all, this book is a great addition to the historical accounts of the American Civil War. Charles H. Bogart has a BA from Thomas More University and an MCP from Ohio State University. He is employed as a tour guide at the Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site in Frankfort, Ky., serves as President of the Frankfort Civil War Roundtable, and is a board member of the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. He has written several books and articles on military and naval history.
A Powerful, Nuanced Look at Suffrage & Racism in 1865 Black Suffrage: Lincoln’s Last Goal. By Paul D. Escott. Photos, notes, index, 288 pp., 2022. University of Virginia Press, www.upress.virginia.edu. Cloth, $39.50. Reviewed by Jonathan A. Noyalas
Although victory in the spring of 1865 restored the Union and seemed to settle important Constitutional issues, the success of United States forces raised various questions about the republic’s future, perhaps most notably whether the nation was ready to grant African Americans the right to vote? In this deeplyresearched and elegantly crafted volume historian Paul Escott, among the nation’s most distinguished historians, explores the complexities of the struggle for black suffrage in the Civil War’s immediate wake and reveals the multifaceted perspectives northerners possessed about race in the months following the War’s conclusion. Central to Escott’s cogently crafted history is an analysis of the ways in which Northern Republicans advocated for black suffrage and the rhetoric Democrats utilized to suppress such support. Largely relying on contemporary newspapers, magazines, and addresses, Escott vividly recreates the war of words between both groups. Unsurprisingly, Escott reveals Republicans argued that suffrage, in keeping with Lincoln’s perspective in the spring of 1865, should be extended to all blacks who served the Union war effort. Additionally, other Republicans who favored suffrage reasoned that extending voting rights to African Americans proved the only viable means to protect the legacy of Union victory and
punish the former Confederacy. Conversely, Escott demonstrates, northern Democrats opposed granting the right to vote to even a portion of African Americans because they surmised it would lead to racial amalgamation, violence, and the “inevitable degradation of society.” The author reveals ways in which Democrats used the words of Union veterans, including prominent generals such as William T. Sherman, to express the importance of maintaining white supremacy in elections and all levels of government. While Escott lays out some familiar arguments, one paramount value of this well-reasoned history is the author’s stunning ability to present a nuanced analysis of not only differences between Republicans and Democrats but analyze northern Republicans’ complicated racial perspectives. While Republicans supported slavery’s end, not all favored extending the right to vote. While Lincoln hoped reconciliation and suffrage could be simultaneously realized, Escott reveals that some Republicans thought it impossible. Granting voting rights to African Americans, some Republicans argued, proved a significant obstacle to peaceful reunification. Others decried suffrage due to various factors including the belief that voting rights could only be granted by individual states, lack of education among potential black voters, or fear that black voters in the former Confederacy would be swayed at the ballot box by former enslavers intent on undermining the national government. Beyond Escott’s detailed examination of divisions among various groups throughout the North, the author also devotes considerable attention to how Republicans who supported suffrage attempted to allay concerns. History, Escott shows, proved a great ally. Leaning on the limited suffrage that a contingent of freedmen exercised in Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, in the republic’s early decades, Republican supporters hoped to show that suffrage could be extended to black people without fear of political and social chaos. Democrats, the author lucidly reveals, also leaned on past and current events beyond
America’s borders, including Jamaica’s autumn 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, to illustrate why suffrage should not be endorsed. Escott’s powerful study also examines the critical roles African Americans played in the struggle for voting rights throughout the remaining months of 1865. From organizing chapters of the National Equal Rights League, maintaining the American AntiSlavery Society, or organizing protests, Escott underscores the importance of African Americans to the movement’s momentum. While much has been written about the circumstances surrounding passage of the 15th Amendment, which officially granted voting rights after ratification in 1870, no historian prior to Escott has delved into such detail, nuance, and complexity about northern attitudes toward suffrage in 1865. This magnificent volume, an exemplar of the finest scholarship, is essential for anyone seeking deeper knowledge of the struggle for black suffrage and the role that African Americans played in it in the wake of Union triumph. Furthermore, those desiring a thorough, thoughtful, and balanced analysis of the complexities of Northern racial attitudes will find Escott’s history revealing and compelling. This book, like others penned by Escott, is destined to be a classic and is deserving of much praise and a broad readership. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fifteen books including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida.
Prelude to Gettysburg “If We Are Striking For Pennsylvania”: The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg: Volume 1, June 3-21, 1863. By Scott L. Mingus Sr. and Eric J. Wittenberg. Appendix, index, illustrated, Savas Beatie Publishing, 2022, 426 pp., hardcover, $34.95. Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf
Two gifted modern historians, Scott Mingus and Eric Wittenberg, have written a meticulous account of the 18 days that followed Gen. Robert E. Lee’s 1863 decision to invade the North. Lee believed an attack on Northern soil would allow Virginia to buy time to recover from recent Yankee devastation, supply his army with much needed food and forage, and perhaps force Gen. Ulysses Grant to pull troops away from Vicksburg to bolster the Army of the Potomac. Each chapter covers one day of Lee’s journey North and Gen. Hooker’s movements in response. As Gen. Lee began stealthily moving North, Gen. Hooker, commanding the Army of the Potomac, was tasked with trying to ascertain if Lee was going to attack Baltimore, Washington City, or Pennsylvania. Hooker’s intelligence personnel spent weeks trying to determine Lee’s intentions as encounters
were fought at Brandy Station, Winchester, Aldie, Martinsburg, Berryville, Upperville, and Carter’s Woods, as well as several smaller outposts. Conflicting reports, unreliable rumors, and a lack of consensus on Confederate objectives plagued Hooker. Simultaneously, rumors of an imminent attack aroused Southern Pennsylvanians, sending many into a frenzy to hide valuables, livestock, flee to safer areas, and await possible Confederate retaliation for the devastation rained on Southern town. In response to the rumors, Pennsylvania civilians joined militia units to protect their capitol. Gov. Curtin called for every able citizen to take up arms, even asking the governors of New Jersey and New York for assistance from their militias. The North was in a panic. While Northern civilians and soldiers struggled to find out what Lee was up to, Jeb Stuart’s cavalry was fighting to keep Northern troops out of the mountain gaps and away from Lee’s main forces, compounding the inability of Hooker to determine Lee’s true objectives. In this first volume of a twovolume series, the authors use extensive primary source material to bring out the actual emotions of the soldiers and civilians who were impacted during these trying weeks. These letters and diaries add the human element to military reports and make the story of these 18 days come to life. Reading this volume makes one feel as if they were there, witnessing history, with all the angst, drudgery, danger, and sacrifice that attended the impending Battle of Gettysburg. This volume is superbly written, historically sound, richly imbued with primary sources, and indispensable for a true understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg. It should be on the shelf of every Gettysburg historian and is highly recommended. The future Volume 2 is eagerly awaited to finish one’s journey to Gettysburg.
Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College, past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable, and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles including Two Years Before the Paddlewood and the Last Confederate Scout. He is a frequent speaker on the lecture circuit.
Railroad Built and Railroad Wrecked The Nashville and Decatur Railroad in the Civil War: History of an Embattled Railroad. By Walter R. Green, Jr. Endnotes, bibliography, index, appendices, tables, illustrations, photographs, maps. 256 pp., 2022. McFarland & Co., Inc. Paperback, $39.95. Review by Gould Hagler
Walter Green is a civil and structural engineer (retired) who lives in Franklin, Tenn. During the Civil War an important rail line ran from Nashville through the author’s hometown and southward to the north Alabama town of Decatur, where it joined the Memphis and Charleston. The story of the Nashville and Decatur is interesting and one that Mr. Green tells capably. The line was finished soon before the war and was operated by three cooperating railroad companies. The N&D, like other railroads, was “both a tool and a target,” as the author phrases it. Depending on where the armies were as they advanced and retreated, the railroad was a vital asset to be used or an enemy target to be destroyed. As the armies moved frequently, there was lot of construction, destruction, reconstruction, and re-destruction. The Confederates wrecked the line as they moved south after evacuating Nashville in early 1862. Thereafter, it was mostly the Federals who were using the line and working to keep it in repair, while the Confederates were targeting the road to deny
its use to the enemy. The book tells the story of the war in this theater and connects it to the broader conflict, with the focus remaining on the railroad itself. There are lessons on how to build and defend a railroad and how best to tear it up. The engineer/author instructs the reader about bridges and trestles (there is a difference) and also about blockhouses and stockades (again, there is a difference). The reader learns about the troops who manned the defensive works and the men who put the pieces back together after raids led by Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the chapter on John Bell Hood’s retreat after the disastrous Battle of Nashville. What was left of the Army of Tennessee scrambled to get across numerous rivers and creeks and just barely managed to say ahead of the pursuing Federals. Here Mr. Green offers lessons in how to build pontoon bridges and use fords to cross flowing streams, as the railroad itself was out of commission at this time. The appendices provide much information to supplement the main narrative; the maps by Hal Jesperson are excellent; and three tables offer minute details about all the structures used to cross the streams and the defenses to protect them. Readers will notice a few minor errors and some will from time to time think “Too Much Information.” However, Mr. Green has provided a valuable focus on an aspect of the Civil War that is often covered only cursorily. Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN\ since 2016. His email is gould.hagler@gmail.com.
Erin Go Sing!
Irish American Civil War Songs- Identity, Loyalty and Nationhood. By Catherine V. Bateson. Photos, Illustrations, Bibliography, Endnotes, Index. 301 pages. LSU Press, www. lsupress.org. Hardbound, $45.00. Reviewed by Tom Elmore
songs was simply good business, and business was good. The book focuses mostly on songs about New York Irish units, most notably the famed 69th New York and the Irish Brigade as well as their commander, Generals Thomas Meaghers and Michael Corcoran. To be fair, the author admits that this is due in part to the large quantity of songs written and published about them, and that very few Irish themed Confederate Civil War songs survive. The song subjects varied, from the heroinism of a particular unit or individual, flags or just plain patriotism. Besides helping to build morale for the war effort, this music helped close the cultural gap between IrishAmericans and the rest of the U.S. population and helped ease prejudices against Irish Catholics. The book would have been
improved if the author had included more song lyrics and presented original Irish versions of the songs and their Civil War counterparts. It would also be useful to have had a website where readers could go to hear some of the songs mentioned in the book, though this reviewer was able to find some on YouTube. The role of the Irish in the American Civil War is a subject that has yet to be fully explored. Dr. Bateson has done a very fine job of bringing to light an important part of Irish-American culture and history. Tom Elmore is the South Carolina State Historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the descendant of an IrishAmerican Civil War officer. His latest Book “Celtic Columbia” looks at the history of the Irish in his hometown of Columbia, S.C.
Much of what is considered “American” folk music can be traced back to Ireland and are actually Americanized versions of Irish folk music. This was very true of many of the songs Civil War soldiers sang while they marched or civilians heard at patriotic rallies. A good example is The Bonnie Blue Flag, one of the most popular songs of the Confederacy, whose music comes from The Irish Jaunting Car. (The music was also used for another Confederate tune The Homespun Dress) Dr. Catherine V. Bateson, an Associate Lecturer in American history at England’s University of Kent, has analyzed close to 150 songs and lyric sheets devoted to the Irish-American military experience during the American Civil War. In doing so she examines not only their wartime experience but also their immigrant experience. In the years leading up to the Civil War, the sheet music publishing industry saw a giant boom, which led to Irish themed songs or songs that “borrowed” Irish music, to become very popular. The major publishers of the Irish themed songs, located primarily in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, were not of Irish descent nor had any direct ties to their local Irish communities. Likewise many of the writers of these songs, were not Irish themselves either. For them, publishing and selling these
Much More than a History of an Obscure Campaign
Gettysburg’s Southern Front: Opportunity and Failure at Richmond. By Hampton Newsome. Photos, maps, notes, index, 424 pp., 2022. University Press of Kansas, www.kansaspress.edu. Hardcover, $36.95. Reviewed by Jonathan A. Noyalas
One of my favorite wartime images depicts an unidentified Union soldier wearing a four button fatigue blouse and forage cap holding a crudely drawn map of Virginia in his left hand and pointing to Richmond with his right index finger. The photograph, one I oftentimes use in the classroom, conveys a simple message: take Richmond and the Union will be preserved. Since the Civil War’s end much has been written about efforts to seize Richmond at various points in the conflict, particularly the failed 1862 campaigns and in the war’s final year. Scant attention has been given to General John A Dix’s operation to threaten Richmond during the summer of 1863 while the Army of the Potomac chased the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. Fortunately, Hampton Newsome’s latest volume resurrects the story of Dix’s failed effort in this splendidly written and exhaustively researched history. The brainchild of Generalin-Chief Henry Halleck, the “Blackberry Raid,” sometimes
referred to as “Dix’s Peninsula Campaign,” as Newsome cogently argues, “presented a tremendous chance to strike hard at Richmond while Lee’s army was away threatening Pennsylvania.” Throughout the book’s twentytwo chapters Newsome explores debates among war planners in Washington about the merits of launching such a campaign, efforts of Confederate authorities in Richmond to cobble together a force substantial enough to thwart a Union attack, the capture of Rooney Lee, clashes over how the campaign should be remembered, and effectively describes engagements at such places as Aylett’s Foundry, Crump’s Crossroads, and the bridge that carried the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad over the South Anna River. While Newsome’s first-rate history describes movements and engagements with astounding detail, this book offers much more than a recounting of an oftforgotten campaign. Newsome’s study offers important insight into General Dix’s prejudice against African Americans and the United States Colored Troops. Additionally, this volume provides valuable analysis of the important supportive roles enslaved people played in the operation. Throughout the campaign, as the author clearly demonstrates, even although Dix’s effort failed, enslaved people who sought refuge with Dix’s troops provided “crucial intelligence” to Union troops. Additionally, Newsome’s finely crafted history, in keeping with the current historiographic trend to illustrate the environment’s impact on military operations, provides a critical analysis of the role weather conditions played. Stifling heat and oppressive humidity, coupled with the reality that the majority of troops tasked with carrying out the campaign, the Union IV and VII Corps, were unaccustomed to hard campaigning, proved disastrous. While Newsome freely admits that “the precise number of men afflicted by the heat is
not known,” the author makes good use of existing evidence to illustrate the toll the excruciating heat had on Union troops and ways in which they attempted to cope with it. Newsome’s history also offers a useful reminder that an engagement’s popularity or statistical toll ought not to be the only factors by which a fight’s impact is assessed. For instance, in the author’s excellent discussion of the fight at Crump’s Crossroads on July 2, 1863, Newsome effectively uses primary material to not only recount the clash between Union troops commanded by General Erasmus Keys and Confederates from General D.H. Hill’s command but to demonstrate combat’s ferocity regardless of the number of men involved. To the troops engaged, particularly the wounded or to families who lost a loved one, the clash at Crump’s Crossroads, as the author rightfully claims, “was as harrowing as any other.” This study’s value extends beyond its important connections to the Gettysburg Campaign. While those seeking a broader understanding of the Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion into Pennsylvania and the Union efforts to stop it will find Newsome’s smartly crafted book essential, anyone desirous of deepening their knowledge about the roles African Americans played in Civil War operations, interactions between civilians and the military, or the environment’s impact on troops will find Newsome’s study of great worth. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fifteen books including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida.
A Small Fight and Quickly Forgotten
Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes from Hell: The Battle of Secessionville, June 16, 1862. By James A. Morgan. Maps, photographs, appendices, 192 pp., 2022. Savas Beatie, LLC. www.savasbeatie.com. $16.95, paperback. Reviewed by Gould Hagler
Savas Beatie has published over 60 books in its Emerging Civil War Series. More are to be released this year, which marks the series’ tenth anniversary. Under series editor Chris Mackowski, these works are advertised as offering “compelling, easy-toread overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and stories.” In the book under review, author James Morgan tells the story of the 1862 Battle of Secessionville on James Island, just across the Ashley River from Charleston. Morgan tells us that the fight was small, and soon forgotten, but that doesn’t mean the story is unimportant or uninteresting. James Island was, or could have been, the back door to the well-defended South Carolina port. The Federals tried and failed to drive the Confederates from the island and gain a favorable position across the river from Charleston. The Federals had a larger infantry force than their foe and better artillery. In addition, with naval superiority the Federals could place their land forces where they wanted, when they wanted, and back them up with the ships’ big guns. One may think that this capability would give the Yankees a big advantage, if not an insuperable one. However, the army commanders did not get along with their naval counterparts or with each other. The department commander, Brig. Gen. David Hunter, was oddly uninterested
in the campaign and left almost everything to Brig. Gen. Henry Benham, an officer of uncertain abilities. The Confederates also had some leadership issues. Among other problems, Maj. Gen. John Pemberton was distrusted by civilian leaders and his subordinate commanders. In addition, Pemberton was ordered to transfer a significant part of his force to Virginia, where the Federals were threatening the Confederate capital. The author does a good job explaining the military situation in 1862 and describing the action in the runup to the June 16 assault. Although eight maps help the reader understand the terrain and follow the action, the level of detail will still be a challenge for some. There are modern photographs of various sites on James Island, but these contribute little to the reader’s understanding. Morgan includes a paragraph or two on many officers involved, useful especially for the lesserknown figures. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the many minor characters who pop into and out of the story, especially as the book has no index. The author relies on and quotes a number of primary and secondary sources but there are no citations and no bibliography. Appendices contain a battlefield guide and the story of two brothers who fought on opposite sides. Notwithstanding the problems at the command level, when the attack came the soldiers on both sides fought with skill and determination. Morgan’s description of the June 16 action is excellent. It was a close run thing, but the Confederates repelled three assaults against their key position, the Tower Battery. The Federals were forced to withdraw, suffering 683 total casualties out of about 3,400 engaged. The Confederate defenders lost 204 of approximately 1,275. Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil
War Round Table and the author of
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frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular
contributor to CWN\ since 2016. His email is gould.hagler@gmail.com.
Photographs from the Original Article
Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.