Don Chance is a long-time history buff and novelist. His particular historical interests lie in the Civil War and Old West eras. A professional musician for over 20 years, he has traveled to many of the famous and infamous historical sites in the United States. Don is also an acclaimed country music journalist. (Anything to keep from holding down a real job!)
"Crazy Horse"
by Larry McMurtry
(Viking Penguin Lives series; $19.95)
Any time you start browsing around in the last century, you're liable to brush up against conflicting first-hand accounts, myths-as-fact, dead ends and, sometimes, hostile opposition from otherwise well-intentioned others who've also been fooling around back there.
So why bother?
Instead of repeating the old cliche about unstudied history repeating itself, I'll just say: because it's just plain interesting to go browsing around in the last century. Nobody outside the hallowed halls of stuffy old university history departments knows that better than Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry.
In his new book, "Crazy Horse" (part of the new Penguin LIVES series by Viking), McMurtry skillfully draws us into the last half of the 1800s in search of a simple-living and reclusive Sioux warrior, and reluctant leader, whose final memorial will be the largest sculpture the world has ever seen. What was it about this near-hermit that inspires modern-day whites to carve out an entire mountain in his stylized image?
Though Crazy Horse participated in, and was probably a catalyst for, three of the biggest Indian victories of the entire Indian Wars period (Fetterman, the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn), and possibly a fourth, there is very little solid information available about the man himself. No matter what previous authors have come up with to sell their thick and expensive near-fictions, there is just not that much indisputable evidence on the man’s life. What few "hard" facts that do exist come from the accounts of men well into their 90s, fondly recalling the life and times of a friend who died as many as fifty-six years before.
But, citing some of the previous works on the subject (and happily pointing out any errors he found in those versions), McMurtry pieces the paltry handful of reasonably solid details into a fascinating profile of a man who'd rather live in caves and holes in the ground than take up valuable space in a village with the people he loved so much.
Ta-Shunka-Witco, or Crazy Horse, never wore fancy clothing or traditional feather headdresses like other war leaders. He was once shot by a jealous husband while in bed with the love of his life. And in the end, in chains lest he escape white man's justice, he was finally murdered by a bayonet- wielding soldier named, oddly enough, Gentles.
Unfortunately, there are no period photographs to go with McMurtry’s lively, thoroughly engaging text. Believing it would shorten his life, Crazy Horse "...didn't want any white man to snatch his shadow, coax it into a little box." He never allowed his picture to be taken, and rarely went anywhere near a place he thought a camera might be; so no photos of him exist.
But even without photographs, McMurtry's honest, colorful prose creates enough vivid mental images to satisfy any casual student of the Old West. Long known for his enthusiasm for, and authentic portrayal of, life in the American west of the 1800s, Larry McMurtry has given us the next best thing to being there in this delightful new stroll through the past.
It's just plain interesting.
At 148 sensitive, heartfelt pages, "Crazy Horse" is as brief and elegant as the few surviving facts on a simple Sioux warrior who became a mountain.
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Remember all those troubles back in the 60s? Social upheaval, civil unrest, changing values and attitudes, an unpopular war, riots spawned by that war, volatile politics, assassination, all made the 60s one of the most dangerous, unstable decades in U.S. history. In fact, events in that decade were even worse than what happened a century later in the 1960s.
When producers at The History Channel created a program called "Civil War Journal" they sought to portray the human side of that devastating conflict. They wanted to focus on the seldom-told stories of people, places and events that bring to life the heroic intensity of the Civil War. They accomplished all that. Then, bringing together three respected historians, William C. Davis, Brian C. Pohanka and Don Troiani, as editors, they compiled and released a three-volume set of books based on the popular series.
It’s just too bad they settled for popular history instead of actual history.
"The Battles," "The Leaders" and "The Legacies" are beautiful volumes. Filled with photographs and period newspaper illustrations, the books are a magnificent visual addition to the personal library of any casual student of American history. I just wish they'd told the whole story of the war in these beautiful volumes.
See, before the first cannon announced the beginning of the conflict, the propaganda war was already raging. The American public, while not as well informed then as now, was certainly informed, and was much more politically active than today. Every event in The Late Unpleasantness was subjected to as meticulous a "spin doctoring" treatment as any potential scandal in yesterday's paper. Unfortunately, what we all learned as history in school is nothing more than the remnants of that propaganda, and these three books are just pretty retellings of the same old spin treatment.
Looking for the Confederate side of the story? You won't find it here; at least not any part of it that couldn't be covered up or distorted by the winning side’s newspapers of the day.
Case in point: where are the photos of Union dead? There were just as many pictures taken of Federal casualties as Confederate, and there were plenty of southern photographers on the battlefields. But outside a few views of Union POWs or wounded, which were allowed and even encouraged at the time because they heightened anti-southern sentiment, there are very few surviving images of dead Union soldiers; and I didn’t find any in these three books.
Leftover propaganda at work? Makes me wonder.
Another case in point: I opened 'The Legacies' completely at random and read about how escaping slaves adhered to the advice in the old Negro folksong 'Follow The Drinking Gourd' (the Big Dipper constellation), "which has at its tip the North Star." ('The Legacies' page 12, halfway down the page.) Unfortunately for the editors of the series, the North Star is at the tip of the Little Dipper. If such an obvious mistake got past them, how much similar 'information' is scattered throughout the series?
There are several diaries of southerners quoted in the set. But these journals, especially the one by Sam Watkins of North Carolina and the famous work by Mary Chesnut, have been used many times before, and for the same reason: they're relatively harmless to the official version of events. Even with so many new eyewitness sources and written accounts coming available since the release of Ken Burns' epic documentary, "The Civil War," many of these critical of Union policies and actions during the conflict, William Davis and his boys prefer to go back to the same old tried-and-true wellspring of safe interpretations.
Of course, the dedicated southerner has the option of researching and writing his own history of the 1860s too. But he’ll likely be labeled a "disgruntled racist" for his efforts, and he’ll never see air time on The History Channel.
Since the invention of armed hostilities, the history of a war is written by the winner. I understand that. Davis, Pohanka, Troiani and the other contributing writers can't really be faulted for following a millenia-long tradition for the same reasons The History Channel can't really be denounced for giving the public what it wants.
Popular "truth" is, well, popular.
In its way, "Civil War Journal" tells the official truth of that most turbulent decade in American history, and "The Leaders," "The Battles" and "The Legacies" reflect that one-sided truth. But is it enough of the truth?
Not for me, it isn’t.
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Who today can really know and understand the motivations and emotional states of the men who led huge armies into battles so savage and severe that the nation has never again tolerated such wholesale slaughter of its own? With his MAY I QUOTE YOU series Randall Bedwell gives us six different Civil War generals in their own words, and the words they said to those who knew them best.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet (my personal favorite), and Robert E. Lee (two volumes by Lee) are the Confederate soldiers featured, and U.S. Grant and Lawrence Chamberlain represent the Union. These are not biographies. Instead, they are compiled observations by eyewitnesses to specific events, and are grouped under chapter headings. Very organized. Many of the comments are familiar to even casual history buffs. But even the not-so-famous remarks tell us much about these great leaders.
MAY I QUOTE YOU, GENERAL FORREST? "Nature's Genius" who "...never rubbed my back up against any college," was the General of Cavalry who’s still considered to be probably the greatest uneducated (but not illiterate) general officer in American history. Yes, he did help found the Ku Klux Klan, but he also regretted it deeply in his later years. "Abolish the...Ku Klux Klan; let us come together and stand together."
MAY I QUOTE YOU, GENERAL LEE? (Volumes I and II) gives us all the oft- used words of this, our nation's greatest general. But we also get some extra insight into his thoroughly developed sense of human character through quotes like, "Alabama soldiers, all I ask of you is to keep up with the Texans!" (By the way, he's reputed to have said almost the same thing to the Texans.) The only weakness in these two volumes is that there are too many quotes by others, and not enough by Lee himself.
MAY I QUOTE YOU, STONEWALL JACKSON? Before he became the great Stonewall, his students at V.M.I. liked to call him "Tom Fool" behind his back. For a man who spoke so rarely, there is an awful lot remembered that T.J. Jackson is supposed to have said. Secretive and peculiar in many ways, Jackson could have changed the outcome of the war had he lived. His words and writings tell us there was more to Tom Fool than his students might ever have guessed. "What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death." Ideas we could use more of today.
MAY I QUOTE YOU, GENERAL LONGSTREET? Arguably the best corps commander on either side, James Longstreet, like Robert E. Lee, devoted most of his career as a professional soldier to the United States Army. With the words, "I would rather have my right hand cut off than leave the service owing a cent," Longstreet followed his home state into secession only after his final U.S. Army obligations were met, and against his personal wishes. Longstreet recognized early on that, "...the only hope we had was to outgeneral the Federals."
MAY I QUOTE YOU, GENERAL GRANT? Hiram Ulysses Grant pulled off perhaps the most astounding turn-around of fortunes in American history. In seven short years, he rose from a perennial failure to the office of President of the United States. In an age when political-based promotions caused more misery than even bullets, Grant was among the first to openly declare that, "Two commanders on the same field are always one too many." But what is surprising is that 'Butcher Grant' could also distinguish between the job-at- hand and common-sense normalcy in a statement like one he made at Vicksburg: "I now determined upon a regular siege-to ‘out-camp the enemy’, as it were, and to incur no more losses."
MAY I QUOTE YOU, GENERAL CHAMBERLAIN? The six-time wounded former seminary professor, and later governor of Maine, is credited with saving the Union at Gettysburg when he recognized the importance of taking and holding Little Round Top. He was very popular in his command because, "I consider it an officer’s first duty to look after the welfare of his men." A rare Union officer who disdained the pillage of civilians, Chamberlain openly declared, "I am willing to fight men in arms, but not babes in arms."
Even though many of the individual comments are repeated throughout the seven cover-matched volumes, the MAY I QUOTE YOU series is a must for even casual students of the Civil War. Light, factual and insightful, and at only $7.95 each, they make a nice gift set.
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Today, it's easy to forget that there was a time in this country when acute shortages in both healthcare and entertainment was a problem. But back in the "laughter is the best medicine" age, such a condition did in fact exist.
In "Mystic Healers And Medicine Shows," Gene Fowler has combined the writing talents of eight other historians with his own to bring us stories of the unique, colorful healers our pioneer ancestors turned to when they were feeling poorly. Citing contemporary newspaper sources, official records and eyewitness accounts, these writers give us the facts as they were.
Back before HMOs and Cable TV, medicine showman J.I. Lighthall-The Diamond King-created a sensation wherever his troupe appeared. So many other traveling medicine men copied his style and flair that he has become today's stereotypical medicine show hawker. But did his snake oils, elixers and herbal remedies actually heal anybody? They said they were cured at the time.
Among the healers with more documentable results was Francis Schlatter, "The New Mexico Messiah." This French descendant of German peasants quit his work as a shoemaker to heal sick people. He traveled all over the southwest, by foot, healing anyone who came to him, and without taking pay. Highly respected local officials and citizens in the various towns he visited virtually lined up swear his healing powers were absolutely genuine. How did he do it? Who knows? All we can be sure of is that many serious newspapers of the day carried accounts of his remarkable ability, and thousands of sick and miserable people turned out whenever he showed up. Even those who weren’t healed went away with a little diversion from an otherwise drab frontier existence.
Traditional herbalists are also represented here also. Many herbal remedies formulated over the centuries are being taken seriously by the modern medical community. Magnetic healing, mesmerism, mud treatments and all manner of alternative therapies are apparently based on solid modern scientific theorems. But how did the old-timers know that?
Extensive footnotes and individual chapter bibliographies make "Mystic Healers" appear more scholarly than it actually is. The book is thoroughly entertaining, and the writing is fast-paced and lighthearted. And besides, among the timeworn recipes included toward the back, you just might find a nostrum for what ails you.
They survived, those pioneer ancestors of ours. Maybe the old healers and medicine men knew something after all. Now, read two chapters and call in the morning.
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Slavery. The single most divisive issue in American history concerns the fact that Americans, most Americans in fact, once believed that owning other human beings was an appropriate, even necessary means of meeting mass labor demands. But hey, Everybody Knows That. Right?
Unfortunately, most of the knowledge available today on slavery is the "Everybody Knows That" variety. But the inescapable REAL fact is that, before the Civil War, slavery was not just an isolated southern phenomenon, it was an American institution.
The release of Ken Burns' monumental film "The Civil War," even with its factual flaws and contemporary attitudinal inaccuracies, kicked off a whole new interest in that period of history. Serious history scholars have been reexamining existing research materials and discovering new resources and first-hand accounts of those who lived through the slavery decades.
Author/Historian James Oakes is one such serious scholar.
In "THE RULING RACE: A History Of American Slaveholders" Oakes reminds us that we don't know as much about slavery as we might think. Most people have always preferred to forget that the owning of slaves was an American practice, not just southern. Also interesting is the fact that, of approximately thirteen million whites and free blacks in the south at the time of the Civil War, there were only about four-hundred thousand actual slaveholders (and of these, almost one percent were black themselves!), or about three and a half percent of the non-slave population, according to contemporary census figures. Who knew that?
But THE RULING RACE is in no way an attempt to justify or lessen the horrible indignities of slavery. It is rather an attempt to understand the motivations and sentiments of the slaveholders; people to whom slavery was a commonplace, legal, unquestioned way of life. As diverse a group of individuals as any other artificially categorized class, slaveholders followed patterns of behavior regarding their bondsmen. While many masters wrote with open honesty about harsh and abusive treatment of their charges, the vast majority, at least ninety percent according to Oakes' research, saw themselves more as father figures to their black "children." These masters believed that their "children" needed a firm hand and loving guidance to survive in the white man's world. When a healthy breeding woman could fetch as high as $5000, and a strong field worker could go for as much as $2000, even the harshest masters were forced to realize that abusive treatment could cost them serious money: and money, not blind hatred of race, drove slavery as an institution. But even to the benevolent nine out of ten slaveholders, the individual slave's opinion on the whole setup meant absolutely nothing. Okay, Everybody Knows That!
Highly detailed and exacting, THE RULING RACE does not make for light reading, even though James Oakes does a fine job of keeping the narrative lively and interesting. The extensive bibliography cites diaries, letters, contemporary periodicals, plantation and tax records, court files, and the massive amounts of additional research materials Oakes used in writing the book. These materials are available to anyone.
But the important thing to keep in mind about this effort is that slavery is discussed in a relatively dispassionate, issue-neutral manner. This is education, cold and factual. No empty pro-con rhetoric here.
Remember, most Americans once believed in owning human beings as a normal state of affairs. Two centuries ago they did not have our modern 20/20 hindsight on the "peculiar institution," and to them slavery was a fact of life whether we like it today or not.
That those relatively few slaveholders left us a shameful legacy is not in doubt. THE RULING RACE merely helps us to understand attitudes. Judge them as suits your conscience.
But on the other hand, "Everybody Knows That" the best opinion is the informed opinion.
Don't they?
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