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David Hardin's 'After the War' follows fates of Civil War legends
Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 12:57 PM
By John Sledge
MOBILE, Alabama -- The Civil War made many Americans famous, among them Robert E. Lee, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nathan Bedford Forrest, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Armstrong Custer and Mary Boykin Chesnut. But while the wartime exploits and achievements of these men and women have become the stuff of legend, their postwar years constitute unfamiliar terrain to all but scholars and diligent readers of history.
This gap is partially addressed by a readable and instructive new book, "After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped" (Ivan R. Dee, $27.95) by David Hardin, a former newspaperman and Pulitzer Prize-winner now living in Huntsville. I say partially addressed because Hardin profiles just 11 figures, but his choices are sagacious and, as he notes in his foreword, present "a feast of irony." Among those profiled, besides the above mentioned, are Winnie Davis (Jefferson Davis' daughter), Ulysses S. Grant, Confederate generals John Bell Hood and Joseph E. Johnston, and Union general George H. Thomas (a native Virginian).
Hardin admits to little original research in this volume — these biographies have long been on record, after all, even if seldom consulted. The strength of his book rather lies in its attention to underlying themes of the late 19th-century national story, such as Western expansion and Southern recovery, which these poignant lives illuminate.
Perhaps the most interesting sketch in the book is that of Sherman, who was locked in a long-running contest of wills with his wife, Ellen, over whether their son Tom would become a Roman Catholic priest. While his wife was a devout Catholic, Sherman was not, and he made his displeasure known whenever the matter of Tom and the church arose. When in 1878 Tom announced to his father that he was going to be a Jesuit priest, he told the General, "If you were a Catholic, instead of being chagrined, disappointed and pained at the step I am going to take, you would be proud, happy, and contented in it." But Sherman's reaction was "outrage and heartbreak," and he boycotted Tom's ordination. Tom's subsequent life was anything but settled. He suffered increasing bouts of mental illness — a family trait that had plagued his father during the war — and an early 20th-century retracing of his father's Georgia exploits created a strong public backlash in a region still keenly smarting from the war.
The life of Sherman's wartime nemesis, Forrest, is also presented. Forrest rose from an unlettered soldier to one of the most feared and capable cavalry generals on either side of the contest. Renowned for his frank and knock'em-down demeanor, his post-Civil War existence was equally turbulent. In 1866 he killed one of his black workers, but it was ruled self-defense, and during widespread Reconstruction-era violence he assumed the reigns as the Grand Wizard of the first Ku Klux Klan. Though Forrest later claimed to have ordered the Klan's breakup and blamed its worst outrages on "wild young men and bad men," it had clearly served its purpose in reconstituting white rule. Before he died in 1877 at only 56, Forrest yearned for calm. "My life has been a battle from the start," he said. "I have seen too much violence and I want to close my days at peace with all the world, as I am now at peace with my Maker."
A less peaceful ending was in store for Custer, the flamboyant, golden-haired, Union cavalry leader who was cut down amid swirling dust and whistling arrows at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer's death was attributed to his own foolhardiness by Sitting Bull and President Grant, among others, but it didn't prevent him from becoming a national hero. His wife, Libbie, proving just as devoted in his death as in his life, vigorously guarded his memory and burnished his image through her popular books like "Boots and Saddles" (1885) and "Following the Guidon" (1890). Out of courtesy to her, most would-be naysayers held their peace, but she outlived them all, passing away in 1933 at the age of 90.
As Hardin's book makes clear, surviving the Civil War was not the only trial these men and women had to face. "Often," he writes, "they had to draw upon the courage that had got them through the war, but less to conquer than simply to endure." History is not a fairy tale, and the world keeps turning, for heroes and cowards alike.
John Sledge edits the Press-Register's Books page. He may be reached at the Press-Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile, AL 36652.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/01/david_hardins_after_the_war_fo.html
Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 12:57 PM
By John Sledge
MOBILE, Alabama -- The Civil War made many Americans famous, among them Robert E. Lee, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nathan Bedford Forrest, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Armstrong Custer and Mary Boykin Chesnut. But while the wartime exploits and achievements of these men and women have become the stuff of legend, their postwar years constitute unfamiliar terrain to all but scholars and diligent readers of history.
This gap is partially addressed by a readable and instructive new book, "After the War: The Lives and Images of Major Civil War Figures After the Shooting Stopped" (Ivan R. Dee, $27.95) by David Hardin, a former newspaperman and Pulitzer Prize-winner now living in Huntsville. I say partially addressed because Hardin profiles just 11 figures, but his choices are sagacious and, as he notes in his foreword, present "a feast of irony." Among those profiled, besides the above mentioned, are Winnie Davis (Jefferson Davis' daughter), Ulysses S. Grant, Confederate generals John Bell Hood and Joseph E. Johnston, and Union general George H. Thomas (a native Virginian).
Hardin admits to little original research in this volume — these biographies have long been on record, after all, even if seldom consulted. The strength of his book rather lies in its attention to underlying themes of the late 19th-century national story, such as Western expansion and Southern recovery, which these poignant lives illuminate.
Perhaps the most interesting sketch in the book is that of Sherman, who was locked in a long-running contest of wills with his wife, Ellen, over whether their son Tom would become a Roman Catholic priest. While his wife was a devout Catholic, Sherman was not, and he made his displeasure known whenever the matter of Tom and the church arose. When in 1878 Tom announced to his father that he was going to be a Jesuit priest, he told the General, "If you were a Catholic, instead of being chagrined, disappointed and pained at the step I am going to take, you would be proud, happy, and contented in it." But Sherman's reaction was "outrage and heartbreak," and he boycotted Tom's ordination. Tom's subsequent life was anything but settled. He suffered increasing bouts of mental illness — a family trait that had plagued his father during the war — and an early 20th-century retracing of his father's Georgia exploits created a strong public backlash in a region still keenly smarting from the war.
The life of Sherman's wartime nemesis, Forrest, is also presented. Forrest rose from an unlettered soldier to one of the most feared and capable cavalry generals on either side of the contest. Renowned for his frank and knock'em-down demeanor, his post-Civil War existence was equally turbulent. In 1866 he killed one of his black workers, but it was ruled self-defense, and during widespread Reconstruction-era violence he assumed the reigns as the Grand Wizard of the first Ku Klux Klan. Though Forrest later claimed to have ordered the Klan's breakup and blamed its worst outrages on "wild young men and bad men," it had clearly served its purpose in reconstituting white rule. Before he died in 1877 at only 56, Forrest yearned for calm. "My life has been a battle from the start," he said. "I have seen too much violence and I want to close my days at peace with all the world, as I am now at peace with my Maker."
A less peaceful ending was in store for Custer, the flamboyant, golden-haired, Union cavalry leader who was cut down amid swirling dust and whistling arrows at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer's death was attributed to his own foolhardiness by Sitting Bull and President Grant, among others, but it didn't prevent him from becoming a national hero. His wife, Libbie, proving just as devoted in his death as in his life, vigorously guarded his memory and burnished his image through her popular books like "Boots and Saddles" (1885) and "Following the Guidon" (1890). Out of courtesy to her, most would-be naysayers held their peace, but she outlived them all, passing away in 1933 at the age of 90.
As Hardin's book makes clear, surviving the Civil War was not the only trial these men and women had to face. "Often," he writes, "they had to draw upon the courage that had got them through the war, but less to conquer than simply to endure." History is not a fairy tale, and the world keeps turning, for heroes and cowards alike.
John Sledge edits the Press-Register's Books page. He may be reached at the Press-Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile, AL 36652.
http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/01/david_hardins_after_the_war_fo.html
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