In this Book
- Confederate Generals in the Western Theater, volume 3: Essays on America's Civil War
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: The University of Tennessee Press
- Series: The Western Theater in the Civil War
summary
The American Civil War was won and lost on its western battlefields, but accounts of triumphant Union generals such as Grant and Sherman leave half of the story untold. In the third volume of Confederate Generals in the Western Theater, editors Lawrence Hewitt and Arthur Bergeron bring together ten more never-before-published essays filled with new, penetrating insights into the key question of why the Rebel high command in the West could not match the performance of Robert E. Lee in the East.
Showcasing the work of such gifted historians as Wiley Sword, Timothy B. Smith, Rory T. Cornish, and M. Jane Johansson, this book is a compelling addition to an ongoing, collective portrait of generals who occasionally displayed brilliance but were more often handicapped by both geography and their own shortcomings. While the vast, varied terrain of the Western Theater slowed communications and troop transfers and led to the creation of too many military departments that hampered cooperation among commands, even more damaging were the personal qualities of many of the generals. All too frequently, incompetence, egotism, and insubordination were the rule rather than the exception. Some of these men were undone by alcoholism and womanizing, others by politics and nepotism. A few outlived their usefulness; others were killed before they could demonstrate their potential. Together, they destroyed what chance the Confederacy had of winning its independence.
Whether adding fresh fuel to the debate over the respective roles of Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard at Shiloh or bringing to light such lesser known figures as Joseph Finegan and Hiram Bronson Granbury, this volume, like the ones preceding it, is an exemplary contribution to Civil War scholarship.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Contents [Includes Illustrations]
- pp. vii-x
- Series Editor’s Foreword
- pp. xi-xii
- William Preston’s Civil War
- pp. 151-178
- Bibliography
- pp. 283-302
- Contributors
- pp. 303-305
- Index [Includes Back Cover]
- pp. 307-314
Additional Information
ISBN
9781572337909
Related ISBN(s)
9781572337534
MARC Record
OCLC
794700445
Pages
336
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No