Civil War Dynasty: The Ewing Family of Ohio
Kenneth J. Heineman, NYU Press
For many, the expression “Ewing dynasty” evokes only images of actor Larry Hagman, oil wells, conniving in-laws and everything else associated with the sudsy 1980s TV series Dallas. But Civil War historians and buffs have an entirely different connotation for that family name. The real-life Ewing family of Lancaster, Ohio, played a remarkable role—actually many roles—during the war.
The patriarch, Thomas Ewing Sr., had a political career before the war started, and he used his connections to counsel Abraham Lincoln on several occasions, even though he didn’t hold the president in particularly high regard. His three sons, Thomas Jr., Hugh and Charles, were all accomplished Union generals. And then of course there was Thomas Sr.’s foster son, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, whose wartime legacy speaks for itself.
Angelo State University professor Kenneth J. Heineman—a historian, among other specialties, of 20thcentury American political culture— takes on all these strong personalities and more in Civil War Dynasty: The Ewing Family of Ohio, a fast-paced read that leaves one wondering why this family seems to have been passed over by time and history. After all, the list of events and battles in which at least one Ewing member figured is impressive: Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the March to the Sea and 1865 Carolinas Campaign, the Lawrence (Kan.) Massacre, the Lincoln conspiracy trials and the Andrew Johnson impeachment trial in 1868.
As Heineman notes in his intro, the Ewing family actually was involved in three conflicts during the war: the battlefield fighting (which Heineman describes wondrously); the fight against guerrilla insurgents; and the struggle between antiwar Democrats and Unionists in the corridors of power in Washington and Ohio.
Originally published in the August 2013 issue of Civil War Times. To subscribe, click here.
