ABOUT THE BOOK

"Lee's Adjutant" holds an odd place in the increasing number of books on Robert E. Lee. These are the letters of Col. Walter H. Taylor, Lee's chief staff officer during the war. Editor R. Lockwood Tower opens the book with an excellent sketch of Taylor's life and his role in the Army of Northern Virginia. The letters, while often interesting, really do not reveal that much about Lee during the war though there are occasional scenes that stick with the reader: Lee loses his temper at Taylor, the general's reaction to the death of his daughter Annie in 1862, Lee's bemused puzzlement that Taylor wants to rush into Richmond to marry his fiance just as Grant is about to take the city. Nor are Taylor's letters helpful on some of the more dramatic moments of the war. For example, they are skimpy on Gettysburg (and Taylor's role on July 1 in issuing orders to Richard Ewell) and Taylor, to his later regret, made an excuse so he would not be present when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. What Taylor does reveal in these letters are his duties as Lee's primary staff officer. Having said that, the best part of the book remains the introduction by Tower, an odd thing to say about a collection of primary sources with as much historical value as Taylor's letters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R. Lockwood Tower is editor of A Carolinian Goes to War: The Civil War Narrative of Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brigadier General, C.S.A. A dedicated Civil War historian and former trustee of the California Historical Society, Tower lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

REVIEWS

"An intimate look at Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia through the eyes of a young man passionately in love with both the Confederacy and his bride-to-be." — Brooks D. Simpson, author of Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of Reconstruction, 1861–1868.