Game Inside

Mingus, Scott, Sr. CONFEDERATE GENERAL WILLIAM "EXTRA BILLY" SMITH: From Virginias Statehouse to Gettysburg Scapegoat . Savas Beatie, El Dorado Hills, CA, 2013. 418 pages 402 pages of text, index, bibliography, foot notes, b/w photos, maps. ISBN 9781611211290, $29.95. After reading the book you will probably be thinking the same thing that I was; "Why has nobody written about William "Extra Billy" Smith before? And then with some thought you may come to the same conclusion that I did; the subject was just waiting for an author like Scott L. Mingus Sr. to come along and write what may ultimately turn out to be the definitive work on Smith. Smith had his hand in many areas and is one of those few who seems to have a level of success (all be it with a lot of failures as well) in just about everything he did. He was a successful businessman, both as a lawyer, a stage coach operator, and also as a mail contractor. It was his mail delivery business that earned him hi...

White, Cheryl H. Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisianas Fighting Bishop . The History Press, Charleston, SC. 2013. 124 pages, 109 pages text. Index, bibliography, notes, b/w photos. ISBN 9781609497378, $19.99. Bishop General or General Bishop? That is the dichotomy of Leonidas Polk. Attempting to answer this question is Dr. Cheryl White, professor of history at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Polk was a complicated man with many facets and to fully cover him in less than 110 pages is a near impossible assignment. White puts forth the statement that her book "is not an attempt to rewrite that which has already been written about the life of Leonidas Polk but, rather, to add to that literature by simply looking at him through a more localized lens using the historical backdrop of his episcopacy in Louisiana." Polk was born into a family with revolutionary history. Family members served proudly in the Revolutionary War. His father, William, wa...