Customer Reviews

Valor in Gray: The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor

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This is by far the most tantalizing book on Civil War history I have ever read. Gregg Clemmer describes the actual stories behind the men that earned the post-humous Confederate Medal of Honor. His writing draws the reader into the world of subject and let's you feel the bitter chill, and hear the whistling shells of battle.

Valor in Gray sends you back in time to the battlefields of the 1860's and clouds your nostrils with the smell of burnt powder. I have read many books on many wars, but none have captured my imagination or emotion as well as Valor in Gray.

Gregg Clemmer writes in detail about the events that occured that caused these men to be remembered. He has spent countless hours researching the character of each recipient and the things they did to deserve their tragic honor. Whether a descendant of the North or the South, this book will make you feel the emotion that drove these men to risk their lives for the values and beliefs they held dear. Each chapter is devoted to a separate Confederate Medal of Honor recipient and is devoted to that individual. Valor in Gray is destined to be one of the best books on Civil War history ever written.

VALOR IN GRAY is an attractive and well written book. Gregg S. Clemmer explains the background of the Confederate Medal of Honor then presents a brief biographical sketch of each award winner. An appendix lists the Confederate Roll of Honor. For those interested in Confederate military exploits on a personal level, this book would make a welcome addition to your library. Minor mistakes are the only thing preventing a five star rating.

Valor in Gray is an excellent book. If you love the Confederates, you'll love this book!

Valor in Gray: The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor

Gregg Clemmer's style of writing humanized the soldier and made him (or her in one case) an individual with real dreams for a life. I could finally identify the passions which propel a person to fight for a cause and want to make a difference or maintain their way of life. I have bought several copies of this book and given it as gifts. This is truly a worthy addition to any library.

496 pages long and weighing in at nearly three pounds, Gregg S. Clemmer's 1998 "Valor In Gray" appears to have been constructed with great reverence. Its weight seems to come, not so much from its sturdy hardcover or its many pages, but from the incredible force and gallantry of the men in gray whose stories of going above and beyond the call of duty are contained between the two covers. With its distinct weight and unique appearance, "Valor In Gray" is exactly what a book of its type should be. Assembled with the utmost care and respect, and constructed with a quality befitting the men and the medal its pages tell of.

There is a foreword by Captain Thomas G. Kelley, United States Navy, who recieved the Medal of Honor in 1969. Towards the end of it, Captain Kelley wrote, "you don't have to be a war hero to be a hero in life."
I believe that very much to be true.

I was unfamiliar with the Confederate Medal of Honor before reading this book. While plenty of information is provided on it and most of all its recipients, I still find myself confused. Was this CMOH intended to be a parallel to the United States' Medal of Honor? If so, the CSA had a rather awkward redunancy in the fact that the better-known Southern Cross of Honor had been created as a parallel to the Medal of Honor. It doesn't at all help the situation that the United Daughters of the Confederacy have in much more recent years than 1861 sort of reached back in time and started flinging Southern Crosses of Honor at anything Confederate they see. Doesn't matter if your Confederate ancestor was a quartermaster miles from the lines all throughout the war or was a company commander who died charging a hill with his men. Both of them can have a SCOH on their graves. And while it's great that folks want to award something to those who fought for the CSA, think about if it suddenly became legal to start handing out the Victoria Cross to every British soldier, ever. Or doing the same thing with the Medal of Honor, which was just recently awarded for the first time in many years to a living recipient. I am quite sure that cheapening the VC or the MOH through such an act would annoy a lot of people. But why is it okay to fling the Confederacy's obscure medals of valor about like pennies? And I must confess, to this day I don't quite understand how the Confederate Medal of Honor, the subject decoration of this book, fits into this.

Now, one thing that really complicated decorating acts of valor in the Confederate armed forces was that the system for awarding what few decorations there were was severely underdeveloped. Who was going to accurately record these acts of extreme gallantry, talking to various witnesses? Who, in a country that needed every scrap of metal it could find for guns, cannons, and bullets was going to design a fitting medal for acts of extreme valor under fire and mint enough for all who were given one? What the Confederate government ultimately did was let the men award medals to themselves, more or less, voting for men to be decorated. As a result, while many if not all of those who were enthusiastically voted for recognition by their comrades no doubt deserved such praise, little record was kept in many cases of just what these men did, where, and when. The story was similar on the Union side of the fence- in contrast to the long and highly detailed citations for Medal of Honor recipients of today, many Civil War Medal of Honor citations have only a vague sentence of two if there is even a citation at all.

But maybe I'm focusing too much on the wrong things. What I addressed in the previous two paragraphs are some things I believe do deserve attention, but shouldn't be the exclusive focus of a review on such a book as this.

What should be focused on, the bottom line about this book, is this- these stories are real. Described in rich detail, each chapter focuses on the stunning gallantry of one man in the face of tremendous adversity. Like recipients of the Medal of Honor and the Victoria Cross, these men all have something in common: regardless of where they were from, what background and upbringing they had or any other such detail, there is something distinctly special about them. Yet they seem so ordinary, as well, for from Private Benjamin Owens to Captain John Mosby, not one of the CMOH recipients in this book bragged or boasted much at all. It seems to be a hallmark of soldiers who go so far above and beyond their normal duties. Each one of them seems to have had no interest in posturing or otherwise making any effort to show how big and important they were.

An example- Private William A. Hughes recieved the Confederate Medal of Honor for actions at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864. While already engaged in close quarters fighting with Union soldiers, he noticed a fellow soldier about to be shot at point-blank range. Hughes rushed over to his comrades' attackers and literally grabbed the Union soldier's gun barrel and, pointing it at himself, took the shot instead. Private Hughes died three days later, but there is no indication that he ever regretted what he chose to do.

Such men as these have no need to prove anything to anyone.

This book is absolutely amazing. It is an outstanding book, one of the best I've ever read. And as if the long, highly detailed stories and citations were not enough, there are further descriptions of other medals the CSA awarded and an inclusion of the Confederate Roll of Honor, which lists recipients from various battles by their unit, such as the four men in the 8th Regiment of Infantry who were cited for acts of valor at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862. The various medals described are: Southern Cross of Honor, Texas Gold Star, General Nathan Evans Medal, Immortal 600 Medal, President's Guard Medal, The Stonewall Jackson Medal, Davis Guard Medal, New Market Cross of Honor, and the Taylor, Anderson, Tod Star Badge.

This book, if you are unsure, does not make any effort to prove anything about the Confederacy, for or against it. I don't remember any note about Civil War politics, which almost always come up in discussions of the Confederacy, being made at all. What would politics matter here, anyway? When you meet a Victoria Cross recipient, you don't ask him if he thinks Jeremy Clarkson should be Prime Minister. Maybe you ask him something about his story, or maybe you just say "Thank you" and go on your way. Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor surely had their views on political issues of the time. Everyone does. What matters most of all is that the men whose stories are told in this book were there when the Confederate States of America needed them most, and that they were willing to do their duty regardless of what it cost them.