The Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., papers (American legal manuscripts from the Harvard Law Scho... Book

Let me explain the 4-star review. This is one of those works that proves invaluable despite the author's intentions, not because of them. The author wrote an apologia for Alfred Sully, who had a long and in some ways distinguished military career in mid-19th Century, but is known on the northern plains mainly for his role as a field commander in the Dakota War during 1863-65. The author's effort fails, in the reckoning of any knowledgeable reader, on account of holes, lapses, and anomalies in the narrative, as well as outright misconstructions of the evidence. On the other hand, in the course of building a poor case, the author reveals all sorts of interesting things contained in family correspondence, things that contribute to a profile of Sully, and not a pretty picture. There are some things that are not so much negative or positive but rather useful--for instance, given Sully's experience in the eastern theater of the Civil war, both his dilatory behavior in 1863 and his resort to total war on the plains make perfect sense. Other things, well, you shake your head. The account of Sully's elopement and family tragedy in California is unintentionally revealing, I think. The work is a must-read for anyone wishing to penetrate Sully's role in the events of 1863-65. I'm still thinking about just what I'm going to think about it.