Book notices.
Semi-Centennial catalogue, with brief Biographical sketches of the students of the University of Virginia.
We are indebted to the publisher, Captain Joseph Van Holt Nash, late of Petersburg, Virginia, now of Atlanta, Georgia, for a copy of this valuable [206] work. It was compiled by Professor Schele De Vere, with whom it was “a labor of love” to give to the work his untiring energy, tine literary taste and enthusiastic devotion to everything pertaining to our grand old University. He gracefully acknowledges his indebtedness to Captain Nash for valuable services in completing the catalogue.
Professor Schele gives a vivid and deeply interesting sketch of the origin and early history of the University, and especially of Mr. Jefferson's connection with it. Then follows a list of the Rectors, members of the Board of Visitors, officers of the Board and of the Faculty, and names of the Professors and Assistant Professors from the foundation of the University down to 1878. Next we have the catalogue of students during that period, with a brief biography of each one--giving date of birth, sessions spent at the University, degrees won and chief events in the after life of each. The volume contains “ten thousand names and over a hundred thousand statements of facts.” Its compilation was a work of immense labor; and if errors have crept in the wonder is that they are not far more numerous and important. The get up of the volume, in type, paper and binding, is all that could be desired. In a word it is a volume which no alumnus of our noble old Alma Mater should be willing to be without, and which should at the same time find a place in every well selected library. It has a high historic value, not only in showing the character of the men whom the University has sent out to bless the world, but also in illustrating the statement that much the larger part of the intelligence, education and moral worth of the South entered the Confederate army. The book can be had of Captain Joseph Van Holt Nash, of Atlanta, Georgia.
The Southern Review for January, 1879, has been laid on our table by the new editor and proprietor, C. J. Griffith, Esq., Richmond, Virginia, by whom this quarterly will be hereafter published. Under the able management of Dr. A, T. Bledsoe and his accomplished daughter, Mrs. S. Bledsoe Herrick, the Review won a wide reputation, which has not suffered during the period since Dr. Bledsoe's death, when it has been under the management of Mrs. Herrick, who, during her father's life, was accustomed to contribute to the Review articles so original in conception, so able in argument, so full of learning and so fresh and vigorous in style that they were attributed to Dr. Bledsoe himself.
If the present number is a fair specimen of what we may expect of the Review under its new management, then we predict for it an even wider reputation — not for ability, for that were scarcely possible, but for variety, popular interest and real value as an exponent of Southern thought and Southern literature. We regret that our limited space will allow us little more than a bare mention of the table of contents of this number:
In Southern Poetry — a sketch, Rev. H. Melville Jackson gives a very pleasing and, in the main, judicious statement of the claims of Southern poets, together with some well selected illustrations of their style.
Rev. Dr. W. P. Harrison gives an interesting sketch of the rise, progress and extension of the Southern Methodist church.
[207] Professor George Frederick Holmes treats The eastern question and the Berlin treaty with the fulness and ability which characterize the productions of the distinguished author.
Frances Hodgson Burnett and her Novels is an article from the graceful pen of Mrs. Herrick, and in her happiest vein, and will make the readers of the Review rejoice to know that she is still to be a regular contributor.
Hon. William M. Burwell, of New Orleans, contributes an interesting and valuable paper On Yellow fever.
General B. T. Johnston's article on The civil rights bill and the enforcement act is a very able and timely discussion of the questions involved, and a very strong putting of certain fundamental principles of our Government which seem to have grown obsolete in these days of “Reconstruction” (so-called).
The other articles--Commercial future of the United States, by W. P. H.; Birds in Song and the Songs of Birds, by Miss K. M. Rowland; Dr. William E. Munsey, by Rev. E. E. Hoss; Charlotte Cushman, by Mrs. James Gittings, and Gold interests of Virginia and the South, by John Tyler-seem all to be cleverly done, while Table talk and Book Notices, by the editor, clearly indicate that these departments of the Review will be fresh, sprightly and readable. On the whole, we cordially commend the Review as worthy of a wide circulation.
The annals of the war. By Principal Participants North and South.
We are indebted to the publishers (Philadelphia Weekly Times) for a copy of this volume of 800 pages, which is made up of papers which were originally published in the Weekly Times, which we had read with interest, and which we are glad to be able to have in so convenient a form. In paper, type and binding, it is a beautiful specimen of the book-makers' art; and if the engravings strike an old soldier as pictures of the artist's fancy rather than of anything which ever really occurred, it is fair to say that they will probably please the average reader. The papers themselves, written by actors on both sides of the great struggle, are many of them of deep interest, and some of them of great historic value.
The Confederate sketches in the volume are the following:
- A campaign with sharpshooters, by Captain John D. Young;
- A Ruse of war, by Captain John Scott;
- Confederate negro enlistments, by Edward Spencer;
- Fire, sword and the Halter, by General J. D. Imboden;
- Flight and capture of Jefferson Davis, by J. H. Reagan;
- General Stuart in camp and Field, by Colonel J. E. Cooke;
- Lee and Grant in the Wilderness, by General C. M. Wilcox;
- Lee in Pennsylvania, by General James Longtreet;
- Lee's West Virginia campaign, by General A. L. Long;
- Morgan's Indiana and Ohio raid, by General Basil W. Duke;
- Mr. Lincoln and the force bill, by Hon. A. R. Boteler;
- Stonewall Jackson and his men, by Major H. Kyd Douglas;
- Stonewall Jackson's Valley campaign, by Colonel William Allan;
- The battle of Fleetwood, by Major H. B. McClellan;
- The Black horse cavalry, by Colonel John Scott;
- The burning of Chambersburg, by General John McCausland;
- The campaign in Pennsylvania, by Colonel W. H. Taylar;
- The career of General A. P. Hill, by Hon. William E. Cameron;
- The Dalton-Atlanta operations, by General Joseph E. Johnston;
- The exchange of prisoners, by Judge Robert Ould;
- The last Confederate surrender, by [208] Lieutenant-General R. Taylor;
- The Mistakes of Gettysburg, by General James Longstreet;
- The morale of General Lee's army, by
- Rev. J. William Jones, D. D.;
- Torpedo service in Charleston Harbor, by General Beauregard;
- Van Dorn, the hero of Mississippi, by Major-General D. H. Manry;
- Vicksburg during the siege, by Edward S. Gregory.
The list of Federal contributions is as follows:
- Characteristics of the army, by H. V. Redfield;
- Death of General John H. Morgan, by H. V. Redfield;
- General Meade at Gettysburg, by Colonel James C. Biddle;
- General Reynolds' last battle, by Major Joseph G. Rosengarten;
- Gregg's cavalry at Gettysburg, by Major J. E. Carpenter;
- How Jefferson Davis was overtaken, by Major-General Wilson;
- Morgan's Indiana and Ohio raid, by Colonel J. E. McGowan;
- On the Field of Fredericksburg, by Hon. D. Watson Rowe;
- Recollections of General Reynolds, by General T. F. McCoy;
- Some recollections of Grant, by S. H. M. Byers;
- The Baltimore Riots, by Frederic Emory;
- The battle of Beverly ford, by Colonel F. C. Newhall;
- The battle of Shiloh, by Colonel Wills De Hass;
- The campaign of Gettysburg, by Major-General Alfred Pleasonton;
- The capture of Mason and Slidell, by R. M. Hunter;
- The draft Riots in New York, by Major T. P. McElrath;
- The famous fight at Cedar creek, by General A. B. Nettleton;
- The First attack on Fort Fisher, by
- Benson J. Lossing, Ll. D.;
- The First cavalry, by Captain James A. Stevenson;
- The First great crime of the war, by Major-General W. B. Franklin;
- The First iron-clad Monitor, by Hon. Gideon Welles;
- The First shot against the flag, by Major-General S. W. Crawford;
- The “old Capitol” prison, by Colonel N. T. Colby;
- The right flank at Gettysburg, by Colonel William Brooke-Rawle;
- The siege of Morris Island, by General W. W. H. Davis;
- The Union cavalry at Gettysburg, by Major-General D. McM. Gregg;
- The Union men of Maryland, by
- Hon. W. H. Purnell, Ll. D.;
- The war's carnival of Fraud, by Colonel Henry S. Olcott;
- Union view of exchange of prisoners, by General R. S. Northcott;
- War as a popular Educator, by John A. Wright.
On the whole, it is a book worthy of a place in our libraries, and we hope that our friend Dr. George W. Bagby, the agent for Virginia, will meet with great success in selling it.
There are criticisms on some of the articles which we reserve for future review; but we must now express our regret that the compilers of the volume have put in General Wilson's miserable slander of President Davis, which, when first published, displayed gross ignorance, which has grown into sometliing worse when persisted in after its complete refutation, both in the Times and in our Papers.
