The Papers of Jefferson Davis. Volume 11: September 1864-May 1865.

The Papers of Jefferson Davis. Volume 11: September 1864-May 1865. Edited by Lynda Lasswell Crist, Barbara J. Rozek, and Kenneth H. Williams. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. Pp. xlviii, 699. $85.00, ISBN 0-8071-2909-7.)

Anyone who doubts the value of annotated, published editions of the papers of prominent Americans should take a close look at this series, including, and perhaps especially, this volume. This installment in the papers of Jefferson Davis provides a close look at the unraveling of the Confederacy from numerous perspectives. Beginning with the capture of Atlanta by Federal forces in September 1864 and continuing through the arrival of Davis as a prisoner at Fortress Monroe in May 1865, this careful selection of letters to and from the embattled Confederate president, as well as speeches and conversations, allows insights not only into Davis but also into the myriad issues wracking the South during this crucial period.

Davis emerges from these pages an active statesman focused on winning, to an arguably delusional degree. He told a Georgia audience in October 1864 that "Those ... who have lost confidence are to me like those of whose distorted vision it is said they behold spots upon the sun" (p. 79). Of course, sunspots are real, and the Confederacy lost. But Davis was not the only southerner who believed that victory was still possible during the last nine months of his administration, and he was inundated with letters from correspondents who apparently took that as a given and wanted to call the president's attention to other issues, no matter how mundane. The main topics of interest to historians do emerge, from the mass of material presented here. Davis wrestled with the issue of recruiting blacks as soldiers, which got a surprisingly high degree of support from southerners. He complained about deserters and shirkers, at whose feet he laid most of the blame for the Confederacy's military reverses. The president battled with the Confederate Congress and other leaders, and he was bitterly disappointed with the Hampton Roads conference, the inconclusive results of which he attributed as much to failures of his own delegation as to Federal intransigence. Finally, Davis tinkered constantly with the military and seems to have been fascinated with secret intelligence operations of all varieties.

Davis's biases are clear. He continued to support Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood even after their respective fiascoes at Fort Fisher and in Tennessee. In fact, despite Davis's postwar demurrers, he apparently fully supported Hood's march into Tennessee in the fall of 1864 and several times talked of planting the Confederate flag once more on the Ohio River. Conversely, the president opposed returning Joseph E. Johnston to command, until Robert E. Lee, as general-in-chief, took that decision from Davis by asking Johnston to direct operations in North Carolina. Even then, Davis kept a close eye on Johnston and constantly tried to interfere with his efforts. Davis also had a very low opinion of Edmund Kirby Smith, who commanded in the trans-Mississippi area, and restricted most of his correspondence with Smith to demands that Smith send his troops to the eastern theaters. As late as April 1865 Davis wrote to Bragg about plans to bring troops east from the trans-Mississippi to form a new army, a scheme in which Hood intended to play an active role, before the war's end made such ideas moot.

Those who criticize Davis will find much grist for their mill in this compilation. Yet, it becomes obvious that it might well have taken a saint to cope with the issues and complaints that enveloped the Confederate president. Everybody wanted something, of course, and sometimes that involved sharp criticism of Davis, who was not loath to snap back at those who carped at him. Sometimes he had no answers, as with requests that something be done about Union prisoners of war. Nonetheless, he never quit the Confederacy, and he never stopped trying to do what he thought fellow southerners expected of him.

This volume reflects the usually high standards of the editorial staff. The contents of this tome have been compiled from dozens of sources, including archives, newspapers, memoirs, and auction catalogs. Many of the entries appear in print for the first time in this volume. There are also calendars, or summaries, of documents, but these are often of material published elsewhere. The entries that appear in full are extensively annotated; in fact, the footnotes are one of the most useful features of the volume, and they reflect a thorough combing of a lengthy bibliography. An addendum of calendars of "recently discovered items dated prior to September 1864" adds to the material presented in earlier volumes and thus enhances the utility of this entry in a series that remains an indispensable resource for anyone interested in nineteenth-century America (p. xxvi).

University of North Texas

RICHARD B. MCCASLIN