Member Review Hymns of the Republic: Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne

Harms88

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Title: Hymns of the Republic : Story of the Final Year of the Civil War
Author: S. C. Gwynee (author of Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon)
Page Length: 416
Price: 14.99 (Kindle), 17.00 (Paperback), 19.59 (Audible), 20.66 (Hardcover),

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So I decided to try a new approach with this review. Giving some info at the beginning on price and such so that anybody who wishes to take a glance at it after reading my review will have the opportunity to glance at this info to see if it's something they wish to look into.

I bought Hymns of the Republic when I saw that it covered the last year of the war. However, I thought it was all about 1865, but no, it's actually starts off during Winter '63 and then goes clear till the end of the War with the capture of Jeff Davis in May 1865.

The first thing to note is that this is not poorly written. Although I say that having listened to the audio book so I didn't actually see the quality of it on the page. Yet the information was presented in a clear and concise manner.

The main take away after finishing this book is that: this is a Special Interests book. What I mean by that is that this book is not so much concerned with the campaigns of the Civil War as much as it is concerned with special topics. Entire chapters are devoted to the main players of the final outcome of the war. Aka, Sherman, Lee and Grant. Clara Barton has two chapters devoted to her. There are chapters that delve into the Confederate plots to sabotage the North in 1864 and the political maneuverings of both Lincoln and his political opponents such as the attempted Salmon P. Chase coup initiated by his loyal supporters while he feigned obedience to Lincoln. John S. Mosby and his "Mosbey's Confederacy" got it's own chapter.

This of course grants a lot of info that either I had completely forgot or new info entirely. Such as Lee was supposed to free his wife's inherited slaves within 5 years of his father-in-laws death, only to allow it once all his family's slaves were already in Federal occupied territory. Or Confederate agents infiltrating a political convention in an aborted attempt to initiate a revolution that failed with their Knights of the Golden Circle counterparts failed to show up. Or that by 1865 over a million slaves had fled. Which presents a rather unique look at if the South had won the war, almost 20% of their slaves were gone and the whole Confederacy probably would have emerged with less than 7.5 million people still around.

But the problem is, with such a focus on these special topics, a lot of the war gets all but bypassed. An entire chapter is spent on the Crater, with barely a mention of North Anna or Cold Harbor. Trevalian Station and Yellow Tavern are either completely ignored or given only a single sentence respectively. Hood's Tennessee Campaign is all but ignored, with only two sentences noting they even happened. We get an entire chapter on the guerrilla on Sheridan/Custer violence in the Shenandoah while another chapter all but breezes past Sheridan's Valley Campaign and the raid on Washington, which barely warrants a paragraph or two in the book total.

Let me go back to my sentence on the Crater and North Anna/Cold Harbor. I was driving to pick up my paycheck from my janitorial job and I was stuck at a traffic light waiting for it to turn green. I had just finished a chapter which talked about the failed invasions along the James and in the Shenandoah. It had been two chapters since we had focused on the Overland Campaign, the one before talking about Clara Barton. The last chapter that had spoken about Overland was at Spotslyvania, giving a very generalized view of the battle. The next chapter starts and starts talking about the trenches at Petersburg and the fortifications around it. Next thing I know they're talking about the plan to blow up the Crater.

I was pretty sure that I must have skipped a chapter so, with the light still red, I quickly popped open the Audible app. No, I hadn't jumped a chapter by accident. The battles of Cold Harbor and North Anna were briefly mentioned simply as a way to illustrate how the United States Colored Troops weren't allowed into major engagements with the AOTP.

This is not the book to turn to if you want a more detailed account of that final year.

The last big thing is that Gwynne has no patience with the myths and rumors that grew about the events and people of the Civil War. He disabuses the notion that Lee was really anti-slavery (as already mentioned) and goes into what a flawed individual he was, to the point of being perhaps suicidal during the Overland Campaign. He does not stand for the rumors of Grant being a drunk, simply stating he's such a light weight that he can't handle his liquor. He spends a good deal of time bashing over the head the idea of just how destructive Sherman's Campaign was (he repeatedly says during the Sherman's March chapter that the damage was nowhere as severe and more damage was caused by Rebel cavalry than Sherman's men).

He also has no patience with Appomattox myths. He describes two armies that were very much angry at each other and his description of how the AONV commanders reacted to the surrender reminds me of how German commanders acted after WWI. No, men did not share rations. No, there was no salute of men surrendering. No, Chamberlain was not present to receive Gordon's surrender.

Overall, this wasn't a bad book. The main issue I have is that Gwynne is so fixated on his focus on the special topics he wishes to present and attacking myths that much of what we want to read about, such as the Red River Campaign, are completely lost.

I would give it a 4/5.
 
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I appreciate the review. It would be useful if there was some comparison to similar books on closely related subjects.
 
Title: Hymns of the Republic : Story of the Final Year of the Civil War
Author: S. C. Gwynee (author of Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon)
Page Length: 416
Price: 14.99 (Kindle), 17.00 (Paperback), 19.59 (Audible), 20.66 (Hardcover),

Overall, this wasn't a bad book. The main issue I have is that Gwynne is so fixated on his focus on the special topics he wishes to present and attacking myths that much of what we want to read about, such as the Red River Campaign, are completely lost.

I would give it a 4/5.

I wish I had read this before I bought the book. It is hardly a narrative of what happened in the final year, as you noted. Instead, this is essentially the author's assessments of select topics. So much context is left out. If you don't already have a good understanding of the events of the conflict, this book will either confuse you or put some odd notions in your head.

I bought this book because I really enjoyed Gwynne's book on the Comanches. Sadly, "Hymns" is far below the standard he set in that book. His writing is very good. His character sketches are vivid and engaging. And that's it. The best way to enjoy this book is to read a chapter as a stand alone piece, because that's really what they are. No continuity here.

Also, and here I may be getting into my own biases, but I felt that this book is as much about the author's reactions to personalities as it is an attempt to understand or explain them. He also seems to relish the current fetishes in historical interpretation which are aligned with current political movements. That's all I'll say about that.

I'd give it 2 out of 5 stars. I bought last week and will be selling my copy next week.
 
I bought this book because I really enjoyed Gwynne's book on the Comanches.
I've actually avoided all of Gwynne's book specifically because of that book. He's not a bad writer when it comes to prose, but I found the organization of it confusing, and he makes assertions that are just factually wrong. ( I counted 4 pretty big ones. Each time he claimed that the Comanches were the only tribe to do something or the last tribe to do something, and it was just flat-out wrong. If he'd done any reading about Native American tribes or the Indian Wars, he'd have known what he was saying was incorrect.) My impression of him is that he's not a careful or particularly original researcher or insightful thinker, and he just repeats what he comes across that fits the narrative he's trying to convey. Definitely not a fan.
 
I plan to read the book mainly because Gwynne is a great writer.
He is. I reviewed this book elsewhere and my problem with it was some erroneous details and the way some significant events were pretty much ignored - probably inevitable for a book trying to cover this scope in this number of pages.
 
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