Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 1, 1993 TAG: 9308010200
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by ROBERT HILLDRUP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FOUR DAYS IN 1865: The Fall of Richmond. By David D. Ryan. Cadmus Communications. (price not listed).
A USER'S GUIDE TO THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. By Alan and Barbara Aimone. White Mane. (price not listed).
He didn't get the press of the eastern generals _ Lee, Jackson, Stuart, A.P. Hill - but boy, did he deserve it. Now, more and more, Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest is receiving the recognition and study that his remarkable career deserve.
Forrest did his fighting in what was known as the "western" theater - Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky. He used his cavalry in imaginative ways that far exceeded those of the colorful Stuart. He fought the Yankees from horseback and afoot, killed 30 enemy himself, had 29 horses shot out from under him, killed at least one of his own soldiers and threatened the very life of his commander, the incompetent Braxton Bargg.
As author Jack Hurst says, Forrest "took to fighting the way most men take to talking about it."
Forrest was as controversial before and after the war as he was during it. A near illiterate slave trader, he still built a business and political career on both his awesome courage and his wits. The care he took of his slaves was considered remarkable, but the motive was simple: well fed, happy animals produce the best work and the top dollar.
Hurst's account places appropriate emphasis on Forrest's racial attitudes both before and during the war, and on both his leadership of, and order for the dissolution of the Ku Klux Klan after it.
The result is an absolutely fascinating biography, the best I have read in recent years, since Dr. James Robertson's conclusive and definitive work on A.P. Hill.
David Ryan's new book on the fall of Richmond, "Four Days In 1865," is also an excellent and informative work, condensing as it does from many sources the observances of both invader and defender, black and white, soldier and civilian, on the doom that befell the Confederate capital.
It is both strange and unnecessary, however, that Ryan periodically interrupts the flow of his narrative with historical recreations of events, during which he puts imaginary dialogue into the mouths of his characters. He does this exceedingly well, and may very possibly have a future as an historical novelist, but the practice gilds a lily that is hardly in need of it.
The guide by the Aimones is, frankly, a disappointment.
The Official Records (or OR's) form the basis for much Civil War research by both professional and amateur. But instead of being a guide as to how to use them, as the title of their work implies, the Aimones simply recite primarily how the OR's came into being. The result is not particularly helpful.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
by CNB