The Dahlgren Affair: Terror and Conspiracy in the Civil War

Contemporary Review, Sept, 1999 by Richard Mullen

Duane Schultz. W. W. Norton. [pounds]18.95. 298 pages. ISBN 0-393-04662-1.

Virginia's Private War: Feeding Body and Soul in the Confederacy, 1861-1865. William Blair. Oxford University Press. [pounds]21.00. 206 pages. ISBN 0-19-511864-2.

Many countries have controversial documents of doubtful authenticity which generate continuous warfare among contending historians. Britain has spent dour centuries arguing about the 'Casket Letters' of Mary, Queen of Scots. American historians and writers have spent more than a century arguing about the Dahlgren Papers.

In 1864 the War Between the States was turning into a 'Civil War' as brutal Northern Generals like Sherman and Hunter swept through the South, with the efficiency of the Nazis, burning and looting every home they could torch. Both sides agonised over the desperate plight of their prisoners confined in appalling conditions.

A clever raid on Richmond, the poorly defended Confederate capital, was planned by a boastful Union cavalry commander, General Killpatrick, known to his men as 'Killcavalry'. Mr Schultz, in his well written account, shows him to be little more than a blowhard and his cavalry force was beaten back by a small group of what could be called Richmond's 'Dad's Army'. However Killpatrick had detached a small body of cavalry under the command of the one-legged, socially prominent and daring Colonel Ulric Dahlgren to attack Richmond from the south. He was almost successful, but he was killed in a skirmish.

Papers were found on Dahlgren's body and were taken to President Jefferson Davis. Dahlgren's body was then given a mysterious burial, but the Southern leaders decided to make these paper public. Photographic copies were sent to Confederate representatives in Europe and were printed in Southern newspapers. These show that Dahlgren's orders were to fight his way to Libby Prison to liberate the thousands of captured Northern officers. They would join his band and would proceed to burn Richmond. The most shocking part of the orders - particularly to a generation not as used to horrors as people in the twentieth century - was to 'kill Jeff. Davis and cabinet.'

Like the Northern leaders and press, Duane Schultz contends that this was a forgery and that the Southern horror against 'Ulric the Hun' gave the Confederates an excuse for a series of unsuccessful attempts to send agents to burn Northern cities and liberate Confederates imprisoned there. He offers little proof for this assertion and since there are no footnotes one cannot assess his sources.

The controversy will probably never be settled as the original papers have disappeared. Yet surely it is significant that the last person to have the originals was the sinister Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War. Ripping up such a document would come very low on the list of Stanton's crimes. It is thus impossible to tell whether the photographs reproduce a forgery or whether Dahlgren's signature was touched up by a Southern photographer to reproduce it with the rather primitive equipment available.

This is an exciting and well told account. However it has a strong Northern bias. Not only do we have the usual reverential obeisance to Lincoln and the usual carping assessment of President Davis, but the horrible suffering of Northern prisoners is recounted in great detail, while the equally dreadful sufferings of Southern prisoners is not referred to: a fact more atrocious, given the vast resources of the North.

Virginia was the most populous state in the Confederacy and more battles were fought in the 'Old Dominion' than in any other state. Yet while thousands of books have been written about those battles, little detailed study has been done of public opinion in Virginia. Professor William Blair has now done an excellent and well researched study of that topic. He concludes, contrary to the prevailing academic opinion, that Confederate morale, in Virginia and probably therefore in the other Southern states, held up well, in spite of grumbling, until the final months of the war.

The greatest problems facing the authorities were recruiting men for the army and distributing food. Virginia soon had 93 per cent of males of military age either in the army or working in war-related work.

Old notions were abandoned as state and local authorities intervened in the market, tried to control the cost of food and worked to see that the poor, especially soldiers' families, received public help. The law that exempted owners of fifteen or more slaves from military service, on the grounds that they were needed to control the slaves and increase food production, has traditionally been seen as favouritism towards the rich. Professor Blair argues the opposite and details all the provisions which required that the exempted planters had to provide food for the army and the poor at government mandated prices.

This book is essential background to the more exciting accounts of hard fought battles and gallant generals.

RICHARD MULLEN