Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1994 TAG: 9403270156
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: :wq! Reviewed by ROBERT HILLDRUP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A CAPTAIN'S WAR: The Letters and Diaries of William H.S. Burgwyn, 1861-1865. By Herbert M. Schiller. White Mane. $24.95.
THE GETTYSBURG SOLDIERS' CEMETERY AND LINCOLN'S ADDRESS. By Frank L. Clement. White Mane. $30.
"Hanging Rock Rebel" is a diary, long out of print, that is exciting, funny, adventurous, suspenseful, informative - and it should have been a whole lot better than it is.
The problem is a total lack of editing _ editing that would have explained Blue's rudimentary spelling, switching names, changes in direction and a chronology of omissions; he goes from private to lieutenant and we have no idea when, how or why, nor is there any reference to West Virginia emerging as a state.
Such omissions are part of the charm of a diary printed between 1898 and 1901 in The Hampshire Review, the paper of his home county, but explanations are still warranted.
Wounded frequently and captured three times, Blue never seemed to lose a positive outlook. He was a member of the 11th Virginia (Cavalry) and as such, seems to have traveled every pig-path, mountain and valley between Romney, West Virginia, Staunton and points beyond. This book, like "A Captain's War," is a wonderful addition to the literature of the Civil War because it brings to light long-lost personal reminiscences.
"A Captain's War" makes for interesting companion reading with Blue's book because it relates another officer's experience, this one a privileged North Carolina planter's son who was first commissioned at 15. Yet despite difference in class, culture and education, Burgwyn's accounts of his experiences, though much better presented than Blue's work, are at times redundant and they certainly lack the color and emotion of Blue.
White Mane Publishing, which is making a substantive contribution to Civil War literature with these books presents a more conventional work in "The Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery and Lincoln's Address." This is a straightforward account of how the cemetery came to be, along with a clear and cogent account of Lincoln's address, and the controversies that have surrounded it.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
by CNB