Letters from a North Carolina Unionist: John A. Hedrick to Benjamin S. Hedrick, 1862-1865.

Edited by Judkin Browning and Michael Thomas Smith. (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2001. Pp. [xxx], 287. $25.00, ISBN 0-86526-295-0.)

John and Benjamin Hedrick, native North Carolinians, left the South in the 1850s and entered civilian service on the side of the Union when the Civil War erupted. Benjamin quickly secured a position for himself in the U.S. Patent Office. John, somewhat less aggressive and ambitious, needed help from his brother, who eventually found him a position as U.S. Treasury Department collector for the port of Beaufort, North Carolina. The brothers maintained an active correspondence during the war. Heretofore unpublished, these two hundred letters, mostly penned by John, provide us with the perspective of a southern-born Unionist, moderate on the issue of slavery, as he served in the Union-occupied portion of his home state.

The editors have provided a fine introduction to the volume. The biographical sketch of the Hedrick family and the description of the Union occupation of eastern North Carolina help the reader understand the context of John's letters. Their notations throughout the volume are also illuminating. Consequently, the racial prejudice that John expresses ("There are not many niggs here ..." [p. 15]; "They [black troops] don't look as dangerous and bloodthirsty as might be expected" [p. 130]) is not a surprise and probably goes a long way toward explaining why he was on relatively good terms with the local white population. Many of his letters contain more in the way of mundane gossip than information about his job. Perhaps most interesting are John's comments relating to the Union's efforts to provide a loyal government for the state, which he seems to have viewed in a detached manner and reported on almost humorously to his brother.

These letters contain little in the way of new or startling information. They do, however, provide a valuable and interesting perspective on the daily life and political ramifications of life in a Union-occupied southern state. John's general acceptance in the community afforded him a radically different viewpoint from that experienced by other Unionists, such as teachers sponsored by the American Missionary Association to establish schools for the "contrabands." As a result, our understanding of this region during the war becomes more three-dimensional. Editors Browning and Smith have afforded us a new window into a portion of the Union-occupied Confederacy. That they have not claimed to produce a "be all and end all" volume enhances its value.

NANCY SMITH MIDGETTE
Elon University