Customer Reviews

Three Months in the Southern States: April-June 1863

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Fremantle's diary offers an interesting and indeed first -hand view of the Confederacy during his brief tenure in the Southern states. The reader quickly realizes that Fremantle has become quite enamoured with the Southern spirit and elan. Once I finished this marvelous account, I did, though, wonder what his diary would have been like if he'd begun his journey in more Northern climes. It is most interesting to see his natural European bias show at times - his usual disdain for the Dutch and Germans of Pennsylvania, and of course, his affinity for the Southern aristocracy of which as a Brit he is well versed.Also of note is the fact that this account was published shortly after his travels - hence, we see no post-war agenda being served like many other after-the-fact memoirs and such. All said, a wonderful look at the times with a true "you are there" approach (don't miss his climbing in the trees to get a good glimpse of the battlefield at Gettysburg!)

Arthur Fremantle was a British Army officer who (for "a vacation") went traveling through the Confederacy. On his journey, he met many top generals and was at Gettysburg during the vicious battle. One can get a unique perspective on how it was to live and travel in the South during the Civil War. Many interesting bits of information will greet the reader, among them a slave voluntarily leading Union prisoners through a Northern village. This is a must for all Civil War buffs.

Anyone who either read "The Killer Angels" or saw the movie "Gettysburg" will remember Colonel Fremantle as the pleasant, urbane, mildly dweeby British officer hanging about the camp of General Longstreet. This is the diary kept by that British officer during the spring and summer of 1863. It was a popular success upon its publication, while the war was still going on, and has remained one of the most vivid, engaging portraits of the Confederacy as it struggled for its existence during the summer that all but doomed it.

Fremantle entered the Confederacy through Mexico. The opening third of his diary recounts his travels from Brownsville to San Antonio, back east to Houston, and then north and east into Louisiana. Fremantle's portrait of raw, brash, violent Texas would be worth reading on its own, even if it weren't followed up by the account of his travels from there to Virginia. To reach the Army of Northern Virginia, Fremantle traveled the entire length of the Confederacy, noting its struggles, its privations, and its intense will to survive. He arrived in Virginia just in time to follow Lee's army into Pennsylvania and watch the battle of Gettysburg from tree top, camp fire, and horseback.

Fremantle is a brisk, vivid, observant writer. He writes a lean, sharp prose, has a good eye for detail, and clips through his account at high speed. As a result, his diary is compulsively readable from end to end, as well as being frequently quite funny. Americans seen through aristocratic British eyes look often like Twain's wilder characters. His book also, however, serves to correct and refine commonly held perceptions of the South. He notes, for example, how furiously the Southern women wished the defeat of the Yankees; the women come across as more violent and implacable than the men in the field. He also corrects the tendency to see the Army of Northern Virginia as finished or desponding after their defeat at Gettysburg. In July 1863 the loss seems to have appeared to Lee's men as a temporary set-back, not at all the beginning of the end. "Lee's Miserables" entirely expected to come back later and return to their old habit of thrashing the Army of the Potomac whenever they met it.

The Southerners appear in the diary, in fact, more worried about Vicksburg than about Gettysburg, and were forced to credit U. S. Grant with being a scrappy fighter, if no great tactician. They could not begin to see or imagine his decisive role in their future. The diary ends with the election of 1864 still in the future and Fremantle convinced that the South will live to win its freedom.

Given how much Colonel Fremantle was able to observe and report in the few months he was on American soil, one can only wish, after reading his book, that he had arrived in spring 1861 and been able to hang around the entire four years. It is certainly one of the liveliest accounts of the Confederacy at war this side of Sam Watkins' unrivaled "Co. Aytch."

Lieut. -Col. Arthur Fremantle has not given us in this work a tired and boring look at strategy and tactics. He has also not told us anything new about the leading men of the Confederacy. What the reader will get is an excellent look at day to day life in the Confederate army and in the southern nation itself.

The lack of tactical detail could result from the fact that Fremantle, although a career military man had never seen combat until Gettysburg. It could also result from his desire to avoid aiding the north by giving away secrets while the war was still in progress. There are, after all, instances in the book where Fremantle makes it clear that he is not writing about all he saw for that very reason. Whatever the reason, I'm happy he left out the tactics for it would have only slowed down a marvelous account of Fremantle's trip through the Confederacy.

It is obvious early on that Fremantle is very taken with the south and some of his stories about happy slaves might reflect a bit of propaganda. Overall however, his stories of individual behavior are more than credible and drive home the point that this war was affecting the lives of real people, not historical figures. The stories of hotel keepers in northern territory that were hesitant to let him have a room until he produced gold coin for payment, the slave of a Confederate officer leading a Yankee prisoner by a rope tied around the poor prisoner's neck, and the several stories of southern women being far more antagonistic toward the north than were the men, all help bring the human side of the civil war to life. Reading Fremantle's account of General Lee's behavior as his broken troops returned to Seminary Ridge after the disaster now called Pickett's charge almost makes the reader feel as if they were there.

Read this book with a small grain of salt, remembering that Fremantle is writing this book in England while the war is still in progress. His anti-Irish bias kept getting under my skin but as with the rest of the book, you must keep in mind who is writing the narrative and when it was written. Overall however, I think the reader will find that Fremantle's observations are both entertaining and enlightening.

Arthur Fremantle was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army. He took leave to tour the South during the three months up to the Battle of Gettysburg. This book is his diary, edited and published in England after he returned. He experienced many hardships initially but was essentially uncomplaining. He was very congenial with the southerners and was allowed to go many places and talk to many people, high and low, including Robert E. Lee and Jeff Davis. His views are insightful and as dispassionate as an Englishman of the time could be. He eventually rose to be chief of the British Army.

Succinct yet powerful, this volume is a treasure trove of information. The personal observations of Colonel Arthur J.L. Fremantle of His Majesty's Coldstream Guards, this volume covers his travels and experiences as a British Army observer from his landing at Matamoras, Mexico up to and including his observations at the Battle of Gettysburg. Fremantle is extremely observant. This short, quick read describes conditions, thoughts and attitudes in the South during the spring and summer of 1863. It is surprisingly well written. Colonel Fremantle had an eye for detail that is second to none.

Freemantle offers us a interesting look as if opening a time capsule of information in 1863. Freemantle enters Texas and his journey starts there. Soon he discovers how soldiers and civilians of the south live and handle the hardships of war. Freemantle meets many popular Southern leaders such as Johnston, Davis, Lee, Longstreet during his travels. He is very fortunate to give us interesting views of the people involved in hardships and conflicts in various cities of the south such as Jackson, Vicksburg, Richmond, Winchester and others. His information certainly documents the timeline. I was most interested in reading about his Gettysburg exploits as he has become more famous in modern times most likely due to the movie, "Gettysburg" in which he presented. I was curious to read about his opinion and eye witness accounts which helped support explanations regarding the Battle of Gettysburg. Freemantle doesn't involve himself in many details of battles or conflicts. He likes to write about people and share his opinion of them. After Gettysburg Freemantle travels north to board the ship China which will take him back home to England. In doing this we are offered more interesting commentary as he writes about northern views and how northerners are coping with the draft, slavery and the war. Overall this is a quick book to read although it is vital for any historian looking to understand people and places during the early summer of 1863. I recommend it!

From an English man's point of view about this war who was there, he will tell you the truth about the Southern people, the Confederacy, and the war itself. He went into this war with a mindset: "the South was evil and the Confederacy was wrong". After the three months in the war, he realized he was fed what the U.S. government was telling him while in England was all a lie.
I've read this book many times and I believe I'll be reading this book many more times ever.

I expected this book to cover, from a different perspective, the same campaign found in other books. However, Arthur Fremantle gives a gritty look at Confederate life and attitudes, both military and civilian, during the Civil War. From Mexico to Gettysburg Fremantle thrives under traveling conditions that would drive me to suicide. The author is virtually reduced to a ragged vagabond but his condition is barely a footnote in his narrative. I think The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War mentions his peculiar attire and his positive outlook. This Michael Shaara novel is what led me to Fremantle's book.

A quick but pleasant read, I struggled to lay it down. In nearly fifty years of studying the War Between the States, I had seen Fremantle quoted many times, but had never read his actual work.
Picked it up in a book store, read until closing time, did not want to quit, had to finish it later.
Never mind biased haters who detest anything positive about the South. If you want to read first hand what the leaders, people and attitudes of the Confederacy were like, this is a fine source. Remember, this was written by an English army officer, who was on leave, and had come to observe the war.
And like all of Gods children, he has his prejudices. But is in the end, I feel, as fair and honest as he can be, except to the Irish.
Interesting prose, filled with facts and humor. I recommend this to any student of American history.