WEARING OF THE GRAY

This long out-of-print Civil War book, here reissued with an excellent introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern, consists of a collection of sketches of Confederate officers, campaigns and soldier anecdotes by a writer of spurious historical novels who was one of General J.E.B. Stuart's staff officers. The author, who fought for the South from the first and who was present at Appomattox, writes of heroes without flaw: Stuart, ""the cavalier par excellence""; Stonewall Jackson, ""in whose person War seemed a splendid pageant""; Wade Hampton, brave and cool; Jubal Early; Mosby, and others, some known, some unknown. He holds Stuart in almost hysterical adulation, he tells of his hero in action, finding no error in his late appearance at Gettysburg, which may have lost Lee the War; he does, however, give a moving account of Lee's surrender. Valuable for its contemporary viewpoint but of dubious historical accuracy, this lengthy book should find its greatest appeal among dedicated Civil War buffs. Non-buffs may consider it both flowery and dull, and its many anecdotes soporific.