Mountaineers in Gray: The Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.

Mountaineers in Gray: The Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. By John D. Fowler. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2004. Pp. xviii, 282. $34.00, ISBN 1-57233-314-6.)

In recent years scholars have begun to examine Civil War units, particularly on the army level, from a sociological perspective, relying on a wide variety of sources to give a more comprehensive picture of the men who fought and the world around them. John D. Fowler's study is an important entry into the new unit history field. Arguing that "the regiment was the basic building block of Civil War armies," Fowler not only conducts a thorough analysis of what made the Nineteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry tick but also chooses to write about a Confederate regiment that was an anomaly (p. xii).

When mustered into service in the spring of 1861, the Nineteenth drew its recruits from East Tennessee, in the midst of the strongest center of southern Unionism. Why did these men risk their lives, the safety of their families, and their wherewithal contrary to the position of most of their fellow citizens who remained steadfastly loyal to the Union? Building on the previous work of W. Todd Groce, Fowler shows that the majority of the Nineteenth's men came from towns near major transportation avenues tied to the South. The author also demonstrates that a significant number of the men belonged to the East Tennessee elite--well-established families involved in professional careers or commercial agriculture. The men of the Nineteenth "envisioned themselves engaged in a struggle to secure their liberty from a tyrannical federal government ... that not only sought to curtail the expansion of slavery and hence new economic opportunity but also ... intended to force the seceded states back into the Union" (p. 37).

Starting with more than a thousand recruits, the Nineteenth went on to fight in all of the Army of Tennessee's battles except Perryville. Depleted by battlefield casualties, disease, and mounting desertion, the regiment ended the war with only a few dozen men. While the overall experience of the Nineteenth was similar to that of men in other regiments, Fowler argues that the challenges these East Tennesseans faced during and after the war set them apart. All Confederate soldiers worried about the fate of their families and property, but the men of the Nineteenth knew also that their region was torn by brutal internecine conflict. When Federal forces moved into East Tennessee in 1863, Unionists sought revenge against those who had sided with the South. At war's end, the men of the Nineteenth returned home to neighbors who greeted them with hostility. Many veterans were threatened with their lives. As Fowler relates, large numbers of ex-Confederates were forced to move to other areas, particularly the Deep South.

Although it is not a compelling, page-turning narrative of war, this book is an important piece of scholarship, one that stands as a model for the study of other regiments. Fowler's demographic, social, and economic analysis of the men who served in the Nineteenth, his scrutiny of the election of their officers, and especially his examination of those who deserted greatly enhance our understanding of the Civil War soldier experience. One might quibble with the book's title, which implies that the men of the Nineteenth were mountain folk. As Fowler clearly demonstrates, most of the Nineteenth's soldiers came from the urban communities of the valley of East Tennessee. They were anything but the stereotypical mountaineers of Appalachia. That aside, John Fowler has added an important new dimension to Civil War history that should encourage other scholars to imitation.

CHARLES F. BRYAN JR.

Virginia Historical Society