Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Vol. 3
WORK NOTES: with Lawrence S. Rowland
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Beaufort
STATE: SC
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-wise-57382919/ * http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/377214.Stephen_R_Wise
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married Alice Parsons.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and museum director. Parris Island Museum, SC, director; Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, SC, cultural resource manager. Member of editorial board of South Carolina Historical Magazine.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Stephen R. Wise is a writer and museum director based in Beaufort, South Carolina. He works at the Parris Island Museum, where he serves as the director. Wise is also the Marine Corps Recruit Depot’s cultural resource manager. He has been a member of the editorial board of the South Carolina Historical Magazine.
Gate of Hell and A Civil War Soldier's Diary
In 1994, Wise released Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863, in which he details an important Civil War battle. Wise examines the events leading up to the conflict and also comments on its consequences. Reviewing the volume in Booklist, Roland Green suggested: “It is a compelling story that Wise handles with … clarity, and scholarly thoroughness.” W. Wayne Smith, contributor to H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, remarked: “Stephen Wise has found a story with lots of interesting characters.” Smith added: “One of the strongest features of the book is the discussion of naval and fortification artillery. Wise’s delineation of the technical aspects of Civil War artillery is clear even for the novice. The author presents a number of useful maps and diagrams of Charleston harbor and fortifications. My only lament about the book is that land features on the maps are frequently confused with marshlands and the sea.”
Wise is the author of commentary and annotations for the 2006 book, A Civil War Soldier’s Diary. The titular diary is that of Valentine C. Randolph, member of the 39th Illinois Regiment. Stephen Hanson, critic in the Journal of Southern History, described the book as “a useful source that is rich with details about life as a soldier and with insights into the pietistic values of mid-nineteenth-century America.”
Bridging the Sea Island's Past and Present
Wise collaborated with Lawrence S. Roland to write Bridging the Sea Island’s Past and Present, 1893–2006: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 3. It starts with a description of a hurricane that caused much damage to the region, forcing residents to rebuild the county’s infrastructure and economy. Wise and Roland also discuss changing demographics and the construction of resorts in the area.
Kevin Dougherty, contributor to the Journal of Southern History, commented: “The reader is left with a clear understanding of not only the dominant themes that defined the era and region, but also the unique process by which they emerged. It is a reading experience that will delight anyone who appreciates a story well told.” “This may be the tale of Beaufort County, but its history has a much wider perspective,” noted S.A. Syme in Choice.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 1994, Roland Green, review of Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863, p. 1768.
Choice, May, 2016, S.A. Syme, review of Bridging the Sea Island’s Past and Present, 1893-2006: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, p. 1384.
Journal of Southern History, August, 2007, Stephen Hansen, review of A Civil War Soldier’s Diary, p. 711; February, 2017, Kevin Dougherty, review of Bridging the Sea Island’s Past and Present, p. 193.
ONLINE
H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, https://networks.h-net.org/ (February 1, 1996), W. Wayne Smith, review of Gate of Hell.*
Stephen R. Wise, is the director of the Parris Island Museum and the cultural resource manager for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, and he serves on the editorial board for the South Carolina Historical Magazine. He is the author of two books published by the University of South Carolina Press--Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War and Gate of Hell: The Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863, named by the South Carolina Historical Society as the best book written on South Carolina History in 1994. Wise lives in Beaufort with his wife, Alice Parsons Wise. He is the author of two books published by the University of South Carolina Press--Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War and Gate of Hell: The Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863, named by the South Carolina Historical Society as the best book written on South Carolina History in 1994. Wise lives in Beaufort with his wife, Alice Parsons Wise.
QUOTED: "It is a compelling story that Wise handles with ... clarity, and scholarly thoroughness."
Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863
Roland Green
90.19-20 (June 1, 1994): p1768.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1994 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
The Charleston campaign of 1863 is currently best known for the role in it of the 54th Massachusetts in vindicating the effectiveness of African American soldiers, as was delineated in the movie Glory. There was, however, much hard fighting before the 54th's assault on Battery Wagner, and there was even more afterward, with heavy losses on both sides and eventual Union failure, due as much to Union interservice rivalries as to Confederate tenacity. Among other features of the siege were the largest naval operations of the war, technologically advanced use of artillery, and trench warfare anticipating World War I. It is a compelling story that Wise handles with high competence, clarity, and scholarly thoroughness.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Green, Roland. "Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863." Booklist, 1 June 1994, p. 1768. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA15741974&it=r&asid=41bd4bbecff0734d70cbcdc67f4f19d0. Accessed 4 July 2017.
QUOTED: "The reader is left with a clear understanding of not only the dominant themes that defined the era and region, but also the unique process by which they emerged. It is a reading experience that will delight anyone who appreciates a story well told."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A15741974
The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina
Kevin Dougherty
83.1 (Feb. 2017): p193.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina. Volume 3: Bridging the Sea Islands' Past and Present, 1893-2006. By Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015. Pp. xx, 492. $44.95, ISBN 978-1-61117-545-5.)
Bridging the Sea Islands' Past and Present, 1893-2006 is the third of three excellent volumes on the history of Beaufort County, South Carolina, written by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise. Rowland is distinguished professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and past president of the South Carolina Historical Society. Wise is the director of the Parris Island Museum and the author of Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War (Columbia, S.C., 1988) and Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863 (Columbia, S.C., 1994). As historians, storytellers, and regional experts, they have set a very high bar.
Rowland and Wise continue to draw heavily on the "names, not numbers" tradition that they used so effectively in the previous two volumes (p. xix). By this technique, readers are introduced to a dizzying array of individuals that represented and gave life to the particular phenomenon under discussion. Captain Henry Von Harten, "the most experienced pilot on the Port Royal bar," appears among the losses of the damaging hurricanes of 1898 (p. 17). The death of merchant F. W. Scheper in 1913 "marked the end of an era of great enterprise" (p. 61). Robert Smalls, the "King of Beaufort County," was seemingly ubiquitous, and his 1915 death was marked by the "bittersweet irony" that he had lived long enough to see the Reconstruction-era political revolution give way to the beginnings of the Great Exodus of African Americans from the sea islands (pp. 32, 183). Sidney Benton is described as "the lettuce king" during the heyday of truck farming between 1908 and 1928 (p. 212). Congressman James F. "Jimmy" Byrnes, "Beaufort's man of influence in Washington," played a pivotal role in the construction of the bridges and highways built between 1908 and 1929 that "determined the patterns of transportation, settlement, and commerce for the county for the next half century" (pp. 276, 225). J. Edward McTeer, the legendary "high sheriff of the lowcountry," battled moonshiners during the Prohibition era (p. 271). Leland Grayson, the seven-foot-three "Beaufort Behemoth," is highlighted as "the physically largest soldier from South Carolina during World War II," and boxer Smokin' Joe Frazier claims title to "the most famous Beaufortonian of the twentieth century" (pp. 365, 388). These and a potpourri of other such characterizations bring to life the narrative in a very readable and memorable way.
In addition to these rich explorations of personalities, Rowland and Wise succinctly and expertly analyze the region's themes of "frontiers and revolution--if not always progress" (p. xvii). They explore the demographic changes that "transformed Beaufort County from a 90.5 percent majority black population in 1900 to a 61 percent majority white population in 1960"; that made it a "Marine Corps town," complete with "a working middle class," thanks to the establishment of the recruit depot at Parris Island in 1915; and that created a haven for leisure seekers and retirees that began with wealthy northerners in the late nineteenth century and resurged with the opening of Del Webb's Sun City in 1993 (pp. xviii, 364). The authors trace the region's agriculture and economic journey through the prominence of cotton, truck farming, and phosphates. Rowland and Wise tell the impressive story of the fusion politics that "transformed a former Confederate and Democratic stronghold into a model of biracial democracy that survived into the worst years of Jim Crow political tyranny" (p. xix). The authors go on to relate the county's "exemplary" response to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s that stood as "a worthy tribute to its pathbreaking Reconstruction history" (p. 387). Unsurprisingly, given the book's title, they convincingly make the case that "[t]he history of twentieth-century Beaufort County could be written by studying its bridges" (p. 379). The reader is left with a clear understanding of not only the dominant themes that defined the era and region, but also the unique process by which they emerged. It is a reading experience that will delight anyone who appreciates a story well told.
Kevin Dougherty
The Citadel
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Dougherty, Kevin. "The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina." Journal of Southern History, vol. 83, no. 1, 2017, p. 193+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481354171&it=r&asid=f5bbf466eb28cc1929d1db5e6d46c751. Accessed 4 July 2017.
QUOTED: "This may be the tale of Beaufort County, but its history has a much wider perspective."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A481354171
Rowland, Lawrence S.: Bridging the sea island's past and present, 1893-2006: v.3: The history of Beaufort County, South Carolina
S.A. Syme
53.9 (May 2016): p1384.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Rowland, Lawrence S. Bridging the sea island's past and present, 1893-2006: v.3: The history of Beaufort County, South Carolina, by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen R. Wise. South Carolina, 2015. 492p bibl index afp ISBN 9781611175455 cloth, $44.95
(cc) 53-4097
F277
MARC
This is the third volume of The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina. The first volume covers 1514-1861 (CH, Jul'97, 34-6487); volume 2 covers 1861-93 (Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption, 2015). The current volume deals with the devastating hurricane of 1893 to the first decade of the 21st century. The hurricane destroyed most of the structural and economic projects that had been built following the Civil War, so a new beginning was made. The authors studied the mass migration of African Americans, who were moving elsewhere for social and economic reasons. At about the same time, in the Gilded Age wealthy northerners began to purchase the sparsely settled land and to build extensive estates for social activities, hunting, and timber investment. The mid-20th century saw more changes as the islands, like Hilton Head, were turned into upscale golfing communities with year-round populations. This volume is unique to a particular county in South Carolina, but similar events were happening in other barrier islands from North Carolina to Florida. This may be the tale of Beaufort County, but its history has a much wider perspective. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries, especially along the Atlantic seaboard.--S. A. Syme, Coastal Carolina University
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Syme, S.A. "Rowland, Lawrence S.: Bridging the sea island's past and present, 1893-2006: v.3: The history of Beaufort County, South Carolina." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May 2016, p. 1384. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA453288580&it=r&asid=96d41dc84e25a8aef51e463e57b72432. Accessed 4 July 2017.
QUOTED: "a useful source that is rich with details about life as a soldier and with insights into the pietistic values of mid-nineteenth-century America."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A453288580
A Civil War Soldier's Diary: Valentine C. Randolph, 39th Illinois Regiment
Stephen Hansen
73.3 (Aug. 2007): p711.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
A Civil War Soldier's Diary: Valentine C. Randolph, 39th Illinois Regiment. Edited by David D. Roe. With commentary and annotations by Stephen R. Wise. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006. Pp. x, 280. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-87580-343-1.)
According to WorldCat, the online catalog covering over ten thousand libraries, there are thousands of nonfiction published diaries of women, slaves, and soldiers during the American Civil War. Why then should anyone care that another Civil War diary has been published? The reason why Valentine C. Randolph's diary should be of interest is that he was exceptionally articulate, and his diary provides rich detail not only on life as a common soldier but also on the pietistic values of mid-nineteenth-century America.
Randolph's diary is of his experiences during his three-year enlistment in the Thirty-nineth Illinois Regiment from 1861 through September 1864. He was involved in the Peninsula Campaign, the siege of Charleston, the Bermuda Hundred, and Petersburg, and Randolph provides ample observations on the duties of a common soldier. He shares little, however, about combat. Even though he was wounded twice, he discusses it with detachment and without detail.
What sets Randolph's diary apart from other personal records is what he reveals about mid-nineteenth-century values. The values of patriotism, honor, and pietistic morality permeate the diary. When he is wounded, patriotism and pride are his emotions. When he judges others, it is in the light of their moral failings in regard to gambling, liquor, and failure to keep the Sabbath. His pietism is also expressed in the value he places on progress. He equates neatness, order, and science with progress. Hence, when he observed the neatness of a village, the quality of a farmer's fences, or the solidness of a building, he was really commenting on the progress of the region and, therefore, the character of the people. This moral framework shaped all of his attitudes, including his ambivalence about race, contempt for the southern aristocracy, and indifference to politics.
The utility of Randolph's diary is greatly enhanced by Roe's skillful editing. Roe wisely includes maps that help the reader understand the campaigns in which Randolph was engaged. He also helps the reader by providing a short introductory essay for each of the diary's seven sections that places the events described by Randolph in the larger military and political context. Additionally, Roe provides a short bibliography of relevant military primary and secondary sources.
The utility of the diary, however, could have been strengthened by better footnoting. While Roe's notes help the reader understand some of Randolph's biblical references and Latin phrases, he curiously fails to explain some significant events, such as the vote on the new Illinois State Constitution in 1862 and the Battle of the Crater in 1864. Regardless, historians will find that Roe's editing has made A Civil War Soldier's Diary: Valentine C. Randolph, 39th Illinois Regiment a useful source that is rich with details about life as a soldier and with insights into the pietistic values of mid-nineteenth-century America.
STEPHEN HANSEN
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Hansen, Stephen
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hansen, Stephen. "A Civil War Soldier's Diary: Valentine C. Randolph, 39th Illinois Regiment." Journal of Southern History, vol. 73, no. 3, 2007, p. 711. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA167979736&it=r&asid=492343b8bfbe3befefb3f9d5301b5e06. Accessed 4 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A167979736
QUOTED: "Stephen Wise has found a story with lots of interesting characters."
"One of the strongest features of the book is the discussion of naval and fortification artillery. Wise's delineation of the technical aspects of Civil War artillery is clear even for the novice. The author presents a number of useful maps and diagrams of Charleston harbor and fortifications. My only lament about the book is that land features on the maps are frequently confused with marshlands and the sea."
Smith on Wise, 'Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863'
Author:
Stephen R. Wise
Reviewer:
W. Wayne Smith
Stephen R. Wise. Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994. xii + 312 pp. $27.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-87249-985-0.
Reviewed by W. Wayne Smith (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
Published on H-CivWar (February, 1996)
The movie "Glory" popularized in dramatic fashion the heroism of the 54th Massachusetts regiment in the assault on Ft. Wagner. Now Stephen Wise, museum director and South Carolina historian, presents the full story of the assault on Ft. Wagner within its larger context. Battery Wagner, as the author notes, was not a true fort, but only an artillery fortification helping to protect Charleston harbor. It was located on Morris Island (now washed away by the seatides) just south of Ft. Sumter. It came under attack because northerners and especially the naval command in the Lincoln administration wanted to capture Charleston. The city offered a vital port for the Confederacy. But its symbolic significance as the bastion of secession caused many northerners to regard Charleston as a more valuable prize than Richmond. This book is the story of the Union scheme to capture Charleston and its surrounding harbor fortifications.
Stephen Wise has found a story with lots of interesting characters. Obviously Robert Gould Shaw and the African-Americans of the 54th Massachusetts play a role in the book. We also meet Clara Barton; the three top naval commanders (Samuel F. DuPont, Andrew H. Foote, and John A.B. Dahlgren); General Quincy A. Gillmore, best and brightest of West Point's class of 1849 and, in 1863, the Union's elite artillery technician; General Pierre G. T. Bueauregard, hero of Charleston in 1861; and dozens of lesser but equally interesting people. Wise has prepared himself well to handle both Union and Confederate sides of the story equally and objectively.
The operation against the defenses of Charleston, namely Battery Wagner and Ft. Sumter occurred in two phases. First, the grand assault on July 18, 1863 began with heavy bombardment on Battery Wagner from Dalgren's ships. The Union plan was to capture Battery Wagner on Morris Island and use that position to bombard Ft. Sumter. Gillmore's infantry followed up the naval bombardment with the famed assault led by the 54th Massachusetts. This operation ended in dismal failure with severe losses by the Union attackers and Confederates still holding the fortifications.
The second phase was a siege against Battery Wagner. At this stage, Wise argues, the operation assumed the character of modern warfare. Now "engineers and artillerymen--the technicians of war--were taking control. . . . Shovels began to replace the rifle and the individual soldier was becoming lost amongst the mass firepower and trenches provided by the artillery and the engineers" (p. 120). The Union Army dug a series of zig-zag trenches that inched towards Battery Wagner. This construction brought Union firepower and soldiers closer to the fortification.
A part of the second phase was the bombardment of Ft. Sumter on August 17, 1863. Gillmore's artillery, now including rifled cannon, pummeled Ft. Sumter. The expert Union artillery reduced the fort's masonry to rubble. But the Confederates used the rubble to rebuild defensive structures and tenaciously held onto the fort.
By early September Union troops were exhausted from the toil, heat, and warfare. An uncoordinated army-navy assault on Ft. Sumter failed and General Gillmore gave up the fight. Several months of vicious fighting brought no real results. The Union controlled Morris Island, but the Confederates still held Ft. Sumter and Charleston remained secure.
Various subthemes run through the book. We see, for example, personalities affecting the coordination of Union naval and land operations. For readers who have paid little attention to the Civil War navies, Wise's tale reveals the Union expanded usage of ironclad monitors as attack units. One of the strongest features of the book is the discussion of naval and fortification artillery. Wise's delineation of the technical aspects of Civil War artillery is clear even for the novice.
The author presents a number of useful maps and diagrams of Charleston harbor and fortifications. My only lament about the book is that land features on the maps are frequently confused with marshlands and the sea.
Wise argues that this campaign initiated the onset of modern warfare. First, he argues that rifled artillery made its impact in this campaign. Secondly, he asserts that after the first failed assault on Battery Wagner, new techniques such as trench warfare defined the Civil War tactics. He perhaps could have muted his claims by noting that the innovations at Charleston harbor were only part of the changing nature of warfare in 1863.
Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=300
Citation: W. Wayne Smith. Review of Wise, Stephen R., Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. February, 1996.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=300
Copyright © 1996 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.