This book by English explorer William Parker Snow reminds us sharply just how much pro-Confederate sentiment there was in Europe. It appears to have been written in a hurry around the time of the armistice, with some references to Lincoln’s assassination, but others to a war still in progress (though there were several editions, and they may have got confused in the present download).

We are seeing a snapshot of the most prominent Confederate generals before they had had time to write their (mostly) dubious memoirs that would feed the mythology of the south. But this did not stop Snow from leaping into the full spirit of Lost Cause propaganda, where every battle was an epic of medieval chivalry, and even the humblest soldier a model of stainless virtue. (‘Unflinching courage and unsullied patriotism’ is a fairly typical example of the author’s style.)

This can make for somewhat wearisome reading, like a picture that is all light and no shade. It rules out subtlety and nuance. And he keeps up his almost endearing habit of apologising for having no space to relate the battles in detail, but then indulging in purple passages like “…the mists which hung like silvery curtains o'er the field, dancing and glistening along the serried line of steel, which glittered in the morning light like the sparklings of countless diamonds, bathing the gay banners which floated in the front with a flood of refulgence…” Among other things, he could hardly have vouched for the truth of any of this, viewing from his home in faraway New York.

Of the eighteen generals featured, Robert E. Lee occupies nearly a third of the book - right out of proportion, poor literary form. It is interesting, though, to note that Lee’s English ancestor crossed the Atlantic because he had quarrelled with King Charles I, and did deals with Cromwell. This upsets the Confederates’ favourite claim that they were descended from English cavaliers, and that the puritans gravitated north.

The refusal to allow any criticism of southern generals can make for quite a misleading narrative. For example, in the chapter on Braxton Bragg, he refers to a ‘minor affair at Hoover's Gap’. This was actually a stunningly successful attack by William Rosecrans, using the first of the seven-shot repeating rifles which drove the shocked Confederates out of central Tennessee in short order (but taking so few casualties that they were able to defeat Rosecrans a few weeks later.) He also fails to explain why Bragg suddenly aborted his promising invasion of Kentucky - now seen as an inexcusable blunder.

For myself, I was hoping he could explain how William Hardee’s tiny Confederate army in Savannah was able to escape across the river into Carolina while Sherman had it in the palm of his hand. That could have provided a well-justified boast of Confederate initiative and pluck. But I’m still waiting for an explanation after half a lifetime.