The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 135

Book Reviews

135

business with a burro, a mare, and a Jersey cow. It is to Mr. Moss's
credit that he stayed and starved it out in Odessa during the depres-
sion of the 1930's. He was there to take advantage of the upward
economic spiral of the 1940's, augmented by the discovery of oil
in the Odessa area. He ended the decade with two moderate sized
ranches, some oil properties, and a district judgeship.
The book is essentially one by a layman for laymen. Students
of history will find in it very little that is new. The title is slightly
misleading. The judge was not a man of violence nor were his
experiences unusual for the period treated. He tells one good story
about the preacher and the bear. Commendable is his enthusiastic
affection for the locality which brought him fortune. It is another
instance of where the most ardent Texan is the naturalized Texan.
W. C. HOLDEN
Texas Technological College
The Fremantle Diary. By Lieutenant Colonel James Arthur Lyon
Fremantle, Coldstream Guards. Boston (Little, Brown and
Company), 1954. Pp. 304. $4.00.
This is a republication of a contemporary account of a British
officer of his travels through the Confederacy from April 2 to
July 15, 1863, considerably enhanced in value by the addition
of extensive notes by Walter Lord, a long-time student of our
Civil *War.
Fremantle landed near the mouth of the Rio Grande and
journeyed eastward to New York, visiting the headquarters of
nearly all of the top Confederate leaders. Provided with a store
of gold coins and letters of introduction he had easy access to all.
He visited General Kirby Smith, commanding west of the Mis-
sissippi, and soon afterward was at Joseph E. Johnston's headquar-
ters just before the fall of Vicksburg, where he also met Generals
Bragg and Hardee and General (Bishop) Polk. He made a detour
to Charleston to see Beauregard and from there proceeded to Rich-
mond, where he saw Judah P. Benjamin and had tea with Jeffer-
son Davis, whom he found "full of life and humor," and "charming
of manner." Proceeding to Gettysburg, he was attached to Long-
street's Division, saw the fatal charge of Pickett's Division from a
tree, and witnessed the calm competent rallying of the shaken
Confederate forces by Lee. He found all of these men gracious