To Battle for God and the Right: the Civil War Letterbooks of Emerson Opdycke.

To Battle for God and the Right: The Civil War Letterbooks of Emerson Opdycke. Edited by Glenn V. Longacre and John E. Haas. Foreword by Peter Cozzens. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, c. 2003. Pp. xxxviii, 332. $34.95, ISBN 0-252-02774-4.)

This book consists of more than three hundred letters written by Emerson Opdycke to his wife, Lucy, from August 1861 when he was elected a first lieutenant in the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI) through August 1865 when he left active service. He formally resigned his commission in the Army of the Cumberland in January 1866. By that time, Opdycke had risen to the rank of brigadier general. Recognized by his superiors for courage and efficiency, he was given more and more command responsibility. He first commanded a regiment in the 125th OVI, later a brigade, and finally a division.

Opdycke fought in most of the major battles--Shiloh, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Franklin--in the western theater. As the editors, both archivists, concede, Opdycke was not in a position to see the full expanse of the battlefields on which he fought, though that limitation did not prevent him from bitterly criticizing the performance of Ulysses S. Grant, William S. Rosecrans, and others above and below him in rank. Opdycke achieved his greatest fame at the Battle of Franklin, repelling an assault by Patrick R. Cleburne's division that threatened to overwhelm federal forces. Later, he had to contend bitterly with two officers who tried to take credit for what Opdycke had done at Franklin.

One theme that emerges in these letters is Opdycke's changing perception of why the war was waged. At the outset, the "right" meant for him the need to prevail in "the great World Trial of Popular Government" (p. 2). Later, it became the crusade to rid the nation of slavery. Like many other federal officers, Opdycke does not come across as sympathetic to slaves. Lucy, who visited the home of Charles G. Finney during the war, apparently began to wonder about her husband's commitment to abolitionism after his disparaging comments about "Darkies." If his commitment to abolitionist principles was doubtful, there was no question about his hatred of enemy soldiers. Still, he was horrified by the "awful" scene at Franklin, where he viewed Confederate bodies "thickly piled one upon another" (p. 250).

Some readers may be put off by Opdycke's arrogance, which surfaces frequently in these letters. That arrogance stemmed from his burning desire to achieve military glory. At one point he confessed to Lucy that, even if he were recognized as the best brigade commander in the army, he would probably soon want corps commander status, since it was not in his "nature to rest satisfied with any thing long" (p. 277). He constantly complained of favoritism shown to regular rather than volunteer army officers.

Glenn V. Longacre and John E. Haas are to be commended for giving us such a detailed look at the motivation, courage, and especially the political infighting of officers who served in the Army of the Cumberland. Opdycke's letters are expertly annotated with rich detail about the lives of individuals, including privates; they were worth publication.

JAMES M. RUSSELL

University of Tennessee, Chattanooga