August 2023 MBR The Civil War Shelf

The Civil War Shelf

Without Concealment, Without Compromise
Jill L. Newmark
Southern Illinois University Press
www.siupress.com
9780809339044, $29.95, PB, 312pp

https://www.amazon.com/Without-Concealment-Compromise-Courageous-Surgeons/dp/0809339048

Synopsis: Of some twelve thousand Union Civil War surgeons, only fourteen were Black men.

With the publication of "Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" historian Jill Newmark provides the first-ever comprehensive exploration of their lives and service. Newmark's outstanding research uncovers stories hidden for more than 150 years, illuminating the unique experiences of proud, patriotic men who fought racism and discrimination to attend medical school and serve with the U.S. military. Their efforts and actions influenced societal change and forged new pathways for African Americans.

The individual biographies featured in "Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" highlight Alexander T. Augusta, who challenged discriminatory laws; William P. Powell Jr., who pursued a military pension for twenty-five years; Anderson R. Abbott, a friend of Elizabeth Keckley's; John van Surly DeGrasse, the only Black surgeon to serve on the battlefield; John H. Rapier Jr., an international traveler; Richard H. Greene, the only Black surgeon known to have served in the Navy; Willis R. Revels, a preacher; Benjamin A. Boseman, a politician and postmaster; and Charles B. Purvis, who taught at Howard University. Information was limited for five other men, all of whom broke educational barriers by attending medical schools in the United States: Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, William B. Ellis, Alpheus W. Tucker, Joseph Dennis Harris, and Charles H. Taylor.

"Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" presents all available information about the surgeons' early lives, influences, education, Civil War service, and post-war experiences. Many of the stories overlap, as did the lives of the men. Each man, through his service as a surgeon during the war and his lifelong activism for freedom, justice, and equality, became a catalyst of change and a symbol of an emancipated future.

Critique: A unique, informative, and invaluable contribution to personal, professional, community, college, and university library American Civil War History/Biography collections, "Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" is enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a number of illustrations, as well as thirty-four pages of Notes, a fourteen page Bibliography, a two page Index of Regiments, and a twelve page Index. "Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" is especially recommended for supplemental American Civil War and 19th Century African American History curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Jill L. Newmark (www.blackcivilwarsurgeons.com) is an independent historian, as well as a former curator and exhibition specialist at the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Her exhibits include "Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African Americans in Civil War Medicine," "Within These Walls: Contraband Hospital and the African Americans Who Served There," and "Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons." She has published articles in Prologue and Traces, as well as online in Circulating Now and www.blackpast.org

Detour to Disaster
Noel Carpenter
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611216714, $19.95, PB, 216pp

https://www.amazon.com/Detour-Disaster-Demonstration-Unraveling-Tennessee/dp/1611216710

Synopsis: In October of 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood set out through Alabama on what would be the final campaign of the Army of Tennessee. One event in particular, overlooked and misunderstood for generations, portended what was to follow and is the subject of Noel Carpenter's new American Civil War history -- "Detour to Disaster: General John Bell Hood's "Slight Demonstration" at Decatur and the Unravelling of the Tennessee Campaign".

A simply fascinating, meticulously detailed, and expertly documented account, "Detour to Disaster" is the first book-length study of the weighty decision to march to Decatur and the combat that followed there. Carpenter also investigated the circumstances surrounding these matters and how they overwhelmed the controversial young army commander and potentially doomed his daring invasion.

Critique: An impressively informative and exceptionally insightful history, "Detour to Disaster: General John Bell Hood's "Slight Demonstration" at Decatur and the Unraveling of the Tennessee Campaign" by American Civil War historian should be required reading for American Civil War history buffs interested in the Western Theater, and especially the doomed Tennessee Campaign. A fascinating and impressively well organized and presented study, "Detour to Disaster" is an especially recommended and worthwhile pick for personal, community, and academic library American Civil War history collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Detour to Disaster" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.49).

Editorial Note: As a boy growing up in Decatur in the 1920s, author Noel Carpenter played on the sites described in "Detour to Disaster". After graduating from the University of Alabama and earning a master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carpenter spent 30 years as a command pilot and Air Force officer. Later in life he combined a lifelong interest in Civil War history with his military experience and examined the episode that had unfolded in his hometown more than a century earlier. He spent 12 years researching and writing his account.

The Bone Ring
Gari Carter
Donella Press
https://donellapress.com
9781955068055, $14.95, PB, 100pp

https://www.amazon.com/Bone-Ring-Gari-Carter/dp/1955068054

Synopsis: When Colonel William Leonard died in 1901, among his effects was found a lovely jewelry box containing a simple ring carved of cow bone and engraved with his birth date and the year of his imprisonment in Libby Prison.

This humble memento, so carefully preserved, was made for him by his men to mark his 46th birthday when they were all prisoners of war in the notorious Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.

Also found was his journal, which begins when he was colonel in Purnell's Legion Infantry, which was charged with protecting telegraph and rail lines in Maryland and Virginia, and ends after he was paroled from Libby Prison and returned to Maryland.

The bone ring and journal writings were passed down through his descendants, and his memory has been kept alive through family stories. Leonard's great-granddaughter Gari Carter, who previously published the Civil War journals of another ancestor, Franklin Dick, now presents Col. Leonard's journal, richly annotated and supplemented with family lore and local history.

Critique: A welcome addition to the ever expanding community, college, and university library American Civil War collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists, "The Bone Ring: Civil War Journals of Colonel William James Leonard" is a fascinating and informative American Civil War memoir that is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a number of maps, black/white illustrations, a ten page family genealogy, and a ten page bibliography. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, academia, civil war historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Bone Ring" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note: Gari Carter (https://garicarter.com/about) is also the author of "Troubled State: The Civil War Journals of Franklin Archibald Dick" (Truman State University Press, 2008), which took her ten years of research about the diaries of her great-great grandfather and his first-hand account of the initial Civil War event in St. Louis, and his correspondence with President Lincoln as Provost Marshall General of Missouri.

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