Dr. Thomas Sweeney
Republic, Missouri

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Latest Last Full Measure

I was surprised to read that Jeff Shaara had titled his new book The Last Full Measure. Wasn’t that title copyrighted in 1993 by Richard Moe’s book The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers, published by Henry Holt and Company?

Gustave F. Jacob
Rapid City, South Dakota

Editor’s Note: The phrase “the last full measure” is drawn from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and thus cannot be copyrighted. In this case, the mention of the 1st Minnesota sets Moe’s book apart from Shaara’s.

Don’t Ask

Regarding the letter titled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?” (June 1998), I would like to inform William Schweikert that no evidence exists (published or not) that intimates that Major General Patrick R. Cleburne was gay. Randy Shilts, in his book Conduct Unbecoming, took the commonly practiced act of sharing sleeping accommodations with fellow officers and men during the Civil War (particularly during winter campaigns) and gave it a late 20th-century spin. Susan Tarleton, Cleburne’s fiancée, is probably spinning in her grave at the mere mention of such an ill-founded accusation.

Bill Gurley
Little Rock, Arkansas

Patrick Cleburne was one of the most gifted of the Confederate generals. Let’s not start mixing up 20th-century politically correct nonsense with 19th-century history. I neither know nor care about his sexual preference.

Jack Kime
Maryville, Illinois

Fuel For An Argument

The capture of the Ad-Vance (”Mouth of the South,” June 1998) when the steamer ran low of coal led to heated words and conflicting statements between Vance and the Confederate government. J.A. Willard, naval coal agent, reported on November 28, 1864, that “the extraordinary statement ventured upon by Gov. Vance, in his late annual message, that the loss of the Advance is attributable solely to the impressment of coal by the C.S. Government, has very little foundation in fact.” Flag officer R.F. Pinkney added a month later: “No coal was taken from the Advance, nor any belonging to her, for the Tallahassee, or any other vessel.”

Sanford Strausberg
Ormond Beach, Florida

Erratum

June: “Reviews”–The review of Philip Katcher’s The Civil War Source Book faulted Katcher “for identifying Henry Wirz as commandant of Camp Sumter instead of Andersonville Prison.” Katcher was correct; Camp Sumter and Andersonville Prison were one and the same, and the official title was Camp Sumter.

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