The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 133
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
Morgan and His Raiders: A Biography of the Confederate
General. By Cecil Fletcher Holland. New York (The Mac-
millan Company), 1943. Pp. xiii, 373. Illustrations. $3.50.
One Confederate who definitely believed that the war should
be carried to Federal soil was John Hunt Morgan. He and
Nathan Bedford Forrest were past masters of that type of
warfare known as the "raid." The raids Morgan and his
cavalry conducted, as Holland points out, were at times
the needed stimuli for fading southern hopes. On these raids
he was a bold tactician, essaying something of the blitzkrieg.
Humanly enough, he was sometimes too bold.
The author, aided by the fortunate discovery of many hither-
to unpublished letters, dispatches, reports, and orders, by Mor-
gan, has put together a most readable account of Morgan's
cavalry. His treatment of the strategic relation of Morgan to
the Confederate western campaigns is good and brings out
clearly that Morgan was a man for the Federals to watch.
Morgan's great Indiana and Ohio raid in July of 1863 was
of such a character as to detach some Union forces which
might have aided Rosecrans at Chickamauga.
Holland treats well of Morgan's imprisonment in the Ohio
penitentiary. The account of the last Kentucky raid and of the
operations around Wytheville, Virginia, is also good.
The only criticisms this reviewer would make are that John
Morgan, the man, might have been a little more clearly pic-
tured; and while it is true that the author says "It was
marvel enough that the Confederate supply system functioned
as well as it did. . . ," (p. 48), he does not sufficiently take
into consideration the many problems facing those services,
such as transportation and finances. Also, some readers might
not like the grouping of most of the author's conclusions in
the first chapter. Wider documentation might be an asset.
These criticisms, however, do not alter the fact that Morgan
and His Raiders is a most interesting book, which should be
appreciated both by a student of Confederate cavalry cam-
paigns and by a lover of a well-told adventure story, for
Holland has a pleasing narrative style.
The book is nicely put together, and a good map of the ter-
ritory covered by Morgan, on his campaigns, faces page one.
A bibliography and adequate index round out the volume.
FRANK E. VANDIVER
San Antonio Army Service Forces Depot133
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/137/?rotate=270: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.