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Last Official Patch For Ageod’s American Civil War Released

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700612874
• ISBN-13: 978-0700612871

“Bleeding Kansas”, 150 years after the event this phrase still causes strong feelings.  Very few are neutral on Kansas even now.  In trying to solve the question of slavery expanding into the territories, Congress left it to the settlers allowing Congress to maintain a fragile peace on the national level.  On the Kansas Missouri border, this policy caused the Civil War come early and stay late.  Popular Sovereignty pictured peaceful elections decided by local voters in a spirit of good fellowship and respect.  Popular Sovereignty was stuffing the ballot box, intimidation, murder and small battles between “settlers” imported by both sides.  Immigrant Aid Societies, Breecher’s Bibles, Red Legs and Jayhawkers all entered our vocabulary.  Jim Lane and John Brown become national figures.  William Quantrill, Cole Younger and Frank James all start their travels in Kansas.  While we have names and strong feelings on “Bleeding Kansas” or “The Troubles” as Missourians called this time, most of us do not have a good grasp of the events.

Nicole Etcheson fills this void.  She manages to keep national politics, regional responses, local politics and the fighting in perspective without overwhelming the reader.  With her sure narration, we walk the halls of Congress, sit in meetings at the White House, raise money for immigrant aid, ride with John Brown or just try to get a crop in.  Along the way, she refuses to take side!  The author uses each side’s ideas and justifications for their actions without moralizing or condemning.  This gives us a real insight into the thinking of Missourians crossing the border to vote in elections.  While helping us to understand the actions of the New Englanders that contributed thousands of dollars to resettle “free soil” families while buying rifles.  Neither side is completely right or wrong.  Anti-slavery farmers are no less raciest than slave owners nor are they more likely to aid runaway slaves.  This history of several political movements, a failing national policy, a shooting war and political double-dealing upsetting even by contemporary standards.  A strong story line is the change in racial attitudes of the free soil movement.  They move from a standard raciest set of laws to a state that almost welcomed Black settlers.

The book is never boring and all of the threads are easy to follow.  A very enjoyable read, informative and leaves us with a balanced understanding of Bleeding Kansas.  While detailed, the author manages to keep moving and never bogs down on a single point.  The portraits of the participants, while often unflattering, are always honest.  The illustrations are well chosen and in the right place.  The footnotes are informative and have a page reference making them easy to find.  The bibliography is excellent with more books on the subject than I would ever wish to read.

This is a book that all students of the Civil War need to read and is a required read for those interested in the Trans-Mississippi.

Editor’s Note: Jim is a Top 500 Amazon.com reviewer.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

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Review: Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era

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1. Review: Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America
2. November 2009 Civil War Book Notes
3. Review: THE UNPOPULAR MR. LINCOLN: The Story of America’s Most Reviled President

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Edinborough Press (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889020354
• ISBN-13: 978-1889020358

Challenges our assumptions

We tend to look at 19^th Century medical care as almost nonexistent.  Drugs, treatments & equipment we take for granted are unavailable.  Our most enduring image is an amputation on a screaming man being held down as the surgeon cuts away.  A number of Civil War movies have used this image and burned it into our remembrance of the war.  The problem is that people did not see medical care that way.  These people live in a modern age with improved medical care that gave them a better chance of survival than their grandfathers had.  The authors of these essays fully understand this and often challenge our assumptions while providing an entertaining learning experience.

The eight essays range across the medical landscape of the Civil War.  This variety of subjects provides an engrossing peek into the personalities, problems, procedures and developments during this time.  The approximately 20-page essay gives a solid introduction without bogging the reader down in unwanted details.

“Amputations in the Civil War” attacks our enduring image and changes it.  The author shows how amputations were handled, why they were needed and looks a triage.  This is a very well written essay, logical and informative that changed my views on battlefield medical care.

“The Privates Were Shot” is a difficult read but a very well written interesting essay.  This is the most graphic essay and discusses the damage and care of wounds to the groin.  Again, an essay challenges the idea the doctors were unable to do little more than stand by and hope.  We see a series of active and inactivate procedures used in these cases.

“Southern Resources, Southern Medicines”, “Medical School for a Nation” and “J.J. Chislom, M.D.” give us a picture of the Confederacy response to the realities of war.  Taken together, they give us a picture of the training of doctors, finding alternate medicines and one doctor responding to the challenges of war.

“A Multiplicity of Ingenious Articles” looks at Scientific American magazine, patent laws and views on the correct “marketing” of medical inventions.  Many inventors chose donation or patent.

“The Firm” looks at the problems associated with nerve damage and the growing understanding of “ghost pain” in missing limbs.  This essay shows how 19^th Century medicine was growing and developing into what we know today.

Combat soldiers in “good wars” do not suffer PTSD, CSR of ASD.  These problems are associated with those who served in the not “good wars”.  As a Viet Nam veteran, I was very interested in the essay “Haunted Minds.  We have very little about the problems of veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II had.  This essay tells the story of one veteran and the problems he had after the war.  It is an important introduction and badly needed look into this subject.

This can be an unpleasant read.  We are dealing with blood, pus, bone splinters and suffering.  The authors do not dwell on this and avoid sensationalism by staying factual with the minimum of medicinal terminology necessary.  This is an excellent book for anyone interested in medicine during the war or those needed an introduction.

Editor’s Note: Jim is a Top 500 Amazon.com reviewer.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

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Review: Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine

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James Rumley’s orderly world was changed forever when Union soldiers attacked New Bern in 1862 and occupied his hometown in nearby Beaufort for the following three years.

Rumley recorded his thoughts about Union occupation, secession, slave ownership and other topics in a diary that has been edited and annotated by Judkin Browning, an assistant professor of military history at Appalachian State University. The book has been published by the University Press of Florida.

“The Southern Mind Under Union Rule: The Diary of James Rumley, Beaufort, North Carolina, 1862-1865″ is the result of Browning’s painstaking work to recreate Rumley’s writings from multiple sources, including a serialized account that ran in the newspaper The Look Out in 1910, and two fragmentary copies of the diary.

Just as a general comment, the coastal war in NC gets little attention, as do the reactions civilians in the Occupied South.

And, a few clouds have appeared over the otherwise placid landscape of the Carolinas. In Augusta, GA, the downtown Confederate monument, which features a likeness of local hero Berry Benson on the top, was defaced with crude anti-white graffiti.

Messages were marked in black and include the words black power, I hate whites and cracker killers as well as an obscenity against whites in large letters.

And, in Charlotte, NC,  some folks (you can guess who) are upset with a living history lesson.

During a lesson on the Civil War, tour guide Ian Campbell, made black students pretend to be slaves in front of their white classmates.

Campbell said he’s been a historian for more than 15 years. “I am very enthusiastic about getting kids to think about how people did things in 1860, 1861, even before that period.”

One parent said Campbell took his enthusiasm too far when he picked three black elementary school children out of a group of mostly white students to play the role of cotton picking slaves during a his hands-on history lesson. The parent says the students were also made to wear bags used to gather cotton around their necks.

Campbell said, “I was trying to be historically correct not politically correct.”

Follow the link and take a look the video, which may surprise you.

And finally, a look at the fabled Walker Colt, which still has the distinction of being the most powerful production black powder revolver ever made. It was, in effec, the Dirty Harry special of its day. Sam Colt built ‘em for the Texas Rangers, specifically for Capt. Samuel Walker, who wanted some really big whupass to open up on the Indians. With a .44 caliber ball driven by 60 grains of black powder (as much as most rifles), the Walker was effective even at extended ranges.  It worked, allowing Walker and five other rangers to hold off a war party of 90 Comanches. Although real ones go for up to six figures, you can get a replica from Uberti, and here’s an account from New Zealand of all places of someone who’s tried one. The heroes of the mini-series Lonesome Dove, Gus McRae and Woodrow McCall, both carried one.

UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of firearms, take a look at this .58 cal. Remington Zouave rifle musket. Pricey but hey, it’s only money. This one has a Civil War provenance and the photos are exceptionally well done. Although not issued in large numbers (the gov’t bought about 10,000, not all of which were issued to the army) it was a well-made arm and the troops liked them.

UPDATE II: Speaking of monument desecration, this one comes to us from California. Metal thieves have put virtually all Civil War ordnance at risk, especially the brass pieces. Hard to believe, however, that anyone could get much for an iron cannon, even one that weighs 1,500 pounds.

VALLEJO – Area metal thieves have evidently graduated to larger game with the recent snatching of a 1,500-pound cannon from a Vallejo cemetery, officials said.

The Civil War-era Naval Dahlgren cannon was discovered missing last week from its spot near three others in the Sunrise Memorial Cemetery, graveyard operator Buck Kamphausen said. The remaining cannons have since been removed and stored in an undisclosed location.

“They took an A-frame to it to take it out of the ground,” Kamphausen said. “They dug around it enough to loosen it from the ground.”

This is the second cannon theft Kamphausen knows of in Vallejo in recent years. Another cannon was stolen about 18 months ago from a different cemetery, he said.

Sunrise’s cannon memorial is believed to have been erected in 1906 in the burial ground’s Spanish-American War section, manager Mark Alexander said.

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Short Takes

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3. Short Takes

I read Jim Durney’s recent TOCWOC post, Hallmarks of the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War, with interest.  Jim points out many things I agreed with, but he also made some statements I can definitely argue a bit.  I thought it might be interesting to go through Jim’s points one by one and offer my own comments, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, and in all cases getting my opinion on this controversial topic out there.  Jim’s original points are indented and in blue while my responses are in black.

(.8.) John Brown is an iconic figure for the PCM.  Their history abounds with books lauding Brown for destroying slavery and being free of racism.  They see Brown, in Kansas, as shielding the anti-slavery group from violence initiated by the pro-slavery group.  Harpers Ferry is an act of civil disobedience, not insurrection, and is applauded as a blow against slavery.

John Brown was insane.  His methods clearly show this to be true.  His attempt at a slave insurrection was quixotic in nature and had zero chance of succeeding.  With that said, Brown’s views on race were clearly ahead of his time.  Harpers Ferry was another flash point which brought the county ever closer to war…and slaves ever closer to their freedom.  Despite his methods, Brown in his own way did help bring about what he desired and his hanging served as a rallying point for abolitionists and later the Union war effort.

9)  While not a defining trend, the PCM is more interested in the political, social and/or economic history of the war than the military history.  McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Freedom” is always the recommended general history of the war for this reason.

This I agree with wholeheartedly.  Academia, despite the best efforts of true military historians like the guys at Civil Warriors, is overflowing with people who not only have no interest in the military aspects of history, but who also respond condescendingly to anyone who does enjoy this aspect of the Civil War.  This is a pervasive and overwhelming trend which has been ongoing for decades.  I’m hopeful that this “overcorrection” will ebb a bit as time goes by.

10) The Bleeding Kansas violence was caused by pro-slavery faction invading the area from Missouri.  These groups were responsible for 75% of the violence during this time.  The anti-slavery faction was just protecting their lives and responding to the violence committed against them.

Obviously, pro-slave and pro-free men swarmed into the Kansas Territory when it was opened up for settlement.  Both sides committed atrocities and both were the aggressors in some cases, all in the name of trying to make Kansas a slave or free state.  Many Kansans and Missourians still loathe each other to this day as a result.   If we’re assigning percentages of blame, 50/50 sounds about right.

11)  The South was incapable of changing their position on slavery and would never have grown to accept emancipation without the war.

This is a viewpoint of the “Politically Correct” movement I completely disagree with.  Overwhelming and continually increasing negative world opinion coupled with more technologically advanced agricultural machinery, among other things, would have led to eventual emancipation.  The question becomes, was the death of 600,000 Americans worth the immediate emancipation of Blacks?  Some would argue yes and others would argue no.  The fact is, this is the price that was paid for immediate emancipation.

12)  “Gone with the Wind” is hated and considered a racist book and movie.  Those involved with the PC Myth will go to great lengths to deprecate GWTW.

Although (as a classic movie buff who thinks 1939 was the greatest year for movies ever) I absolutely love the movie, Gone with the Wind paints an incredibly distorted moonlight and magnolias Lost Cause version of the South.  One could also successfully argue that it does paint Blacks in a less than positive light, like most Hollywood movies of the 1930s did.  GWTW gets a lot of hatred because it played a role in perpetuating the myth of the Lost Cause, and I understand and agree with those emotions.  With that said, if you understand that what you’re watching is not remotely close to historically accurate (again, like many “historical” movies in Hollywood’s Golden Age), you can absolutely enjoy this movie.

13)  John Brown is a revered hero.  His actions in Kansas are always defensive and justifiable.  Harpers Ferry was a good plan, local slaves joined him and the drunken racist locals forming a mob frustrated his plans and trapped him in the arsenal.

If you’ve read this entire essay, you know my position on Brown.  Hacking people to death is not a justifiable action.  Harpers Ferry was a quixotic farce in terms of actually working as Brown (at least publicly and in writing) intended it, but the man became worth much more to the Abolitionist and later Northern cause in death than he ever was worth in life.

14)  Robert E. Lee is dismissed as a traitor and responsible for prolonging the war unnecessarily.  In addition, much is made of the problems with freeing the slaves under his Father-in-law’s will and his having a runaway slave whipped.  Both are used to “prove” Lee was an evil person.

Robert E. Lee WAS a traitor to the United States of America.  I’m not sure how anyone could argue otherwise.  Rather than prolonging the war unnecessarily, I believe Lee played a pivotal role in preventing a massive and apocalyptic guerrilla war to break out after Appomattox.  If the Army of Northern Virginia had chosen to fight on in this manner, other Confederates were sure to have followed.  Lee, like most slave owners, had his “good days” and “bad days” with regards to his treatment of slaves.  Again, people on the extreme ends of this fight tend to throw out blanket proclamations of good and evil and apply these to well-known figures on both sides.  Lincoln, for example, can be “The Great Emancipator” to one person and the devil on earth to another.  The truth, as it almost always does, lies somewhere in the middle, and two different people can argue until their dying days without convincing the other of the validity of their viewpoint.  Lee was the product of a slave holding society and the very racist “White Man’s Burden” West.  Believing that Whites were better than Blacks was a commonly held view at the time.  Lee’s relatively humane treatment of slaves, slaves many Whites didn’t consider human, does not necessarily make him “evil”.  I think most reasonable people without an agenda would conclude that Robert E. Lee was not an evil man.

A defining trait of the PCM is the insistence that there is no such thing as the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War.  A second part of this argument is that there is no such thing as political correctness, just the truth.

One thing I’ve learned since the internet was invented, and especially since the explosion of Civil War blogs, is that there are some extremely skewed views of reality out there.  I’m not going to name names, but people who read multiple Civil War blogs, message boards, and web sites with regularity can probably pretty easily pick out examples of extreme “Lost Causers” and “PCers”.  I look with rueful incredulity on people who liken the Confederacy to the Third Reich equally as much as those who claim the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.  Both views are ridiculous and do not hold up under even the most cursory examination of the evidence.  Slavery, Black Confederates, the causes of the Civil War, who started the war, the legality of secession, and other hot button topics have as much to do with today’s politics as they do with history.  It’s why I generally try to avoid those topics on message boards and here at the blog.  Nothing good seems to come of it.

I’m glad Jim wrote about the “politically correct” viewpoint on the Civil War, however.  In my opinion, not as much derision is directed at this group as is warranted.  I do grow tired of those who choose to mock Southerners with ridiculous strawman arguments, stereotype all Southerners, or throw up an image, a painting, a video, or something else supposedly representing Southerners only to offer extremely biased, condescending, and ultimately flawed “interpretation” of what it means.  Ultimately, this serves no good purpose and makes you look just as foolish as the DiLorenzo’s of the world.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

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A Response to Hallmarks of the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War, Part 2

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2. Hallmarks of the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War
3. Review: Sherman’s March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series)

I read Jim Durney’s recent TOCWOC post, Hallmarks of the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War, with interest.  Jim points out many things I agreed with, but he also made some statements I can definitely argue a bit.  I thought it might be interesting to go through Jim’s points one by one and offer my own comments, sometimes agreeing, sometimes disagreeing, and in all cases getting my opinion on this controversial topic out there.  Jim’s original points are indented and in blue, my responses are in black.

1) The insistence that the North is good and the South bad can be a warning sign, just as an insistence that the South was good and the North bad is a warning sign of Lost Cause Mythology.  Most accept that the North’s position was the right one and that the United States should not have allowed secession.  However, an insistence that the Northern position was 100% right and the South’s 100% wrong isn’t historical or likely.  Both sides missed opportunities to avoid the war and both sides did things that brought the war closer.  The South has the majority of responsibility for causing the war but the North is not the innocent victim.  An excellent indication that you are talking to a PCMer is when they equate the Confederacy and /or owning slaves with the Third Reich.

I mostly agree here.  Although I do believe slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, the Northern states weren’t blameless in the matter.  New England ships brought slaves to America up until the early 19th Century when the slave trade was outlawed.  New York City financiers were all too happy to keep the Southern cotton/slave economy humming along.

There is also the question of how long it would have taken the South to gradually emancipate the slaves.  Should the North have compromised to allow the South to continue slavery to save the Union?  I believe the slaves would have been freed eventually, but the record of unfair laws passed to keep African-Americans down and the number of atrocities committed against Blacks for a full century after the Civil War makes me believe it would have taken a long time, perhaps well into the 20th Century.  One need look no further than South Africa for a modern day example of the possibilities.

I also firmly believe secession was not a legal, Constitutional way for the Southern states to proceed, though that is a topic which I don’t think people are ever going to fully agree on.

With all of that said, the South fired first, and to me holds most of the blame for an actual fighting war.  What would have happened had the South waited out Lincoln’s presidency to see how he really intended to move, if at all, on the slavery issue?  We’ll never know, but it was a possible choice the South didn’t make.

Lastly, I DEFINITELY see a lot of people claim the South was as bad as the Third Reich.  This to me is over the top and out of line.  I think this particular comparison is one major reason why Southerners today react with anger to anyone who questions the Confederacy’s motives.

2) Slavery is wrong, was unkind and was the underlying cause of the war.  It was the most visible difference between the two sections but it was not the only difference.  The South lost national influence in the years leading up to the war.  This coupled with the differences between agricultural and industrial economies created tensions that led to war.  Southern slavery, while not kind, was not excessively cruel considering the standards in place.  An example of the PCM is the person on Yahoo Groups that stated slave owners would let a slave die rather than spend the price of a chicken on a doctor.  Considering the price of a slave was several years’ wages, the idea makes no economic sense.

Slavery wasn’t the only difference, sure, but I firmly believe there would have been no Civil War if slavery had been abolished along with the slave trade.  I am not so sure about the “kindness” of the Southern version of slavery.  The way a slave was treated depended on their owner and the people he/she hired to oversee the slaves.  While I don’t doubt some slaves had an “easy” time of it because an owner liked them, I also don’t doubt slavery was a living hell for others.  I can sum this up by saying, would you want to be a slave?  I don’t know of many sane people who would respond in the affirmative to that question!

With that said, some people do tend to exaggerate the relative cruelty of the “average” Southern slaveholder, IMHO.

3) Black support of the Confederacy is the one place the PCM & LCM meet!  Both are dedicated to showing that the CSA was an all-white operation.  The LCM simply ignored any contributions by Blacks expect as “the faithful slave” stories.  The PCM has decided that, the South being the center of evil and slavery being hell on earth, no Black could support the CSA in any way.  This has led to the assertion that any Blacks serving in CSA armies were really mixed race and somehow less Black.  I have had authors say that a history of the Battle of Williamsport cannot be written.  Black teamsters picking up rifles joined white troops in fighting off the Union cavalry.  While historical, this is not acceptable to the book buying public.  The SCV is accepting the contributions of Blacks and recognizing them as a valued part of the South’s armies.

The topic of “Black Confederates” is an always controversial one.  Who is a Confederate?  Are teamsters and cooks impressed into the Confederate army Confederates, or were they mostly there against their will?  Since Blacks left so few written records of these experiences, we have no way to “ask them”.  My own take is that while some Blacks probably did shoulder weapons and help beat off Union attacks from time to time, these were no widespread or common occurrences.  I haven’t heard of the assertion that those African-Americans “serving” (again, what definition are we using here) were mostly mixed race, so I can’t comment on this.  I suspect the SCV values the “contributions” of Black Confederates more than Confederate soldiers did at the time, and that this group is doing so more for political reasons than anything else.  Again, with all of that said, some Blacks probably did wholeheartedly support the Southern Confederacy.  I have no way to dispute that assertion.  The number who did, again in my opinion, had to be minuscule, however.

4) Reconstruction; part of the PC Myth is the contention that the USA should have engaged in massive land distribution projects during Reconstruction.  These projects would have stripped those that fought for the CSA of land and given it to former slaves.  This idea seems based on the redistribution of land done in Russia and China after the communist revolutions and would have been completely out of character for the USA.

This assertion, though I wasn’t aware of it prior to reading Jim’s essay, is patently absurd.  Any attempt to do something like this would have led to guerrilla warfare on a grand scale.  Former Confederates would not have stood idly by while the Federal government took everything they owned.

5) The failure of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow are blamed on racism and the refusal of Southern Whites to be reconstructed.  Books by Eric Foner follow this line, restricting the failure to racial issues and local politics.  Part of the popularity of this view is how well it works with the South being the center of evil, one of the most popular and widely held parts of the PCM.  This view holds that whites should have been denied civil rights for life and reduced to non-citizens for rebelling.

I am not an expert on the Reconstruction era by any means, but the tendency of Southerners to subtly sabotage the government’s Reconstruction policies through Jim Crow laws, intimidation of Northern officials in the South, and other methods did play a large role in the failure of Reconstruction.  In fact, African-Americans weren’t much better off than slaves for a good portion of the 20th Century due to Southern attitudes about Blacks.  Again, I have not heard of any sane and realistic people who have advocated permanently revoking U.S. citizenship to former Confederates.  That policy would have only encouraged another Civil War at some future point.

6)  The Reconstruction Klan is seen as a wholly rascist organization having no other reason for existence.  This view is more consistent with the Klan of the 20^th Century and ignores any excesses, real or perceived, that occurred during Reconstruction.  This view is consistent with the underlying theme of racial animosity that is so much a part of the PC Myth.

I mostly agree with Jim here.  While there can be no doubt that many (most?) members of the original Klan were racist, most Whites in the United States held racist views in the late 19th Century.  However, much of what the original Klan did was in part to maintain white supremacy, a former fact of life which was suddenly not at all certain in the Reconstruction era South.

7)  Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow occupy a special place in the PCM.  First, Forrest is the perfect Southerner for this group.  A slave trader prior to the war and founding member of the Klan afterwards, makes him the man they love to hate.  Fort Pillow is a massacre of surrendering members of the USCT directed by Forrest.  Richard Fuchs’ book scores very high with the PCM.  The lack of prosecution after the war and race relations between Forrest and the Black community has no bearing here.

Ouch.  Forrest and Fort Pillow discussion never seem to turn out well in the Civil War discussion boards, do they?    Forrest was an extremely complicated man, and real life tends to produce “gray” rather than good or evil characters.  My own take on Fort Pillow after reading quite a bit on the topic is that it most definitely WAS a massacre by any logical definition of that word.  With that said, it wasn’t the only massacre to occur during the Civil War or any war.  The Crater is another famous example from the Civil War, for example.  What surprises me somewhat, given the incredible changes occurring in the social order, is that MORE Black soldiers weren’t massacred by Confederates during the war.  I’m not trying to downplay or “poo poo” the horrific actions at Fort Pillow in any way, but if you compare the Civil War to something like the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, the atrocities committed by Forrest’s men truly pale in comparison.

*****

I’ll give my take on Jim’s points 8-14 on Friday.  Be sure to come back and check it out!

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

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A Response to Hallmarks of the Politically Correct Myth of the American Civil War, Part 1

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3. Review: Sherman’s March in Myth and Memory (The American Crisis Series)

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

Pre-Halloween Civil War Talk Radio Added

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George Schulte, my Great-Grandfather, served in the AEF during World War I.

Leo Schulte, my Grandfather, was on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

Joe Schulte, my Great Uncle, was killed in a plane crash in Korea.

Deli Huegen, another Great Uncle, was in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

All of these men have passed on, and not one of them would have considered themselves heroes. I do, however. And I thank all of those Veterans out there, living and dead, who were willing to sacrifice their lives for this country.

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

Remember Our Veterans

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080712737X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807127377

Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865
by Thomas Lawrence Connelly

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807127388
• ISBN-13: 978-0807127384

The Confederacy’s other army.

The Lost Cause Tradition revolves around Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.  Most of books written on Civil War history are about battles that occur in the Eastern Theater.  This was the case during the war and has not improved in the years since.  If the Confederacy had a chance to win, if they had heroic figures they were in the battles and leaders of the AoNV.  From 1861 to the end of the war, a second army fought and died for the South.  These men gave as much as the men in the East without inspiring leadership.  Time after time, they saw victory taken from them.  Often they endured forced marches to save themselves only to repeat the cycle of defeat.  Their story is largely ignored or told as the “other army” in histories of Union armies.  The was the Confederate States of America’s Army of Tennessee, brave men badly lead who saw the war through.

Army of the Heartland, first published in 1967, is the history of the building the army.  Isham Harris, the CSA governor of Tennessee delivers an army to hold his state.  Jefferson Davis sent Albert Sidney Johnston, his best general, to lead it.  However, the army was not much more than an unarmed semi drilled mob.  Johnston was unequal to the task and Leonidas Polk demonstrated a willingness to do his own thing.  Facing them was an unknown Union General named U.S. Grant.  This is the story of Grant’s move to Corinth Mississippi as seen by the army he defeated.  After Johnston’s death, Braxton Bragg assumes command.  Bragg is a close personal friend of Jeff Davis, who has great confidence in him.  However, Davis is even closer to Leonidas Polk and has great confidence in William J. Hardee.  Add in an endemic of “Kentucky Fever” and we have the Perryville Campaign.

Autumn of Glory, published in 1971, takes us from Perryville to Nashville.  While the AoT still existed after Nashville, it was no longer an army.  The author covers this time but rightly considers the survivors to be more a collection of veteran units than an army.  This is the years when they fight and lose central Tennessee under Bragg.  The Georgia campaign under Joe Johnston and the return home under Hood.  1862 to 1865 are the years of the big battles and the political infighting that paralyze this army.  No American army was ever as poorly lead or suffered government indifference on this scale.  Richmond was paralyzed unable to choose between pro and anti Bragg factions.  Unable to consider removing either faction, Davis dithered, as Tennessee was lost.  This is a hard book to read as the army is doubly damned for not winning and for losing its’ supply base.  In the end, John Bell Hood leads this army to death in the largest charge of the war at Franklin and destruction at Nashville.

Connelly wrote these books years ago.  The maps are not great and they are not highly detailed.  They are one of the most readable army histories ever written.  Classic is a very over used word and one we see often.  This is one of the few times that it applies and should be used.  On publication, these were seen to be special and needed books.  That has not changed and shows no sign of changing.  The only improvement would be to publish them as one book.  You can do that with a single purchase and reading one after the other.  Enjoy them; they are a great and informative read.

Editor’s Note: Jim is a Top 500 Amazon.com reviewer.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

Read many Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!

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Review: The Army of Tennessee by Thomas L. Connelly

Related posts:

1. Review: Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas by Benson Bobrick
2. Review: The Last Confederate General: John C. Vaughn and the East Tennessee Cavalry
3. Review: A Crisis In Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, And The Army Of The Trans-Mississippi

November 2009

James Durney

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New Releases

A Dangerous Stir: Fear, Paranoia, and the Making of Reconstruction by Mark Wahlgren Summers should be in the stores this month.  Reconstruction policy after the Civil War is shaped not simply by politics, principles, and prejudices. Also at work were fears–often-unreasonable fears of renewed civil war and a widespread sense that four years of war had thrown the normal constitutional process so dangerously out of kilter that the republic itself remained in peril.

Also in the stores is Punitive War Confederate Guerrillas and Union Reprisals by Clay Mountcastle.  This is a look at how guerrilla attacks and Union reaction drove a cycle of violence contributing to a punitive war.  The author is a member of the US Army, currently in Korea, who has taught military history at West Point.

This is a 96-page soft cover magazine available November 1, on newsstands.  Moorshead Magazines Ltd. is releasing of a special edition titled, Life During the Civil War. Written by author David A. Norris.  This looks beyond the major battles and famous generals of the Civil War to examine what American of the 1860s saw, heard and felt.  The publisher feels these articles highlight the large and small aspects of everyday life, giving the reader a better understanding of how average Americans experienced the Civil War.

Dave Powell’s The Maps of Chickamauga: An Atlas of the Chickamauga Campaign, Including the Tullahoma Operations, June 22 – September 23, 1863 from Savas Beatie will be available for general sales in late November.  David Friedrichs did the cartography.  This is a 336-page book with 128 full color maps and is the third book in SB’s Military Atlas series.

They launched Years of Change and Suffering Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine edited by James M. Schmidt and Guy R. Hasegawa with a book signing on October 3 at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine Conference.  All of this book’s royalties are being donated to Civil War medical heritage preservation, if you need an additional reason to consider buying this book.  Lincoln’s Labels in paperback should be in the stores when you read this.

Ten Roads Publishing’s The Alexander Dobbin House in Gettysburg: A Short History by Dr. Walter Powell should be available.  They expect the book Gettysburg Bicentennial Album by William A Frassanito to be for sale in late October.  Look for Fight as long as possible: The Battle of Newport Barracks, February 2, 1864 by Eric Lindblade about now.

The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 by Scott L. Mingus, Sr., made its’ October date.  I last listed this author for his excellent Flames beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863 and Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield.

The University of North Carolina Press has scheduled Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign by William Shea for November. Prairie Grove is one of the more important small battles in the Trans-Mississippi.  This will complement his excellent Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. In late October, Amazon lists this book as available with a two to five week delivery.

On November 18, look for Edward Longacre’s Cavalry of the Heartland: The Mounted Forces of the Army of Tennessee.  The book is based on a wide array of research materials including the unpublished writings of more than 300 officers and enlisted men.  This is the only book-length study of the strategy and tactics of the Army of Tennessee’s mounted forces from its inception in the spring of 1861 to Bentonville, four years later.  Numerous campaigns and battles are described in full detail, including Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro (Stones River), Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Nashville, and the Carolinas.

While not Civil War history, Slavery and the Supreme Court, 1825 – 1861 by Earl M. Maltz rates a look see.  The book covers eight major cases involving slavery that came before the Court in the years leading up to the war.  This is due in November from University Press of Kansas.

In December, look for Brooks D. Simpson’s Civil War In The East 1861-1865: A Strategic Assessment.  His The Reconstruction Presidents is available in paperback.

UNC Press scheduled Blue and Gray Diplomacy A History of Union and Confederate Foreign Relations by Howard Jones for January 2010. In this examination of Union and Confederate foreign relations during the Civil War from both European and American perspectives, Howard Jones demonstrates that the consequences of the conflict between North and South reached far beyond American soil.

Sam Davis Elliott’s newest book: Isham G. Harris of Tennessee: Confederate Governor and United States Senator is on Amazon with a January 2010 publication date.

In March 2010, Clint Johnson’s A VAST AND FIENDISH PLOT – The Confederate Attack on New York City should be in stores.

Scheduled for 2010 is Thunder Across the Swamps, the second book in the Louisiana Quadrille series, covering the war for the lower Mississippi from February to May 1863.

We can look forward to a complete history of the Iron Brigade from Lance J. Herdegen.  Those Damned Black Hats!, about the Iron Brigade during the Gettysburg Campaign won The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Operational Battle History.

Eric Wittenberg reports The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863: North America’s Largest Cavalry Battle will be part of The History Press’s forthcoming sesquicentennial series on battles of the Civil War.  This is a 68,000-word manuscript with 50 maps and illustrations.  He feels that we have “a reasonable chance” of seeing this book in June 2010. The Civil War Preservation Trust and master cartographer Steve Stanley have given permission to use Steve’s excellent maps in the book.  Clark B. “Bud” Hall will work with Eric to put together a tour for the book.  A second project for The History Press entitled The Battle of Yellow Tavern: Jeb Stuart’s Last Battle. This will be a study of Phil Sheridan’s May 1864 raid on Richmond, with particular focus on the May 11, 1864 Battle of Yellow Tavern, where Jeb Stuart received his mortal wound.

Savas Beatie has published their Spring 2010 schedule.  In May, expect Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market by Charles R. Knight.  This is a 264-page book with eight maps covering the “complex prelude” and the battle.  In June The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume 1: South Mountain is due.  This is the Ezra Carman manuscript edited by Thomas G. Clemens.  This is a 694-page book with ten maps covering the action leading up to Antietam.

In April, we can look for a full-color hardcover edition of The Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried.  Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign by Lance J. Herdegen, Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hassler and Saratoga by John Luzader are being released as paperbacks.  Saratoga is American Revolution but it is outstanding military history and a great read.

Savas Beatie is working on a two-volume set on The Petersburg Campaign, taken from a series of unpublished battle studies written by Ed Bearss.  Bryce Suderow is the editor on this.  This will be a major event in the historiography of the Petersburg Campaign.

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Rumor Mills

Edinborough Press had some serious distribution problem this summer.  Rumor says these problems are over; their distribution system is functioning normally.  We hope this is the case; this house has a number of interesting titles in the works.

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Bringing on the War

Kansas became the test case of allowing residents to decided free or slave state.  The idea may have been a good one, if residents had not been encouraged to move into the area.  Breecher Bibles, emigrant aid societies, Jayhawkers and Red legs made sure Kansas was a prequel to the war.  This month, we are looking at books on Kansas during this time.  All of these books deal with events in Kansas prior to the Civil War.

Just on the shelves is Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858 by Craig Miner, draws on newspapers and magazines articles from all parts of the country and of all political persuasions.

Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era by Nicole Etcheson, published in 2006, argues that participants on both sides of the Kansas conflict believed they fought to preserve the liberties secured by the American Revolution and that violence erupted because each side feared the loss of meaningful self-governance.

War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854-1861 by Thomas Goodrich provides “”A violent tale of insurrection, rioting, drunkenness, principle, politics, and self-interest”.  First published in 1998, this is currently a paperback published in 2004.

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The new kid on the block

In 2009 by Eric Lindblade and Jim Glessner formed Ten Roads Publishing with an aggressive publishing schedule of Gettysburg related books by experienced authors.  Located in Gettysburg, the publishing house’s name comes for the number of roads leading into the town in 1863.  Their mission statement says, “The mission of Ten Roads Publishing is to publish the highest quality contemporary works, in terms of the standard of product and scholarship, in addition to reprinting classic titles of historical significance.”  If you are on Facebook, become friends with Eric and follow his efforts to maintain an aggressive publishing schedule.

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Introducing Scott Mingus Sr.

This name is constantly in this column lately.  My introduction to Scott was Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863 from Ironclad Publishing.  LSU Press has just published his The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863. Ten Roads Publishing chose his Gettysburg Glimpses: True Stories from the Battlefield for their first book.

Paying the bills involves working as Global Director of New Product Development for P.H. Glatfelter in the paper and printing industry.   He is the author of six books, several magazine articles and several booklets on miniature war gaming for an impressive body of work.  Scott and his wife Debi publish Charge the leading international fanzine for ACW miniature war gaming.

He is a native of southeastern Ohio and a graduate of Miami (Ohio) University, class of ‘78.  He and his family live near York, Pennsylvania where he is very active in preserving the history of the area, giving talks, running war game conventions and writing.

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Editor’s Note: Jim is a Top 500 Amazon.com reviewer.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

Read many Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!

Did you enjoy this blog entry?  Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed today!

Please consider using the ShareThis feature below to spread the word.

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

November 2009 Civil War Book Notes

Related posts:

1. October 2009 Civil War Book Notes
2. September 2009 Civil War Book Notes
3. March 2009 Civil War Book Notes