The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 209
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
negro seemed to feel that they were in a separate and higher class than
the common people" (p. 2o). An upper-class respondent seemingly con-
firmed this by stating: "We were as good as anybody and had carte blanc
in [the] best society famed for its high standard of morals, culture, edu-
cation and wealth. We had some snobs [and] idle rich" (p. 31).
The same sentiments manifested themselves in comments regarding
physical labor. A planter's son wrote: "My father had no time nor ne-
cessity for physical labor but was . .. a very humane master and exem-
plary christian" (p. 31). Contrasted with this was the response of a non-
slaveholding yeoman's son: "My father was a man of all work . . . he
done his own carpenter work, [constructed] his own plows, made all the
family shoes, .. . made his own grain cradles and made the first Buggy
he ever owned" (p. 26). A member of the poorest class noted succinctly:
"All my people have been very poor folk, [we] lived any where [sic] that
we could get work" (p. 25).
Despite these class divisions most Tennessee Civil War veterans held
a common opinion of the military leadership of the Army of Ten-
nessee: Joseph. E. Johnston and Nathan Bedford Forrest were beloved
while Braxton Bragg and John B. Hood (identified as "the Texas aristo-
crat" on page 93) were despised. Bragg was dismissed by one veteran
with the comment: "Of course Bragg lost. Nothing more could be
expected of Mr. Know all" (p. 92). Hood earned even harsher criti-
cism: "Jeff Davis acted the fool and removed Joseph E. Johnston and
put Gen. Hood in com[m]and, which quickly demoralized the whole
Army . .. All the men... Hood failed to see Slaughtered at the Battle
of Atlanta on the 22nd of July 1864 he got rid of at the Battle of Frank-
lin Tenn in his.., attempt to immortalize himself" (p. 93). Joe John-
ston, on the other hand, received accolades: "We had the utmost con-
fiedence [sec] in him" and "we knew we had a Gen that would take care
of his men" (p. 91). Another veteran said of Johnston: "we would have
gone into hell if he had said the word go" (p. 91). Nathan B. Forrest
received praise bordering on worship. One semiliterate veteran wrote:
"my commander war [was] jeneral N.B. forist one of the gratest men
the Sun ever Shined upon[.] he never war the man to fall back and Say
go ahead men[.] it war follow me Boys" (pp. 91-92).
Bailey's book is a fascinating study of class consciousness among the
Confederate portion of Tennessee's Civil War generation. Two ques-
tions, however, might be asked about the nature of the evidence in this
volume. First, can one make generalizations about a state's entire gen-
eration based on 1,250 questionnaires written over fifty years after the
event? Bailey argues that one can. Second, how accurate are the recol-
lections of events half a century after they occurred? The author might209
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989, periodical, 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101212/m1/236/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.