By RICHARD HARWELL

The Cause That Refreshes: Reading, 'Ritmg, and Rebellion

ISTORY DOES NOT REPEAT ITSELF. The sary of the fall of Fort Sumter. Federal H repetition is only that the mistakes officials made that date the occasion of a of one generation are too often imitated grand celebration reraising over the by the next. There are lessons in a knowl- ruined fort the same flag which had edge of the past: How can we abide the flown during Major Robert Anderson's present, how can we face the future, un- gallant defense of it at the beginning of less we know what has gone before? Yet, the War. President Abraham Lincoln if history fails to repeat itself, there is in was expected to attend, but the press of it a national remembrance that gives us duties kept him in Washington, and he national character. chose that evening to attend a perform- In the thorough knowledge of the his- ance at Ford's Theater. Anderson, now a tory of one time and place there is a sug- general, did participate in the cere- gestion, no matter how invalid, that the monies, and the principal address of the present does repeat the past. There is a occasion was delivered by Henry Ward deep and strong impression of the im- Beecher, then the most famous, later the mediacy that links past, present, and most notorious, pastor of his day. future. There is a sense of the immedi- Is it a message of the past, the present, acy of history, or of the present as the or the future that lies in Beecher's words durable past, in the words a Chicago there in Charleston Harbor? "We have Times correspondent wrote describing shown," he declared, "by all that we the entry of Federal troops into Little have suffered in war how great is our Rock, Arkansas, in 1863: "An army was estimate of the importance of the South- never more astonished upon entering a ern States to this Union, and we will city than ours was upon its entry of Lit- honor that estimate now in peace by still tle Rock. Instead of a warm, cordial wel- greater exertions for their rebuilding. come from the citizens, we were greeted Will reflecting men not perceive, then, at best with a cold, frigid politeness. . . . the wisdom of accepting established facts, A cold, haughty stare met your gaze up- and with alacrity of enterprise begin to on every side, and no sign of genuine retrieve the past? . . . Since free labor is welcome was visible anywhere." inevitable, will you have it in its worst Was 1863 very different from 1957? forms or its best? Shall it be ignorant, im- April 14, 1865 was the fourth anniver- pertinent, indolent, or shall it be educat- ed, self-respecting, moral, and self-sup- Mr. Harwell is Executive Secretary of porting? Will you have men as drudges, ACRL and Associate Executive Director or will you have them as citizens? Since of ALA. This article is adapted from a they have vindicated the Government and paper presented at a meeting of the Col- cemented its foundation stones with their lege, University, and Research Libraries blood, may they not offer the tribute of Section of the California Library Associ- their support to maintain its laws and its ation, Long Beach, Calif., October 29, policy? It is better for religion, it is better 1958. for political integrity, it is better for in-

JULY 1959 281 dustry, it is better for money, if you will writers first, historians after. They have have that ground motive, that you should an eye for the dramatic and a way to educate the black man, and by education tell a story. They have invaded the field make him a citizen. They who refuse of the professional historian, and the education to the black man would turn writers and the historians have contrib- the South into a vast poorhouse, and uted one to the other. The writers have labor into a pendulum." been guided to good historical subjects, There is a very real immediacy for and the historians have learned to write bookmen in the history of the American more interestingly. Everybody benefits— Civil War. For the last twenty-five years writers, historians, publishers, readers, there has been an accelerating interest in and, perhaps, even librarians. it on the part of writers, publishers, and Of Civil War literature the beginning readers. The centennial years ahead will was a long time ago. Although the com- emphasize and broaden this interest. Not ing of the War was predicted in even all interest in Civil War history has de- earlier fiction, the only prophetic novel of veloped from worthwhile motivation. note is Beverley Tucker's The Partisan Some is the product of too strong a dose Leader. The Partisan Leader was pub- of filiopietism, particularly some of the lished in Washington in 1836 with a ficti- Southern interest. Some is the interest of tious imprint dated 1856. With uncanny rootless Americans of later generations accuracy in detail it foretold the course to- seeking to identify themselves with their ward disunion and war. It is a poor country's past. Some is crassly commer- novel, but it retains a certain charm for cial. But interest per se is worth while, die-hard Confederates in the large point and the diversity of present interests cer- on which it erred; in the pages of The tainly makes worth while the breadth of Partisan Leader it was the Southern Civil War scholarship and publishing Confederacy that won the War. The that marks our decade. War brought all kinds of publications. Books about the Civil War are pub- They provide a fertile field for collectors, lished at an alarming rate. In 1958 there librarians, bibliographers, and historians. were about two published each week. Civil War collecting is almost coeta- The 1959 total will probably equal that neous with the War itself. The Harvard of the previous year. There are those College Library began systematic collect- who decry the volume of Civil War pub- ing activities in 1861. So did the Ala- lishing. True, there are too many mere- bama State Library. "The war is storing tricious, catch-penny publications. The up, for the people of the Confederate professional writers, the reporters, the States, the noblest legacies that ever fell hacks have recognized a good thing and to the lot of Nations and Communities," have got into the act. But this is a declared Richmond's Magnolia Weekly. healthy sign. It is the strongest possible What was true for one side was essential- evidence of the breadth and depth of ly true for both and was as true of print- interest in the Civil War. A subject loses ed materials as of individual or regional none of its value simply because it catch- traditions. Both sides could well have es the fancy of the crowd. Perhaps some heeded the admonishment of the Mag- interest is superficial, but it is interest; nolia: "It behooves our people to guard and it is for those who work with books these legacies, that desolating war shall to use it as a wedge to create a better have left them, with jealous care." But grounded interest. It is a healthy sign jealous care of its printed legacies was because the professional writers, the re- hardly to the tenor of thinking in the porters, the hacks can write. They are South in the years just after the War.

282 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES There was much that was better forgot. the Lincoln collection of Judd Stewart, And livings had to be made. Book col- the Confederate collection of Robert lecting could wait. Thus the earliest Alonzo Brock were brought together to great collections grew up in the North. form the tremendous reservoir of Civil Northern libraries accumulated in their War materials at the Huntington Library. normal growth the principal items of Un- Southerners generally were late joining ion interest. The the game, but there greatest of Confed- One of the greatest favors to the fu- are now fine collec- erate collections ture historian and philosopher would tions at the Confed- (that at the Boston be to collect all the books, pamphlets, erate Museum, the Athenaeum) had its maps, files of newspapers, engravings, University of Vir- beginnings in pur- photographs, caricatures, ephemeral pub- ginia, the Virgin- chases Francis Park- lications of every kind, even to printed ia State Library, man made in Rich- notices, circulars, handbills, posters, let- Duke, North Caro- mond in the spring ter envelopes, and place them beyond lina, Emory, Geor- of 1865. Documents the reach of destruction, that as a collec- gia, Alabama, and captured at the fall tion they may reflect the sentiments and Texas. Each collec- of Richmond be- feelings, which otherwise will in a great tion has some things came the basis of measure pass into oblivion with the oc- unique, some items the great Confeder- casions which give them birth. If I could, of special value and ate collection now I would appeal to every inhabitant of interest. at the Library of the continent to send me everything Shortlv after the Congress. Appreci- which could be obtained, in order that war William F. ation of the abid- every phase of mind, in every section of Pumphrey, a Rich- ing value of these the country, North, South, East, West, mond book dealer, records was demon- for the Union and against the Union, for published a sales strated only short- secession and against secession, might be Catalogue of Valu- ly after the War in represented on our shelves, in all the able and Rare Col- a General Order variety of reasoning and imagination, lections of Confed- from the United virtue and vice, justice and injustice, fic- erate Miscellany. States War Depart- tion and fact, freedom and oppression, His list is headed ment authorizing kindness and cruelty, truth and carica- "rarest of the rare." "That a Bureau be ture, that can be found. I would say, His items still are. organized in the send to me a single pamphlet, book, or Elusive Confeder- Adjutant General's picture, if you have one to spare.—John ate publications Office for the col- Langdon Sibley in Report of the Com- still delight the col- lection, safe-keep- mittee of the Overseers of Harvard Col- lector when they ing, and publica- lege Appointed to Visit the Library for turn up as previ- tion of the Rebel the Year 1861 .. . (Boston, 1862). ously unrecorded Archives that have items. Though they come into possession of this Govern- do not command the high prices of First ment." Collections begun by Union sol- Folios or even of the better Western diers during the War eventually found Americana, they have a special charm their way into libraries and form the and, to their own inamoratos, an intangi- core of fine and extensive holdings at ble value beyond measure. The popular- Princeton, the Western Reserve Histor- ity of Civil War collecting increases. A ical Society, the Newberry Library, and spot check of a recent issue of the Anti- the Chicago Historical Society. The Civil quarian Bookman shows 156 Civil War War collection of John Page Nicholson, items advertised as wanted and includes

JULY 1959 283 a dozen dealers advertising general wants facts and wonders will have an inex- in the held. The War runs a poor second haustible field for exploration. Refugees to sex among the AB's ads, but ahead of will have stirring incidents to relate; sol- almost every other subject. diers strange, wild and dangerous adven- The South at war published more than tures; and sailors will startle with mar- seven thousand bibliographical items. velous tales of what befell them on the Many of these items are of the most mi- wide ocean, in foreign ports, or in run- nor sort, but some are productions im- ning into our own beleaguered ones be- pressive in extent and quality. They are neath showers of shot and shell. Fancy the expressions of every aspect of a coun- will find itself eclipsed by facts; and try at war, a library to demonstrate the so- fiction . . . will not need to call on imag- cial as well as the military impact of war ination to paint her picture, but will on a people. People at war rush into only have to arrange and decorate the print to vent their emotions. Preachers attire of the principal figures. All these turn out sermons of justification of their things, together with the current events viewpoint. Extremists expound their of the day, must aid in enriching the theories in broadsides and pamphlets. newspapers as well as form the books for Amateur poets and song writers have a the million." field day in an era of violent feeling. It Sidney Lanier, the Georgian poet and is not remarkable that a people at war musician, caught the spirit of the South should publish extensively; it is a neces- as it went to war in his novel Tiger Lil- sity that they do so. It is remarkable that ies, a book begun in the intervals of its the Southern Confederacy devoted so author's duties as a Confederate signal- large a proportion of its publishing time man: "In the spring of 1861 an afflatus of and energy to the non-warlike in its liter- war was breathed upon us. Like a great ature—to more than a hundred items of wind, it drew on and blew upon men, belles-lettres, to more than seven hun- women, and children. Its sound mingled dred sheets of music, to books of travel, with the solemnity of church-organs and to volumes of ancient history. rose with the earnest words of preachers Let us call our Confederate witnesses. praying for guidance in the matter. It An anonymous contributor to The sighed in the half-breathed words of Southern Field and Fireside, a Confeder- sweethearts. ... It thundered splendidly ate literary weekly published at Augusta, in the impassioned appeals of orators to Georgia, declared: "This ought to be a the people. It whistled through the halcyon period for authors as there has streets, it stole in to the firesides, it not been a time for many years so abun- clinked glasses in bar-rooms, it lifted the dant in materials for writing as the pres- gray hairs of wise men in conventions, it ent. Indeed the trouble is not to find sub- thrilled through the lectures in college jects and matter, but to know what is halls, it rustled the thumbed book- best to select from such a mass as has leaves of the school-rooms. accumulated in the past few years. His- "This wind blew upon all the vanes torians have a wide and attractive field to of all the churches of the country, and traverse . . . Biographers can select from turned them one way—toward war. It warriors, statesmen, persecuted refugees, blew, and shook out, as if by magic, a patriotic citizens and noble women, flag whose device was unknown to sol- and when scores have written for years, dier or sailor before, but whose every will still find many names worthy to flap and flutter made the blood bound be perpetuated . . . Poets will find in our veins." themes for lofty song, and collectors of Lanier felt the emotional impact of

284 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES the beginning of war and, he thought, of cials; the news accounts of victories and a new nation. William Gilmore Simms, defeats; biographies, sermons, novels, dean of Southern novelists of the period, plays, song-sheets, broadside petitions conveyed its continuing meaning in and advertisements, playing cards, reli- words he wrote in his introduction to an gious tracts, and railroad schedules—are anthology of Confederate poetry pub- abiding testimonials of how the Confed- lished soon after the War: "The emo- eracy lived and fought. tional literature of a people is as neces- Four and a half years is a short time sary to the philosophical historian as the in which to produce a national litera- mere details of events in the progress of ture. In the face of the difficulties that a nation. . . . The mere facts of history beset authors, publishers, and readers it do not always, or often, indicate the true is surprising that the Confederate States animus of the action. But in poetry and produced any literature at all. The flow- song, the emotional nature is apt to de- ering of Southern letters came later, but clare itself without reserve—speaking there were foreshadowings during the out with a passion which disdains subter- War. Lanier was writing Tiger Lilies. fuge, and through media of imagination Joel Chandler Harris, then a printer's and fancy which are not only without re- devil, was contributing his first verses to serve, but which are too coercive in their the columns of The Countryman, a plan- own nature, too arbitrary in their in- tation paper which brought a flavor rem- fluence, to acknowledge any restraints iniscent of The Tatler to middle Geor- upon that expression, which glows or gia. John Esten Cooke, unofficial aide-de- weeps with emotions that gush freely and camp of J. E. B. Stuart, was sending as freshly from the heart." despatches to Richmond's The Southern It is that "true animus" in which li- Illustrated News much of the material brarians, historians, and bibliographers later reworked into novels of the Army are most interested. It is that feeling of of Northern Virginia. Constance Cary the time they wish to discover. Librarian- was composing stories for the Richmond ship, historiography, and bibliography journals (though they show little of the are but tools, and are but poor tools if finish that marks her later novels). Au- they do not lead to that animus, if they gusta Jane Evans was nursing soldiers at teach only to shelve books, record facts, Camp Beulah near Mobile and using her or list titles. spare time to write Macaria, literary sen- Not only the emotional literature, but sation of the last years of the Confed- the whole scope of printed evidence of eracy. life in the Confederacy is an index to The first Confederate publications the feelings and actions of the time. The consisted largely of political pamphlets, Confederate States can serve as a remark- the proceeedings of the secession conven- able laboratory for the study of the socio- tions of the several Southern states, and logical impact and importance of the an impressive library of military manuals printed word. It was a nation circum- designed to bridge the translation of ci- scribed in both time and area. It was a vilians into an army. The first Confed- nation in which printing had become a erate copyright (later rescinded) was part of everyday life but where the prod- granted to S. H. Goetzel's edition of Gen- ucts of the presses had not reached an eral William J. Hardee's Tactics early in unmanageable abundance. The printed 1861. At least three volumes of Southern evidences of the Confederates—govern- poetry and one book of camp humor ment publications of laws, battle reports, made their appearance by the end of the general orders, instructions for petty offi- year. New novels were not ready until

JULY 1959 285 1862, but, as supplies of old titles in lustrated London News. In like manner bookshops dwindled and readers turned Southern Punch was, in its own words, from the temporary excitement of polit- "a legitimate son of that world-renowned ical pamphlets to more entertaining 'London Punch'. . . . Our 'Punch' is a reading, the flow of both domestic and genuine Confederate. He prefers the Vir- imported fiction was impressive. ginia mint julep and the mixed drinks Confederate publishing grew into a of the Cotton States to Brown Stout and booming business. One firm, the Evans Cheshire cheese. In a word, the young & Cogswell Company of Columbia, South Punch is Southron." Carolina, operated an establishment with The whole literature of the Confed- seventy-six presses and 344 employees. erate States was Southern—because of a Even so, editions were small and distri- deep consciousness of the historic mo- bution was haphazard. Shortages necessi- ment in which the Confederacy lived. tated use of native hardwoods instead of "There is a deeper pathos, a loftier poet- metal in making plates. Books were ry," wrote the Illustrated News, "in the bound in wallpaper. Newspapers bor- incidents of yesterday's battlefield than rowed paper on virtually an issue-to-issue belong to the most tuneful measures, basis, printed on wallpaper or coarse while Jack Morgan and Jeb. Stuart sur- wrapping paper; and few issues were pass all the knighthood of romance." missed. The peripatetic career of the Mrs. Sallie Rochester Ford seized on the Memphis Appeal has long been a saga of exploits of Morgan to create her Raids journalism. Many other papers were and Romance of Morgan and His Men. published far from their homes. After Cooke's "Outlines From the Outpost," appearing in Georgia for some time, the sparkling reports from Stuart's camp, refugee Winchester, Tennessee, paper served as seed corn for such novels as finally sold its press to the Medical De- Surry of Eagle's-Nest, Mohun, and Hilt partment of the Army of Tennessee. Us- to Hilt. Frank R. Goulding re-wrote his usually housed in a boxcar, this press Robert and Harold into the text beloved spent the last two years of the war grind- by four generations of Southern young- ing out general orders and medical forms sters as The Young Marooners. George at a variety of spots in Georgia, Alabama, William Bagby wrote humorous stories and Mississippi. for Confederate periodicals in the strain Most popular of Confederate periodi- that later made him famous. With Ma- cals was The Southern Illustrated News. caria (a novel for which General P. G. T. Established in Richmond in the early Beauregard acted as military adviser) fall of 1862 the News presented its read- Miss Evans apprenticed her postwar suc- ers a galaxy of distinguished writers and cess St. Elmo, verily the Gone With the soon achieved unprecedented success for Wind of its day. a Southern weekly. It had a capable edi- There were meretricious stories too, tor in John R. Thompson. It maintained hack productions by James D. McCabe, its own staff of artists and engravers. Best Jr., W. D. Herrington, Mary Jane Haw, of all, it paid for contributions. Among Alexander St. Clair Abrams, Napier its contributors were Thompson (who Bartlett, Ebeneezer Warren, and others. was also State Librarian of Virginia at They turned out the fragile booklets the the time), Simms, Cooke, Henry Timrod, soldiers bought in railroad stations, read Miss Cary, and Paul Hamilton Hayne— to death, and made forever rare. There the cream of the practicing literary fig- were plays by Joseph Hodgson, McCabe, ures of the Confederacy. Stephen F. Miller, and William Russell The News was modelled after the Il- Smith—of little dramatic worth but ex-

286 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES pressive of the time. And poetry. The level of activity. This breadth of expres- literary South did its best in the topical sion from both sides eventually com- poems of Hayne and Timrod, Thomp- bined with the work of later historians to son, Cooke, Simms, James Ryder Ran- make the American Civil War the best dall, Severn Teackle Wallis, Lynden documented of all wars. Flash, John Hill Hewitt, and a host of America in 1861 was still a new coun- "female poets." Southerners who know try. Just as the War was a test of demo- little of history and even less of literature cratic principle, it was a test of demo- still remember schoolboy recitations of cratic education. Never before had there "The Burial of Latane," "The Battle been so literate an army as that of the Rainbow," "Little Giffen of Tennessee," United States. Such a soldiery was ready and "The Broken Jug." Even those who and proud to relate its experiences. Such do not know it was first a poem recognize a soldiery was capable of understanding the stirring words of "Maryland, My printed orders and explanations. Nor, in Maryland." One Confederate anthologist the newness of universal education, was boasted in 1862: "Southern independ- this country, as Beecher noted, "with ence has struck the lyre as well as un- books and newspapers thick as leaves in sheathed the sword," and then, in a our own forests" inured to the uses of naively candid sentence, added: "The propaganda. It was ripe for the printed book embalms if it does not immortal- word to be used in shaping the course ize." of its history. The Confederacy's literary accomplish- Unlike their Southern contemporaries, ments proved that the seeds of a regional, the Northerners were not impoverished if not national, literature were among for the materials of printing as the War her people. They proved once again that progressed. Printing did not disappear a people lives not by bread alone, nor at the South, but it survived despite dif- by battles alone. They left for Americans ficulties that seriously hampered its effec- of later generations a living record of the tiveness. In the North, supplies of paper, Confederate States. presses, and printers were readily avail- Was the story of printing and publish- able throughout the War. The pub- ing activities of the North during the lishing business was not nearly so con- War years very different from that at the centrated in the big cities of the East as South? Probably not. One of the boons it would be later; nor was a discourag- in studying Civil War history is that sol- ingly large capital investment required diers and civilians on both sides spoke to engage in it. There were publishers in the same language, dressed alike and the new cities of the Midwest, in Denver, wrote alike, and generally lived and and even in far-away San Francisco. Press- thought alike. As President Lincoln put es were soon adapted to camp use so it, "They read the same Bible, and that many military units had their own pray[ed] to the same God, and each in- regimental papers and every major com- voke[d] His aid against the other." They mand its own field press. were—despite different turns of political Nor was the United States impover- opinion—in fact, alike; something they ished of authors. Though little of liter- may someday rediscover. ary note was published during the War, As were their opponents at the South there was a wealth of talent among the the Northerners of the sixties were tre- practicing writers of the time. Some of mendously conscious of their moment in this talent, such as Walt Whitman's, was history. There was a national urge to directed into active participation in the record the experience of war at every War. Other was used for the creation of

JULY 1959 287 literary propaganda. Lowell, Whittier, "May God," he wrote, "reunite our sev- and Holmes were active propagandists. eral bonds of friendship, and turn our Even Bret Harte in the Far West wrote hearts to peace! I can say in sincerity that a special poem for The Sanitary Commis- I bear animosity to no one. Wherever the sion Bulletin. Edmund Clarence Sted- blame may be, the fact is that we are in man reported the War for the New York the midst of a fratricidal war. I must side World and wrote topical poetry. Others either with or against my section of the who contributed to the anthologies of country. I cannot raise my hand against the day included Thomas Bailey Aldrich, my birthplace, my home, my children." Charles G. Leland, and Fitzjames Here are excerpts from the words Gen- O'Brien. The wartime novels were undis- eral William Tecumseh Sherman wrote tinguished, but there was a plenty of the Mayor of Atlanta in the late summer them. The magazines—Leslie's, Harper's, of 1864: "We must have Peace, not only the Atlantic—flourished. J. W. DeForest, at Atlanta, but in all America. To secure later to achieve a distinguished reputa- this, we must stop the war that now deso- tion as a novelist, wrote reports from the lates our once happy and favored coun- armies for Harper's, and the Atlantic try. To stop war we must defeat Rebel printed one of its most enduring stories armies that are arrayed against the Con- when it published Edward Everett Hale's stitution which all must respect and "The Man Without a Country." Stephen obey. . . . You cannot qualify war in Foster, Henry Clay Work, George F. harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, Root, Patrick Gilmore, and other profes- and you cannot refine it; and those who sional song writers supplied music for brought war on the country deserve all the soldiers; but amateurs helped, par- the curses and maledictions a people can ticularly Julia Ward Howe with the great pour out. I know I had no hand in mak- "Battle Hymn of the Republic." And, of ing this war, and I know I will make course, the War was thoroughly docu- more sacrifices to-day than any of you to mented in publications of Congress, per- secure peace. But you cannot have peace sonal and official reports of generals, and and a division of our country. ... I want in publication in newspapers of every peace, and believe it can only be reached scrap of information reporters with the through Union and war, and I will ever armies could uncover. conduct war purely with a view to per- In the printed page we have the story fect and early success." of the American Civil War as it was lived And should any American ever forget by the participants. In the printed page the words of President Lincoln's Second is the immediacy of history. For there Inaugural? "Fondly we hope—fervently need be little more between the author we pray—that this mighty scourge of war of the 1860's and his reader of the 1950's may speedily pass away," he said. And than there was between him and the read- then, in an incomparable peroration: er of his own day. For our best under- "With malice toward none; with charity standing of the War we turn, not to the for all; with firmness in the right, as God multitude of latter-day interpretations, gives us to see the right, let us strive on but to the interpretations of its own to finish the work we are in; to bind up time—to the past itself. the nation's wounds; to care for him who Again I call contemporary witnesses. shall have borne the battle, and for his Where better than in the letter Gen- widow, and his orphan—to do all which eral Robert E. Lee wrote to a little girl may achieve and cherish a just and a last- in the North in May 1861 is an expres- ing peace among ourselves, and with all sion of the attitude of that great man? nations."

288 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES