Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta—And Then Got Written Out of History

Former New York Times executive editor Raines (Whiskey Man) unearths in this resonant and lyrical account the long-buried history of a Southern military unit, the First Alabama Cavalry, that fought for the Union. An Alabama native, Raines explores his state’s “subterranean narrative” alongside his own family’s history as Southern Unionists. When the Civil War began in 1861, the state’s Unionists, including Raines’s own great-great-grandfather, went “lying out” in north Alabama’s hill country to avoid Confederate conscription. As Federal troops made their way into the region, Union officers recognized the potent patriotism of the Alabama Unionists. Formed in 1862, the First Alabama Cavalry went on raids to sabotage Confederate communications, marched with Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces across the South, and contributed to the fall of Vicksburg and the destruction of Atlanta. A large chunk of the book is dedicated to exposing the “scholarly cabal that disappeared the First Alabama,” and includes incisive and damning portraits of the historians and writers­—among them Confederate general Jubal Early, Thomas and Marie Owen of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, and novelist Edward A. Pollard­—who originated the Lost Cause historiography that effectively silenced anti-slavery white Southerners. Throughout, Raines delivers a superlative study in what makes history “history.” This genealogical detective story is both a delight to read and an important corrective. (Dec.)