Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good insight into how the civil war was prosecuted., January 9, 1999
Although General Hunter wasn't an abolitionist in the sense that Frederick Douglass or Garrison were, he may have been the highest ranking military officer to have issued orders freeing southern slaves without authority (before the Emancipation Proclamation) because he believed southerners who seceded were traitors and he needed every soldier INCLUDING BLACK SOLDIERS he could get. Hunter's bland history as a "paymaster" during the Mexican war and the Frontier Indian wars is an added bonus, as the job was much more than it seems. Miller's recounting of how Hunter decided which of the homes of "rebel sympathizers" to burn down is also highly instructive of what it must have been like to conduct a "war" in your own backyard, with family names you know. Hunter was a personal friend of both Jefferson Davis and Abe Lincoln and routinely went around normal military channels to make his points. Miller doesn't try to present Hunter as a hero, but an interesting character in the Civil War who was well in front of his fellow Republicans on the issue of freeing the slaves and enlisting them into the war. (They didn't all want to be free, nor did they all want to fight.) The prose is a little dry, but the story carries it along well. Civil War buffs should particularly like this viewpoint of the Virginia campaign. Recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written biography, October 1, 2007
General David Hunter may have achieved more off the field of battle than directly on it. After serving as commander in Kansas, he was appointed Commander of the Department of the South, where, after Ft. Pulaski, Georgia, fell to the Union in April 1862, he freed all the slaves in his department. A gutsy move, but one that Lincoln annulled two weeks later. Undeterred, a short while later he formed the 1st South Carolina Regiment, consisting of former slaves - a move that the Confederacy so detested that it declared Hunter a "felon to be executed if captured." In 1864, after initial successes against Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley (especially at Piedmont), he was repulsed by Jubal Early and driven back into West Virginia. After the war he accompanied Lincoln's body to Springfield and headed the commission that tried Lincoln's conspirators in the assassination. He died in 1886 in Washington.
Edward Miller's biography is detailed and scholarly, without being numbingly so. He is an excellent writer, and his account of Hunter's life is straightforward and competent. A good biography of this forward-looking general.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Now pitching out of the Yankee Bullpen..., July 9, 2007
Every now and then, the Union high command reminds me of baseball. There are some generals who seem like middle relievers. They come in out of nowhere, pitch an inning or two and then vanish with little glory or fanfare. Or in the case of a general who has been on my mind these days, he commands an army for a week and then vanishes only to pop up a few weeks later leading a courtmartial.
I'm talking about David Hunter. Hunter's odd career is examined by Edward Miller in this solid but somewhat disapointing biography. Hunter is best known for his command in South Carolina in the Summer of 1862 where he issued orders abolishing slavery (without checking with Lincoln first) and his only other major service was leading raids in the Valley between Siegal's and Sheridan's tenures there. Miller, a VMI man, spends considerable time exploring Hunter's raid in the Valley in 1864.
But look closer. Hunter was one of the few Republican officers in the Old Army and he had ties in Virginia, Chicago and New Jersey. He knew Lincoln on a social level and started corresponding with him in 1860 before the nomination. Lincoln took Hunter along with him on the train ride from Springfield to Washington along with Elmer Ellsworth, John Pope (another Republican from Illinois whose dad was close to Lincoln) and that old bull E. Sumner. Hunter led the guards at the White House and got himself wounded at First Bull Run. After recovering, Hunter went out to Missouri where he kept Washington informed on what Fremont was up to and took Fremont's place in command for one whole week before Halleck appeared. After stints in Kansas and South Carolina, Hunter ended up back in Washington, leading the controversial and highly partisan Fitz John Porter Trial. In 1863 Hunter did not hold a command. Instead Hunter seemed to show up out of nowhere, dropping down on Union generals. He serveed as Washington's eyes and ears, meeting with Grant twice, scouting him out for high command. Hunter also showed up to lead courtmartials on Gen. McCook (from a very prominent family in a key border state), Gen. Crittenden (ditto as his father was the most prominent politician in his state save Henry Clay), dropped down on General Banks to see what's up in the Red River (Banks was a former Speaker of the House and a prominent politician from Massachusetts) and of course ended up chairing the military tribunal of the Lincoln assasians.
Now I can't think this is all a coincidence. Hunter, one of the few Republican generals and a Lincoln protoge, kept on leading politically sensative invesigations where things can get swept under the rug or disposed of. He was very much Linclon's troubleshooter in the army high command. The problem is Miller touches on all of this and fails to connect the dots. He looks at Hunter as a battlefield commander and downplays Hunter's role in the bigger picture. That's what proves frustrating about this book though it certainly offers light on a mostly obscure subject. Miller does an excellent job of dispelling a number of myths about Hunter. Still, while Miller provides a basic narrative, he does miss the bigger picture and his writing is a bit dry. Civil War scholars will profit from the book but it really can not be recomended for casual readers.
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