following a sterling introduction, his chronological summary of Union Army activities afterLincoln becomes President and Commander-in-Chief, i.e., the army in 1861; placing the UnionArmy in the field for the first time; governors and the call for volunteers; the precise number ofUnion officers and their classifications, especially the generals; the meaning and nature of the“brevet rank”; the appointment process leading to conformation for Brigadier and MajorGeneral; the confirmation process; and the political process.Following this excellent reminder, Tom offers an informative treatise on “the PhotographicImage Captures the Civil War”. Here, he reminds readers the American Civil War was the first tobe extensively photographed. Prior to 1860, photography had been limited to one-of-a-kinddaguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. With the development of a camera that could takea glass plate from which any number of images could be cheaply printed, the millions of printedcartes de visite provided a contemporary visual picture of the war and its participants. Thecartes de visite took the battlefield into homes both in the North and the South. Especiallyappreciated by this reviewer is the final 16-page section entitled, “President Lincoln, Cabinet
Officers, and Governors”, an enthralling collection of portraits he had never seen before.
