The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 69, July 1965 - April, 1966 Page: 251
591 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
concerning the life of a Texan serving in the Army of Northern
Virginia. They offer real insight into the sometimes woeful short-
ages which faced the men in gray, the "chain-of-command" inertia
which frustrated some unit commanders, and the daring plan of
Robertson to recruit Texans during the winter months to fill the
ranks of his valiant brigade. While these "papers" contain much
of value, most of the items are brief-only eight are more than a
printed page in length-and some might well have been omitted.
Genealogists will always be indebted to Simpson for his me-
ticulous editing of the casualty reports which are included in
this volume. He has corrected errors in a previous, extremely
rare version of these reports and has provided a fine index to
these reports and the rest of the book as well. Few volumes have
contained so many names of individual fighting men and been
indexed so thoroughly as this work.
Aside from the brevity of the sketch of Robertson, Simpson's
narrative occasionally suffers from frequent use of the passive
voice, inconsistency of phrases in series, and long rambling sen-
tences. There also are some lapses into slang which an editor
well might have eliminated: "Doctor Harris took a liking to the
ambitious young man"; "during the retreat of Longstreet's army
east from Knoxville, the axe fell"; "this written statement ...
kept higher headquarters informed of the state of mobility of
the Texas Brigade." Also, not until near the end of the biograph-
ical sketch, does the author describe the physical appearance of
Robertson and only six pages of the biographical sketch portray
Robertson's Civil War career.
But any criticism should not be allowed to detract from this
book's value to the buff and the genealogist. Simpson obviously
had been handicapped by a scarcity of personal papers relating
to General Robertson. He has provided detailed footnotes and
has wisely refused to accept the reliability of previous works on
Robertson and has uncovered new materials scattered across the
nation. Likewise, the Hill Junior College Board of Regents is
to be commended for their support of scholarship. This book is
unusually free from printing errors. The only mistakes this review-
er could find were two misspellings and the repetition of four of
the eight portraits which were included in the review copy. Also,251
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 69, July 1965 - April, 1966, periodical, 1966; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117144/m1/291/?rotate=90: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.