Tarnished Eagles [Hardcover]

Thomas P. Lowry (Author), William C. Davis (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

17 b/w photos 6 x 9 An engaging roster of curmudgeons, drunkards, and fools From the author of The Story the Soldiers Wouldnt Tell Thomas P. Lowrys Tarnished Eagles is the first systematic look at Civil War courts-martial, and . . . it offers the surprising finding that officers, in fact, were in trouble more often than the enlisted men. . . . Lowry lets their court-martial records speak for themselves . . . while drawing some far- reaching conclusions from their experiences as a whole. William C. Davis More than 100,000 men in the Union army faced courts-martial during the years of the Civil War. In this new study, the author has chosen 50 Union colonels and lieutenant colonels to highlight the difficulties in placing civilians unfamiliar with the rigors of army life in command. For example, one colonel was so drunk he fell off his horse; another was nicknamed Stumpy because he tended to shout orders from behind a tree stump. The stories of these tragicomic characters, and of many more contained herein, will add significant commentary to the burgeoning study of Civil War misbehavior. Dr. Thomas P. Lowry is a retired professor of psychiatry. He is the author of The Story the Soldiers Wouldnt Tell, The Attack on Taranto, and The Civil War Bawdy Houses of Washington, DC. In February 1863 a third set of charges appeared in the record, illustrating Lords talent for getting himself into trouble in multiple venues. . . . At Cottage Landing, Virginia, he was so drunk that he made an indecent exposure of his person in the presence of a lady, after which he rode his horse into a gully and fell headlong from the saddle.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With the superlative Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell (1994) behind him, Lowry is working his way through the complete file of Union court-martial records to compile a social portrait of the Union army. This is the first fruit of that labor, consisting of reports of 50 courts-martial of colonels and lieutenant colonels. The offenses include cowardice, incompetence, drunkenness, insubordination, and simple violations of regulations. In their backgrounds (many were lawyers), postwar careers, habits (good and bad), etc., the offenders constitute a cross section of the strata of society from which the leaders of volunteer regiments came. Lowry's admirable dry wit is with him still, and so is compassion for the significant fraction of the subjects who died in action or were crippled for life by wounds--not an aspect of the conflict beloved of Civil War romantics. If not quite such a groundbreaker as its predecessor, this is a fine book that augurs well for the eventual value of Lowry's grand project. Roland Green

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Stackpole Books; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811715973
• ISBN-13: 978-0811715973
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,412,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a product of northern California -- beaches, high Sierras, high school in the East Bay, plane spotting in World War II, seven years at Stanford. Starting in 1957, I was a physician and psychiatrist -- an always interesting life -- in California and New Mexico, publishing several very dull medical books. Around 1995, with my wife Beverly, we began reading the Civil War records of misbehavior at the National Archives. Just like today's tabloids, only wilder. We found that high school history left out all the interesting stuff.

As you can see from my titles, I don't do battles or famous generals or comment on grand strategy. We do "human interest" stories (all true) of men terrified in combat, of women who miss having their men in bed, of abused horses, of loyal friends, of political conniptions, and of the surpringly ubiquity of prostitution. And little byways: Was Lincoln gay? Why were so many of his bodyguards drunks? Was Robert E. Lee's favorite ranger just a horse thief?

So, I retired from scuba diving (damaged ears), and from medicine (forty years is enough), and I'm having a great time. About my books -- I don't think you'll find a boring one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uh-Oh, He Got Caught!, January 25, 2011

By 

Adrienne Sadovsky "museumgirl" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tarnished Eagles (Hardcover)

Just read today that the National Archives have discovered that Mr. Lowry changed an Abraham Lincoln document to make it look like that the last thing Lincoln did on 14 April 1865 (the day of his death) was pardon a soldier. Mr. Lowry told the Archives that he did it to essentially make himself important because he was the doscoverer of this amazing document. The statute of limitations have passed and Mr. Lowry will not be charged for desicrating and national document; however, this now puts everything Mr. Lowry has written under a microscope of suspicion. Now his work needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It's really sad when someonne sabotages themselves for a little bit of recognition.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable research, fascinating stories, October 1, 2000

By 

Ralph H. Peters (Washington, D.C. area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tarnished Eagles (Hardcover)

Far too many writers addressing the Civil War are guilty of childish romanticism. While that tremendous conflict certainly had its noble heroes and ample demonstrations of courage and self-sacrifice, any war--or human crisis of any sort--has its cowards and fools, its liars, thieves and rogues. This fine, factual book serves as a much-needed (and highly readable) balance to pulp fiction and pulp history heroics. It tells the stories of some of the officers who went wrong, either from deficiency of character or circumstance. In doing so, it enriches our understanding and visceral sense of the Civil War in ways that the next dozen adulatory biographies of mediocre generals will not. While I am a long-time fan of co-author William C. Davis, Dr. Lowry deserves special praise for his continuing literary efforts to describe the dramas and tragedies around, between and, sometimes, in the great battles. As a former soldier who served a full career, I can guarantee any reader that this book shows soldiers as more than a few of them really are--not gallantly charging the enemy, but energetically looking after themselves. While this book concentrates on some of the darker aspects of the war, those aspects are exactly the ones that are lacking in too much of what passes as history or historical literature. I would also recommend any of Lowry's or Davis's other superb Civil War books.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drunk As A Lord, August 8, 2005

By 

Pen-and- sword (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tarnished Eagles (Hardcover)

Union Col. Newton Lord, in demanding "A brandy for my horse", while in a saloon(and in the saddle as well)sets a high standard for shameful and hilarious buffoonery in uniform.

Once again, author Thomas Lowry takes readers on a dizzing ride of strange and amusing tales from civil war court records. The war between the states was a large conflict requiring the sevices of millions of troops and thousands of officers--and with only a handfull experienced soldiers availible at the beginning of the war, the opprotunity presented itself for any gentleman of means to start his own regiment.

I recommend this read most highly for anyone who has served under an eccentric leader, or laughed at Shakespeares' Falstaff,or George Frasers' Col. Flashman. Perhaps those fictional clowns were based on the sort of real-life poltroons that every army seems to have.

Lowry joins a great fraternity of those who show that history is funny as well true.