BOOK REVIEW: RIDING WITH NEW YORK CAVALRY.

Two Accounts Of The American Civil War By A Union Army Officer.

Part 1: Three Years In The Federal Cavalry.

Part 2. The Capture, Prison-Pen And Escape.

 I recently found this book on Amazon while trawling for anything of interest. The book was originally published in two volumes in 1865 and 1870. Interestingly part 2 was published first . This was caused by the author wishing to publicise the appalling treatment he and other Federal prisoners received in Confederate prisons. The second volume followed five years later to complete the story of the author's war service.

This reprint combines both volumes and is a very good read. Although, as usual with American writers of this period, it is full of flowery language and wistful descriptions of sunrises and such like, it is still a good record of life and battle in the Civil War. The author joined up in 1861 as a private soldier and was promoted through the ranks until being commissioned shortly before capture in 1864. As a cavalryman he describes his experiences vividly although , as is to be expected, defeats are mentioned only in passing while victories receive a great deal of attention. The author especially writes with great delight of the destruction caused to Southern property and military supplies during cavalry raids he took part in.

However the majority of the book covers imprisonment. The conditions were seriously bad even with allowance for the South's undoubted food shortages by the later stages of the war. The author seems to quite forget about the destruction Union cavalry inflicted on the South and complains bitterly about shortages of virtually everything while a prisoner. Eventually he escaped and spent 28 days on the run before finally arriving back in the Federal lines. Each and every day of that escape is covered in great detail. As the author says repeatedly, his escape was wholly down to the assistance he received from slaves. It seems that with the plantation owners and other white staff away fighting, the remaining slaves just seemed to carry on with their work but without the usual levels of supervision. This enabled them to give a great deal of help to escaping Federal soldiers which they provided very willingly including  sharing food from very meager supplies.

Overall a very good book which teaches a great deal especially about life as a prisoner of the Confederacy as well as some excellent descriptions of cavalry engagements.