Thomas F. (hardtack) -
Another excellent book describing how the worst enemy of the Confederacy might have been the Confederacy itself. Or, as one southern politician of that era stated, if the Confederacy failed then it died due to states' rights. The in-fighting began almost as soon as the Confederacy was established, and continued to the point where the Confederacy became a police state and individual and state rights were subservient to the national government and the army. I've always believed if the Union had just let the southern states go their own way, within a few years some of those southern states would have tried to secede from the Confederacy and maybe even rejoin the Union. In fact, if the war had continued that might have even happened, as the author shows through correspondence from various state governors. Which would have been interesting as politicians in the southern states maintained the U.S. Constitution allowed states to secede, but the new Confederate constitution pointedly forbid that. So much for state's rights!
While the author does a good job describing events in the political arena, he sometimes stumbles when it comes to describing military events. Some examples are: 1) he has the U.S.S. Monitor arriving late in the day after the C.S.S. Virginia had sunk two U.S. Navy ships and continuing the fight that night, whereas it happened the next day; 2) he leads readers to believe that after the Battle of Shiloh the Confederate Army suffered almost 24,000 casualties, whereas that was the total for both sides; 3) he repeats the old myth the Army of the Potomac didn't pursue the Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg; 4) he has the Union army occupying Chattanooga after that battle in late 1963, whereas the Union occupied that city for months before that battle. There are other military history mistakes, but I pointed these out to warn readers to double-check incidents of military history before accepting the author's statements.
Otherwise, this is a very readable general history of the political problems the South faced. And if you think our current Congress doesn't accomplish much due to its infighting, you need to read what the author reveals about the useless Confederate Congress. Other historians have also pointed that out, but this author does a better job. Finally, the author spends some time describing how the Lost Cause Mythology was created to conceal the petty antics of many of the Confederate politicians and generals.
While the author does a good job describing events in the political arena, he sometimes stumbles when it comes to describing military events. Some examples are: 1) he has the U.S.S. Monitor arriving late in the day after the C.S.S. Virginia had sunk two U.S. Navy ships and continuing the fight that night, whereas it happened the next day; 2) he leads readers to believe that after the Battle of Shiloh the Confederate Army suffered almost 24,000 casualties, whereas that was the total for both sides; 3) he repeats the old myth the Army of the Potomac didn't pursue the Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Gettysburg; 4) he has the Union army occupying Chattanooga after that battle in late 1963, whereas the Union occupied that city for months before that battle. There are other military history mistakes, but I pointed these out to warn readers to double-check incidents of military history before accepting the author's statements.
Otherwise, this is a very readable general history of the political problems the South faced. And if you think our current Congress doesn't accomplish much due to its infighting, you need to read what the author reveals about the useless Confederate Congress. Other historians have also pointed that out, but this author does a better job. Finally, the author spends some time describing how the Lost Cause Mythology was created to conceal the petty antics of many of the Confederate politicians and generals.
