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 Roll-Call to Destiny: The Soldier's Eye View of Civil
War Battle.
by Brent Nosworthy
List Price: $27.95
Hardcover: 323 pages
ISBN: 0786717475
Publisher: Basic Books
Publish Date: March 2008
Reviewed for Military History Online by Patrick R. Jennings, Center for Oral
History, Department of History, United States Military Academy
Not Quite the View Expected
In his previous work American Civil War historian Brent Nosworthy has labored
to tell the story of the fighting man, both Federal and Confederate, not by
discussing battles but by reviewing their experiences. Indeed, so impressive
was his voluminous work The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and
Combat Experience of the Civil War, that one might think his most
recent book, Roll-Call to Destiny: The Soldier's Eye View of Civil War Battle
would be a closer inspection of combat experiences based on a wealth of
research experience gained in Bloody Crucible thus providing a welcome
contribution to the scholarly investigation of one of America's most intensely
studied conflicts. Sadly, it is not so. As Nosworthy points out, most modern
historical works fall short of discussing how soldiers actually fought.
Although Roll-Call to Destiny promises to show the reader the "small
unit" perspective of combat in actuality it comes up to little more than a
well-crafted hoplologist guide to mid-19th Century warfare.
As noted above, the focus of Roll-Call is not principally upon the
experiences of individual soldiers, but rather upon the activities of what
Nosworthy calls "small units." In this case the term generally applies to
regiments or batteries, but also includes brigades or larger organizations,
where the author sees the need. Nosworthy not only dissects several different
battles, including First Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Missionary Ridge, but also
delves into lesser-known fights such as Arkansas Post and Darbytown Road. The
author does not attempt to provide detailed accounts of each battle in their
bloody fullness, but rather focuses upon select small units at those actions to
illustrate numerous facets of combat on the Civil War battlefield. As with Bloody
Crucible of Courage, Nosworthy goes to great pains to link the theory
and practice of combat in America to European military history, theory, and
technical developments. His intent is to show how the American experience fit
into a broader picture and that it is impossible to really understand the
fighting of 1861-65 without taking that broader picture into account. Although
the author throws out several challenges to the scholarship and conventional
wisdom of Civil War combat these "Ah Ha" moments ring false and unnecessary in
the face of existing Civil War works. In short Nosworthy promises to provide
convincing new answers to old questions but in actually delivers
well-researched yet polished views of the same old ideas.
There should be no doubt that Brent Nosworthy knows his stuff when it comes to
19th Century combat. His evaluation of European "rifle-musket" firing and
aiming procedures would do any ordnance officer proud. The book includes three
Tactical Observations; one on the First Manassas, a second on Fair Oaks that,
despite an interesting discussion on bayonet charges seemed oddly like the
first, and a third on cavalry charges and the saber. Each one is very
interesting and highly informative but each also leaves you with the impression
that "branch specific" combat took place in a vacuum. When Nosworthy talks
about the effectiveness of the stirrup-to-stirrup charge of the First Rhode
Island Cavalry at Kelly's Ford he fails to note that the battle was also the
first opportunity for Federal cavalry to amass a significant force, because
their horsemen had been concentrated into a corps only a few weeks earlier.
Also, when one considers how much marvelous analysis Nosworthy puts into weapon
effectiveness it seemed odd that he failed to mention the effectiveness of
Federal carbines behind the stone wall at Kelly's Ford or the battery of
artillery that covered the Federal advance and took John Pelham's life.
All of this leads me to my primary complaint, where are the soldiers in this
"soldier's eye view?" As I read through the work I kept asking myself where is
the information about the regiments, the commanders, the men? Where these
"tenderfoot" regiments of city boys thrown into an infantry formation? Were the
cavalrymen real horsemen or just men trained to sit on a horse? Was the
artillery commanded by a regular or a "gifted amateur?" Throughout the book I
couldn't shake the feeling that Nosworthy forgot the human element of combat.
Not to say that he doesn't hit on all the well-known human-weapon system
interface problems (scared soldiers loading round on top of round,
unconsciously bouncing from leg to leg thus throwing off their aim, or simply
aiming too high), he does, and does so quite well. Roll Call to Destiny
forgets that combat is an act of flesh, blood, and beating hearts and that
those hearts can be brave, scared, hungry, tired, motivated, or deflated.
Throughout the book Nosworthy hints at the differences between the unaware
confidence of the lads of 1861 and the hard nature of fighters left in 1865 but
he never makes the connection through their battlefield experiences.
Despite these criticisms, Brent Nosworthy's book has much to recommend it. It
is an interesting and highly informative story that should appeal to anyone
interested in military history who wants to know more about the American Civil
War. Although I wouldn't call this work an innovative and insightful assessment
of Civil War combat, Roll-Call to Destiny undoubtedly offers solid and
stirring narratives of dramatic episodes built around regiments and other
tactical elements whose capabilities often carried the day and sometimes did
not. This is a book that should be of great interest and value to those who
have been versed in Civil War history only from the Hollywood view or the
near-mythical "brother's war" perspective. In short it is a worthy starting
point for those interested in the real nature of how a battle was fought during
the American Civil War. I doubt the work will become a Civil War classic;
however, it is worth reading if only to remind you that preparing for combat
and engaging in combat is not a simple act.
Copyright © 2008 Patrick R. Jennings.
Written by Patrick R. Jennings.
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