554
THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL REVIEW
in all its disgraceful details. Occasional striving for dramatic effect imparts vividness rather than conviction to the general narrative. The
author has not convinced the reviewer, at least, that Walker needed another biography, but the one he has given will merit popular attention.
Northwestern University I. J. Cox
The Second Admiral: A Life of David Dixon Porter, 1813-1891. By
Richard S. West Jr. (New York : Coward-McCann, Inc., 1937. xvi
376 pp. Illustrations, maps, appendix, and bibliography. $5.00.)
Mr. West's painstaking research has given " The Second Admiral,"
a background of extremely interesting details, many of the most famous
northern political and military figures being introduced into the biography. The book is, accordingly, a valuable contribution to the history
of the Civil War. The organization of the material is ingeniously original; the style is vivacious and picturesque ; and the portrait of Porter
is realistically lifelike.
A defect in the work, however, is the author's attempt to exalt Porter
by depreciating Farragut's achievements. In the account of the Battle
of New Orleans, for example, in which the unwary reader may even
lose sight of the fact that Farragut and not Porter was in command, it
is unfair to Farragut not to mention that he was so impressed with the
ineffectiveness of the bombardments by Porter's mortar schooners that,
though Porter (according to Mahan's Life of Farragut) urgently advised
in a written communication that Farragut delay his passage up the
river until Porter completely demolished the Confederate forts, Farragut disregarded his subordinate's advice, successfully passed Forts
Jackson and St. Philip, defeated the Confederate squadron, and then
captured New Orleans.
Open to question also is the author's contention that Porter has been
neglected. Four times he received the Congressional vote of thanks, in
three years he rose from lieutenant to rear admiral, and at Farragut's
death he became admiral of the navy. For what was he thus signally
honored ? In his two outstanding achievements, at the capture of Vicksburg and Fort Fisher, he played an important, though minor, role to
that of the army. His attempted relief of Fort Pickens was a failure ;
he chased Raphael Semmes fruitlessly ; and his Red River expedition was
a fiasco, the responsibility for which he conveniently laid upon "Political
General" Banks. When Porter was not finding fault with the "West
Point generals," he was damning the "political generals," though he
himself played politics with great skill and success. Lastly, a characteristically reckless expedition by Porter preliminary to Grant's investment
of Vicksburg would have ended the career of Porter in absolute disaster,
BOOK REVIEWS
555
had not the army come to his rescue. One might therefore even contend.
that Porter was unduly honored and that he was, as compared to Farragut, the Second Admiral not only in time but also in achievement.
Two minor errors should, perhaps, be noted : the "Merrimac" sank the
" Cumberland" instead of the "Minnesota" (p. 124) ; and George Dewey
was not with Farragut at Mobile Bay (p. 306).
United States Naval Academy CHARLES LEE LEWIS
Albert Gallatin Brown: Radical Southern Nationalist. By James B.
Ranck. (New York : D. Appleton Century Company, 1937. xx
320 pp. Frontispiece, maps, and bibliography. $5.00.)
This is the best biography of any Mississippi leader taking part in the
controversy which led to war between the states. The work is done in
the best tradition of the highly intensive and focused type of historical
scholarship. The book shows no evidence of "armchair musing" but is
based upon an exhaustive study and scholarly evaluation of the sources.
The study is divided into eight chapters containing 298 pages with an
average of 3.3 footnotes to each page. There are sixteen maps which
enable the student better to understand the geographic, the political,
and the social and economic cleavages in Mississippi from 1830 to 1860.
The subject matter of the book is well proportioned. The first two
chapters containing fifty pages are devoted to Brown's early career and
to the ripening of his political views. In 1848, Brown had been in office
continuously for fifteen years. He had been a member of the Mississippi
legislature, a circuit Judge, a member of the lower house of Congress,
and governor. His political record had established him as "the poor
man's friend." As governor, he had advocated the establishment of a
system of free, common schools; he had inveighed against the banks as
being rich men's institutions ; he had taken a position in advance of the
most ardent expansionist ; and, paradoxically, he had become the special
guardian of the peculiar institution while drawing his political support
from those who owned few or no slaves.
The major emphasis of the book is correctly placed on Brown's career
from 1848 to 1861. Four chapters comprising 161 pages are devoted to
Brown's radical and extreme position with reference to the Compromise
of 1850 and related questions ; to his retreat in 1851 after Mississippi
acquiesced in the Compromise measures; to his activities as a radical
southern nationalist leader from 1854 to 1859 ; and to his advocacy, in
the crisis of 1859-61, of a congressional slave code for the territories, of
expansion into the Caribbean region, of reopening the African slave
trade, and of secession and the setting up of a southern republic of the
United States.