The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 33 Civil War Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions: 50 “Characters” Who Changed the Civil War Era Gene Schmiel, independently published, 2020, $14.99/paperback, e-book available, 251 pages. Every conflict involves colorful char- acters who are memorable for good and bad reasons. The Civil War was certainly no exception. Jesse James, George Custer, Napoleon III, Ambrose Bierce and Phil Sheridan are among the 50 “characters” you will meet in Civil War Rogues, Rascals, and Rapscallions . The book is one of three published by historian and Civil War expert Gene Schmiel this year, each featuring portraits of 50 individu- als involved in the Civil War. In concise essays, Schmiel explains why and how each of the 50 individuals was a rogue (one who acts outside normal parameters), a rascal (a mean, unprincipled or dishonest person) or rapscallion (an extreme version of a rascal)—or all three. Incorporating contemporary photographs, political cartoons and modern maps into each listing helps bring these subjects to life for both the general reader and the Civil War buff. Gene Schmiel retired from the Foreign Service in 2002, after a 24-year career that included tours as chargé d’affaires in Djibouti, Bissau and Reykjavík, among many other assignments. Before joining the Service, he was an assistant professor of history at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, and has taught at Marymount, Shenandoah and Penn State universities. He has specialized in the Civil War ever since the 2014 publication by Ohio University Press of his award-winning book, Citizen-General: Jacob Dolson Cox and the Civil War Era . Civil War Trailblazers and Troublemakers: 50 Men and Women Who Inalterably Changed the Civil War Era Gene Schmiel, independently published, 2020, $12.99/paperback, e-book available, 233 pages. Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tub- man. William Tecumseh Sherman and Frederick Douglass. Mathew Brady and John Wilkes Booth. These are just a few of the figures pro- filed in this fascinating history book. In two- and three-page essays, the author explains why and how each individual was a trailblazer, troublemaker or (as with Mark Twain) both. Most readers will already be familiar with at least some of these individuals. But you will also learn about more obscure but still significant figures, as well as the anonymous trailblazers of the era: the nurses, the telegraph operators, the military bands, the drummer boys and many others. Civil War “Political Generals” of the Blue and Grey: 50 Citizen Generals in the First Modern War Gene Schmiel, independently published, 2020, $12.99/paperback, e-book available, 236 pages. Of the more than three million men who wore a uniform at some point during the Civil War, several hundred were general officers who commanded thousands of troops. The great generals on both sides—Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, James Longstreet and Joseph John- ston—are well known. They were all West Point graduates and professional soldiers. But there were also many near-great generals who were not professional soldiers: the so-called “political generals.” Yet few of them, other than Joshua Chamberlain, Patrick Cleburne, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Logan, are remembered today. This book will introduce (or reintroduce) the reader to 50 of these military leaders, none of whom graduated fromWest Point. The author has chosen 25 from each side and assesses their achievements, successes and failures. FromHope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide Joyce E. Leader, Potomac Books, 2020, $50/hardcover, e-book available, 440 pages. As deputy chief of mission in Rwanda from 1991 to 1994, Joyce E. Leader had a close view of the period leading up to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which an estimated 500,000 to one million Rwandans were killed. It was a time of human rights abuses, escalating violence and political quarrels between rival factions.