Out of the Wilderness: The Civil War Memoir of Cpl. Norton C. Shepard, 146th NY Vol. edited by Raymond W. Smith. 31 pp., sc, illus., notes, index.
Out Of The Wilderness: The Civil War Memoir of CPL. Norton C. Shepard; 146th New York Volunteer Infantry
Edited by Raymond W. Smith
Few accounts equal Corporal Norton C. Shepard's literate and moving narrative. It focuses on a brief, albeit bloody, encounter in Saunders Field on May 5, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness. Shepard's vivid description of the ill-fated attack of the 140th and 146th New York Infantry Regiments across that open field and his wounding is one of the best memoirs written of the war.
Out of the Wilderness: The Civil War Memoir of Corporal Norton C. Shepard is actually four stories encapsulated together. First, it is a heroic epic of a single soldier, his being wounded three times as he rushed across the approximately quarter mile by quarter mile openness of Saunders Field and the resulting aftermath. Shepard recorded the universal truism of a soldier facing battle, "I believe that when a man in his senses faces death and goes into battle where there is every prospect of death before him, he will go with fear and trembling." Crane's Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage never expressed the dread of battle more eloquently.
Second, Shepard's narrative is a tale of two New York Zouave unitsñthe 140th and 146th, as they advanced directly against George Steuart's Brigade of three Virginia and two North Carolina regiments supported by two additional Confederate brigadesñStafford's and Jones's. In less than 20 minutes the 146th New York lost 312 of 615 engaged, while the 140th suffered 265 casualties of 529. Shepard's account testifies to the furious nature of that action. Captain W.H.S. Sweet, a member of the 146th, captured like Shepard, recalled that as he moved to the rear as a prisoner Confederate Corps Commander Richard Ewell remarked, "What makes you boys fight so? Your regiment fought like hell."
The largest portion of the memoir covers Shepard's medical care and convalescence in the Confederate hospital established at Robertson's Tavern near the battlefield. Here his arm was saved rather than severed by a Confederate surgeon and he was succored by a slave from nearby who defied her master by sneaking away to bring the wounded Union soldiers hoe cakes. In fact, from the time of his wounding until his rescue by a Union force specifically sent to recapture the wounded there are a series of brief encounters between Shepard and his adversaries that highlight the small kindnesses that occurred between Rebels and Yankees in the aftermath of the battle.
Finally, this is a detective mystery. When Ray Smith was made aware of this extraordinary memoir, which was stored in the collection of the Yates County Genealogical Historical Society in Penn Yan, New York, its author was unknown. Thus began the detective story. A historian's role is the art of historic detectionñseeking clues, analyzing and evaluating facts. Unrelentingly, Smith used clues and, through sound historical research, was able to track down the authorship of this minor masterpiece. Smith, in his introduction, traces his path to discovery.
Out of the Wilderness is a marvelous piece of military literature. What this memoir lacks in quantity, it certainly makes up in the quality of the writing and narration by Shepard. This odyssey of a common soldier, his plight, and that of his comrades is one small corner of a major battlefield is a treasure.
Michael Russert
Cambridge, New York
August, 1998