Book Description
Few wartime cities in Virginia held more importance than Petersburg. Nonetheless, the city has, until now, lacked an adequate military history, let alone a history of the civilian home front. The noted Civil War historian A. Wilson Greene now provides an expertly researched, eloquently written study of the city that was second only to Richmond in size and strategic significance.
Industrial, commercial, and extremely prosperous, Petersburg was also home to a large African American community, including the state's highest percentage of free blacks. On the eve of the Civil War, the city elected a conservative, pro-Union approach to the sectional crisis. Little more than a month before Virginiaís secession did Petersburg finally express pro-Confederate sentiments, at which point the city threw itself wholeheartedly into the effort, with large numbers of both white and black men serving.
Over the next four years, Petersburg's citizens watched their once-beautiful city become first a conduit for transient soldiers from the Deep South, then an armed camp, and finally the focus of one of the Civil War's most protracted and damaging campaigns. (The fall of Richmond and collapse of the Confederate war effort in Virginia followed close on Grantís ultimate success in Petersburg.) At war's end, Petersburg's antebellum prosperity evaporated under pressures from inflation, chronic shortages, and the extensive damage done by Union artillery shells. Greene's book tracks both Petersburg's civilian experience and the city's place in Confederate military strategy and administration. Employing scores of unpublished sources, the book weaves a uniquely personal story of thousands of citizen-free blacks, slaves and their holders, factory owners, merchants-all of whom shared a singular experience in Civil War Virginia.
Customer Reviews:
Great Inside View of The Last Citadal Before, During and after the War.......2007-06-07
Will Greene, longtime National Parks historian in Virginia and currently the CEO and Chief Historian of the Pamplin Civil War Park at the scene of the Petersburg break through, writes a very well researched history of Petersburg giving the personal view. Through Greene's book you see the residents and the city before the war leading up to the political evolution of session. Petersburg, as noted by Greene, was an international City and as the war unfolds you see the excitement of the town folk even among the different classes with direct quotes from the people themselves as they prepare for war by drilling militias and companies that go forward to war. The book picks up military steam as the war progresses and the vulnerability of this vital link to Richmond and Lee's army slowly become apparent. From a military perspective you see Jefferson Davis' severe and complex nature of his many departments that result in overlapping commands particularly in Petersburg where there are numerous command changes even as Kautz and Butler arrive at City Point and the Bermuda 100. Pickett, Beauregard and then Lee finally take control. The book includes fascinating and little known details such as the economic fall out of the war on the population, the City Council's consideration in providing relief for families and AP Hill's parading of captured soldiers black and white from the crater intermingled to the derision of the populace. The limited troop dispositions by the Confederacy are almost the down fall as they resist enormous odds by the virtually unsuspecting or tentative union commanders. The final days of the war of course end with the draining siege that Greene provides an excellent and fast moving summary style detail and the gloom of the population is evident as the defense finally collapses. Heartening to know that the occupation was civil, respectful and charitable to the population, Of course race relations are traumatized by the sudden freedman and black units that occupy the City. But that is part of the uniqueness of the book, Greene addresses all the residents and soldiers along with race relations of the City such as the pre-war free blacks who work in the City and within the war effort maintaining their freedom but enduring more hardship due to the severity of war economics. This is a unique book that provides the civilian and military experience within the tragedy of war.
An Excellent Book - Well Written And Documented.......2007-04-04
When you think of any aspect of the Petersburg campaign, A. Wilson Greene is clearly the expert historian in this venue. The importance of Petersburg during the Civil War was greatly illuminated and better undertood by me from reading this book. In conjunction with his previous book on the Petersburg Breakthrough Battle, this book adds dimension and texture to the battles fought, the people who lived there, and the culture and industry of Petersburg as the war progressed. The author's keen perspective brings those times to life in an entertaining and educational manner. I fully enjoyed the hours spent reading this book. For those of us who carefully read footnotes in history books, there is a wealth of information in this meticulously researched account. I highly recommend it.
Customer Reviews:
Well researched and truthful portrayal of Southern blacks.......2006-05-05
Jordan has penned a well researched and accurate portrayal of non-white sentiment during the War Between the States, most refreshing in this politically correct era when some want to revise history. Painting the Confederacy as an entirely racist nation and all CSA soldiers as slavery fighters not only does a disservice to the men in arms, but to the thousands of "Confederates of Color" who served the southern cause with weapons and support from 1861-1865. The rebel gray clothed many shades of skin, and Jordan has brought their contributions to history, as well as to the southern cause, to the attention of a new era. An excellent, well written addition to the historian's or buff's library.
Good research, unfinished analysis.......2005-03-06
Jordan is to be congratulated for his wide-ranging research and for taking steps to address historical issues that tread on politically correct toes. Unfortunately, this is not a finished work of history. It is perfunctorily written, and the chapters are poorly organized. It contains some excellent information, but it is not a book for the casual reader or even the casual Civil War buff.
The antebellum South, and the Confederacy it spawned, was a complex place -- 9 million individuals, white and black, whose support of, opposition to, or acceptance of slavery and secession stemmed from a thousand different motives. If one can generalize about the slave South, it is to say that an attitude of white supremacy and black inferiority prevailed among its white citizens (as it did in the North); and that African-Americans, both slave and free, who lived in the slave states were subjected to a stifling degree of legal control by slave owners and state governments. Jordan goes over these two major points -- already familiar to students of the era -- in the first section of the book, "Uncertain Trumpet." The breadth of his research is commendable, but his technique of relating it is a bit numbing; a string of paragraphs, each a topic sentence and several redundant supporting anecdotes, is hardly historical analysis, much less a readable narrative. Some of the anecdotes are powerful -- e.g., a slave mother is haunted by the sound of her owner's piano, purchased with the proceeds from the sale of the slave's daughter -- and the author would have done better to concentrate on those, to examine their meaning more closely.
The most controversial parts of the book are in the second half ("Give Us a Flag") and deal with black Virginians who served the Confederate cause either by taking up arms in its defense or voluntarily supporting the white soldiers who did. As have many other authors (including Confederate apologists who continue to deny that the Civil War and the Confederacy were essentially about slavery and racism), Jordan cites numerous anecdotes about black Virginians fighting with Rebel forces or serving as cooks, teamsters, servants, musicians, laborers, and in other noncombatant roles in the Confederate armies and government. He also supplies a fair amount of anecdotal evidence for a deep split among white Southerners over the propriety of arming slaves. Even as the Confederacy was sliding to destruction in the spring of 1865, many whites were adamantly opposed to the tardy steps taken by the Confederate congress to organize black fighting units. This ongoing opposition from all corners of the Confederacy -- not to mention the overall pattern of racism and subjugation of blacks in Civil War America -- calls into serious question the value of the anecdotal evidence often cited to "prove" widespread African-American support for the Southern cause, because it implies widespread white gratitude for this support. Examining this topic alone would have been a worthwhile book. As other reviewers here state, Jordan could have done a much more thorough job in testing this anecdotal evidence.
There seems to be little question that some African-Americans supported the Confederate war effort, including military service, even before 1865. But to what extent? To what military effect? Did the arming of some slaves, or the volunteering of some blacks for military or quasi-military duty, have any widespread impact on the racial and political attitudes of white Southerners? Were these "Afro-Confederates" genuine Southern patriots, or infrequent exceptions to the repressive laws of racism and slavery, or simply black men and women who sought to ingratiate themselves with their white owners and the white community? These are questions that Jordan raises in this book, and that's a start. I hope he'll spend some time and a couple of other books trying to answer them.
Being Black in the South.......2003-12-27
It appears that a lot of people had a knee-jerk reaction to the title of Professor Jordan's book. This is far from an Apologia for the Confederacy. It is a very well researched and documented account of Black Experience in Civil War Virginia.
While working on my own family history I have been doing an analysis of the 1810 Federal Census for Spotsylvania County. What stands out is the number of Free Black households headed by women. In our politically correct age we tend to over-look the fact that in Colonial and pre-war Virginia, women and children owned property, and that the courts vigorously protected their property rights from husband and estate seekers. In both white and black households in Spotsylvania County, one out of six were headed by women.
Rumors, fallacies and false conclusions.......2003-08-03
It is exceedingly sad, at this late date to see such a collection of rumor and false conclusions promoted as truth. Yes, indeed, slaves went to war with the Confederate army-but as cooks, teamsters, laborers and personal servants. That did not make them SOLDIERS. Where are the rosters and muster rolls? Anyone who has done even minimal research into the Civil War and Confederate use of Blacks knows that it was illegal to enlist them in the military until just weeks before Appomatox, when desperation made Davis yield to pressure from his generals and cabinet. NO REGIMENT OF BLACK CONFEDERATES was ever fielded!
There is so much half-truth and misinformation in this book, it should be pulled from every shelf in every home, library and bookstore. It is hype, it is terrible-from the AFRO-YANKEES in the title to the last page. Avoid it at all costs, there are far too many better books out there
Newsflash: Virginney Slaves Abducted by UFOs!.......2001-05-10
Ervin L. Jordan's "Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees" is a sad example of how sloppy analysis and writing can make you very, very famous.
Jordan attempts to provide the reader with a well-rounded understanding of the lives of African-Americans (henceforth "Negroes" in the parlance of the time) living in Virginia at the time of the Civil War. The results, however, are mortally wounded by the author's inability to correctly evaluate evidence, or to remain mindful of terminology.
The damage is almost immediate, when Jordan begins to use such terms as Afro-Virginians and Afro-Confederates. These terms hinder the understanding of the text for several reasons. First, it muddies the meaning of events, since the reader is often unsure whether the text refers to freemen, slaves or both. Second, it implies something that the Negroes did not have: citizenship within the state or in the rebellion. Most Negroes were slaves and were no more a citizen than a horse or a plow. The freeman had no right of citizenship; they didn't even have the automatic right to residency in Virginia. Other bizarre terms are created by the author. One particularly amazing howler is one page 241, when the author claims Richmonders wanted "Afro-Virginians" for its -- no kidding -- "New Model Biracial Army."
But these problems are just the beginning. Lead sentences--often making bold declarations--are followed by text that do not support the author's conclusion. Paragraphs contradict each other. It appears that the author had done tremendous research and, instead of withdrawing minor or contradictory material, he jammed it all in and tried desperately to make it all consistent. He failed. Interspersed are Negro spirituals which the author cannot confirm as associated with the described events.
Poor source choices abound, as when the author cites a London paper that Davis considered arming slaves as early as 1862. This is obviously a poor source for intimate details of what was underway in the Confederate government, and is contradicted by available primary sources. Indeed, the entire sections dealing with alleged "Afro-Confederate soldiers" is based upon, in most cases, second-hand reports, reports obviously false (as when two nonexistent black Confederate regiments were allegedly involved in at the battle of Seven Pines) and folklore. The author provides numerous "sightings" of black Confederate "soldiers." I can find an equal number of persons who claimed they were abducted by UFOs. Claims do not make it so. Missing are solid facts: Where are the rosters? How could these combat units exist when it was forbidden to have Negroes in the ranks or for Negroes to own or bear arms?
Being a slave in service to the Confederacy does not make one a Confederate any more than being a slave to the Third Reich makes one a Nazi. Impressed and oppressed, the Negroes of Virginia in most cases could not be Confederates because they were not offered any choice in the matter. Jordan seems to have missed this point.
I cannot recommend this book. It's poor construction and hapless conclusions cannot help us understand how our African-American population responded in the South. The reviewer can recommend, as an alternative to this book, "The Gray and the Black" by Robert F. Durden which provides an excellent account of the debate among major Confederate figures over whether to arm their slaves.
Book Description
We have for years needed a serious, scholarly, readable work on the Confederate nation that rounds up modem scholarship and offers a fresh and detached view of the whole subject. This work fills that order admirably ... [Thomas] sensibly and deftly integrates the course of Southern military fortunes with the concerns that shaped them and were shaped by them. In doing so he also manages to convey a sense of how the war itself deteriorated from something spirited and gallant to something base and mean and modern on both sides.
Customer Reviews:
Summary I wrote for grad school.......2007-09-13
Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris note in the forward of The Confederate Nation that nationalism is a perennial theme of American historiography, yet little has been addressed concerning Southern nationalism. (p. xi) It is this lack of acknowledgement regarding Southern nationalism that serves the purpose of this book. The author of the book, Emory Thomas, seeks to understand how Southern nationalism developed, flourished, and ultimately declined during the Civil War era.
The book is a narrative, and uses very little primary sources. Thomas instead relies heavily upon the research and conclusions of previous historians, which he then synthesizes into a story that is easy to read. Through the course of the book Thomas relates short biographies of southerners who were part of the struggle to become a new and independent nation. The biographies help add depth to Thomas's arguments and his overall account of Southern nationalism.
Thomas stresses how Southerners viewed their cause as noble and reasonable as the American Revolutionary War. Southerners, as Thomas puts it, " . . . felt more Southern than American, or perhaps more accurately, that they were orthodox Americans, and Northerners were apostates." (p. 3) The Confederacy Thomas suggests did not begin as a idea for a nation, but a "cause."
Among the questions Thomas addresses are why the Southern middle class followed the upper class into a war that only served the interests of the planters. Thomas contends the middle class looked to the upper class as social betters, noting that often the upper class helped the middle class in many ways, not limited to purchasing livestock and crops from the smaller producers. Thomas also stresses Southerners were almost exclusively evangelical protestant, thus helped make the coalescence of ideals much easier in the South whereas the North was composed of numerous denominations and different interpretations of the responsibilities of each other within society.
Thomas proceeds to account how the formation of the Confederacy began following the election of Lincoln in 1860. For each state of the Confederacy Thomas relates how the proposal for secession was introduced, who agreed and disagreed, and the nature of the people who were members of their respective state assemblies. Thomas notes that once the radicals within the government had achieved secession, many were pushed away from the center of the decision-making as the new Confederate Government was interested in maintaining the status quo during its congressional convention. (p. 44)
Thomas delves further into his narrative, relating in short order the major events of the war itself. Each major battle is discussed, including the generals involved, strategies, and how the results affected the Southern people. Thomas discusses how Southern victories, particularly the initial victory at Bull Run, buoyed the spirits of the people and demonstrated that god was on their side and their cause was just. Thomas emphasizes how the South generally blundered its way through warfare, such as Roanoke and Ft. Donelson. In many instances the South was successful due to superior leadership from men like Robert E. Lee and Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson.
Thomas concludes many of the problems that arose within the Confederate Government had to do with the lack of an opposing party. When the government was being organized it was felt that unanimity was necessary to illustrate how the people of the South were of one mind, and one purpose. This essentially hobbled the government, as there was no organized group to keep the president and his policies in check. Jefferson Davis instituted unpopular policies and laws during the war, such as the first form of conscription in America. Ironically the very centralized and powerful federal government the South had been trying to remove itself from was reappearing in Richmond. Thomas states,
In many respects the Southern nationalism of Jefferson Davis resembled that of the United States from which the Southerners were trying so desperately to separate. The administration of Jefferson Davis reversed the state rights political philosophy which had called it into being and bade fair to make the Confederacy a centralized, national state. (p. 298)
Of note in Thomas's narrative is the growth of Southern industry during the war. Many supposed that if the South were to struggle in any one form during a prolonged war with the United States, it would be due to a lack of materiel to make war. Thomas states the South was more than successful in creating an industrial base to support itself during the war. The South's greatest strength (agriculture) eventually became its greatest weakness. At the end of the war Thomas notes Lee's soldiers at Appomattox had plenty of bullets, but not enough food.
Thomas notes that as the war progressed many ideals and foundations of Southern nationalism were compromised, or even lost altogether. The people of the South were forced to adjust to a government more centralized than the one they had seceded from, forced to change form an agrarian to an industrial society, as well as witness the women modify their roles to planters, nurses, industrial workers, and heads of households. (p. 226) Perhaps the most ironic twist Thomas mentions in the book was and idea that was suggested by several, including Jefferson Davis, to use black slaves as soldiers in the war. To many this was the final blow to the society that the Southerners had been fighting to preserve. To promise freedom to slaves in exchange for army service was the final blow to a weakening nation. Thomas states, "However practical and expedient Davis' suggestions sounded, they threatened to undermine the remaining remnant of the antebellum Southern Ideology." (p.290)
Southern nationalism was based upon beliefs and ideals that nearly all white southerner possessed. Religion, agriculture, slavery, a decentralized government, and the status of women were among the principles the South wished to defend. Thomas suggests that as the war progressed these principles eroded, to the point Southerners had little to fight for.
More than just a necessary entry in the New American Nation series.......2007-05-29
In August of 1998, I took the step which would lead to my discovering Amazon.com. I enrolled as a master's degree candidate in history at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Before I discovered Amazon, however, I discovered the New American Nation Series. These are a set of political histories of the US from the ratification of the Constitution on through the late 1970's, when the series was written. The first three volumes, which collectively covered the period 1789-1828, were assigned to me and the other students in Dr. William Shade's History of the United States in the Nineteenth Century class. The shortest of the three covered eleven years; the longest covered fifteen. The format and style of the books was such that even a busy graduate student could easily tear through any one of these three in a week or less (in contrast to numerous other books we were assigned in this and other classes -- see the first review I ever posted on Amazon.com, To Die For).
A little over two weeks ago, while accompanying my father to a local Half Price Books, I discovered "The Confederate Nation," a later entry in the series. It covers a shorter period than the first three books I read (1861-1865), but takes about a hundred more pages to do so. Writing in 1979, Professor Emory M. Thomas had a great deal to say, by the standards of the series, about his beloved South (Yankees are not named Emory, in case you hadn't noticed). At the heart of the book is his argument is that from the moment they seceded, the "Rebel" states had to choose between being Confederate and being Southern.
Particularly since their spectacular return to White House dominance in the current party system, Southerners like to think of themselves as America's last, if not its only ever, Jeffersonians. However, total war is at best a Hamiltonian project (at worst, a fascist or Marxist one), which is what sets up the contradictions which Thomas explores with just the right amount of depth for readers seeking an introduction to the subject. There is much here of value for advanced students as well, particularly in the footnotes, where Thomas makes invaluable suggestions for further reading, and the appendix -- the entire text of the Confederate constitution (which never survived long enough to be amended, although the process was theoretically the same as in the US). I give this text my highest recommendation.
An overview of the Confederate Experience.......2007-02-06
This book is not exactly a page turner, but the writing is good enough and the material is interesting. I read this book after I took a Civil War history class. Of course, most of the books we read for that class were written from the Union perspective (a good deal of McPherson, etc.). The one thing I really appreciated about this book is that I feel it presented the Confederate experience by chronicling the events of the Civil War completely from the vantage point of the Confederacy. That it to say, Thomas doesn't even bother with the Union perspective; that has been thoroughly covered by other authors. Thomas focuses on the Confederacy throughout, and does a good job of conveying the Southern experience.
I think one of this book's strongest characteristics is that it is honest about the Confederacy. This trait manifests itself in both positive and negative feedback. Thomas praises the South in areas where it deserves praise, and yet is honest about some of the paradox inherent in the Confederate experiment. On the whole, I would say that Thomas is probably more friendly to the South than most Civil War authors, but that only made his book all the more refreshing.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how the Confederates perceived their own actions and the events of the Civil War in general. The book is a bit dated, but I didn't feel that it read as such. This book challenged some of my preconceptions about the South, and yet it said nothing that I felt was flagrantly disagreeable. Thomas is a little slow to come out with his thesis, but once he does he supports it thoroughly.
Excellent book.......2006-01-13
Although Thomas' book was published in 1979, it is still the best work we have on the Confederacy as a nation. The book is definitely scholarly and academic, but is also highly readable and enjoyable. Although I've read dozens of books about the Civil War, I definitely know more about the Confederacy as a whole now.
Thomas does not delve too deep into discussing battles or even many of the generals (they are discussed of course, but not at great length). He spends most of his time discussing southern nationalism, the overall military fortunes, the attempts at getting recognition from England and France, and how all things Confederate intertwined. He also argues, very well, that the ideals that led to secession and the founding of the Confederacy were almost all lost during the War. He also points out that although radicals had a large hand in founding the Confederacy and Southern states seceding, moderates actually held all the power in the Confederacy.
As stated earlier, the book was written in 1979 so some of the research is dated, but this is still the best effort we have on the Confederacy as a whole. Others have attempted, but Thomas' is still the best. Highly recommended for any Civil War buffs or those interested in Southern history.
A tremendous book on the Civil War!.......2003-11-05
I can hardly believe that this book has been almost ignored on this site. I have read thousands of Civil War books over decades, and this is one of the top dozen in the list. It is an
outstanding account of the Confederacy, well-written and scholarly. As a bonus, it contain the text of the Confederate
Constitution in an appendix! Buy and read this book!
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Exile in Richmond: The Confederate Journal of Henri Garidel (A Nation Divided: New Studies in Civil War History)
Henri Garidel
Manufacturer: University of Virginia Press
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ASIN: 0813920183 |
Book Description
Expelled from occupied New Orleans by Federal forces after refusing to pledge loyalty to the Union, Henri Garidel remained in exile from his home and family from 1863 to 1865. Lonely, homesick, and alienated, the French-Catholic Garidel, a clerk in the Confederate Bureau of Ordnance, was a complete outsider in the wartime capital of Richmond.
In his faithfully kept diary, Garidel relates the trials and discomforts--physical, emotional, spiritual, and professional--of life in a city entirely foreign to him. Civil War Richmonders were predominantly white, evangelical Protestants in a relatively small, insular city. His living quarters devolved from a private home shared with his family in cosmopolitan New Orleans to a cramped, cold rooming house away from everything familiar.
Trapped in Richmond for the last two years of the conflict and a witness to the eventual Federal occupation of the city, Garidel made daily entries that offer a striking and realistic blend of Southern domestic and political life during the Civil War. From his candid remarks about slavery and race, gender issues, military history, immigration, social class and structure, and religion, Henri Garidel's readers gain a revealing human picture of a major turning point in American history.
Average customer rating:
- Great Reading
- A valuable source -- but...
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Longstreet's Aide: The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree (A Nation Divided : New Studies in Civil War History)
Thomas Jewett Goree
Manufacturer: University Press of Virginia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Customer Reviews:
Great Reading.......2003-08-30
Great reading. Goree has a way with words and this is primary source reading at it's best. Entertaining, insightful as only a member of Longstreet's inner circle could be. Best of all, he doesn't say much about the endless brohauhau concerning Gettyburg. What a relief. Great appendex. Letters to and from Gen. Longstreet, etc. A good read for anyone.
A valuable source -- but..........2001-01-17
Obviously, as a primary source, this is valuable material, but I have to admit that I found it rather dull. Naturally it isn't fair to judge someone's personal letters on their literary quality, but I wish Goree had seen fit to describe his tasks as an aide, battles (Gettysburg, to my recollection, never appears here), or, well, anything. He focuses primarily on how all his various relatives are doing and so on. At the end of the book letters between him, General Longstreet, and other aides have been appended which will interest those studying the various controversies which have surrounded Longstreet. I really can't see how the non-specialist will enjoy this.
Book Description
Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre-Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after the end of hostilities. Anne Sarah Rubin argues instead that white Southerners did not actually begin to formulate a national identity until it became evident that the Confederacy was destined to fight a lengthy war against the Union. She also demonstrates that an attachment to a symbolic or sentimental Confederacy existed independent of the political Confederacy and was therefore able to persist well after the collapse of the Confederate state. White Southerners redefined symbols and figures of the failed state as emotional touchstones and political rallying points in the struggle to retain local (and racial) control, even as former Confederates took the loyalty oath and applied for pardons in droves.
Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Rubin sheds new light on the ways in which Confederates felt connected to their national creation and provides a provocative example of what happens when a nation disintegrates and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.
Customer Reviews:
A Shattered Nation Indeed........2005-07-24
The cost in American life was greater than that for all other American wars combined, from colonial times through the wars against terrorism. Antietam was the bloodiest, and yet more fatalities on both sides occurred at Shiloh, Tennessee, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. But it was the loss at Shiloh which caused the South to lose heart. At a Confederate Decoration Day celebration, on Jefferson Davis' birthday, one of the re-enactors told me that Nathan Bedford Forrest was his hero. I took a photo of the hero in action he had on his horse carrier. He was shocked when I told him that Amazon had removed my review about the Forrest book which was all made-up with all truth absent. He said to me, "You mean we still have censorship in the United States." A local Confederate, Dr. William Johnson Worsham, was honored for his service to our country; his war memoirs, "The Old 19th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, CSA" were published in 1902. A special commemoration and dedicated monument in the Old Gray Cemetery. On the Seal of the Confederacy are these words: "Deo Vindice", God is our Vindicator. I also took pictures of the different flags displayed on June 3.
Extraordinary leaders and incompetent tyrants served on both sides. Their power to fascinate, inspire, or exasperate remains undimmed. These men -- heros and fools -- toiled in a typhoon of broader forces. Grasping this dynamic relationship among the battlefield, the home front, and the diplomatic front is absolutely essential if you want to understand the American Civil War.
Shiloh is by far one of the best battlefields to visit to understand how the disastrous loss of ao many of our Confederate leaders was the undoing of our ability to revive and feel competent to win the war. On to Gettysburg, and that's the proverbial straw which broke the camel's back. Soon, our president was jailed as a common prisoner, and we in the South will never forgive or forget the indignities rained on our heads. With Forrest and Lee, we still could not rally around the stars and bars and lost because of low self-esteem and not due to Union superiority. Those Northerners still have the wrong belief that they are better than we; they move down here where the living is better (and not so expensive), then they go around trying to change things. I say, "Go back to where you were not happy." Just let us be!
Book Description
In The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1970) and The Confederate Nation (1979), Emory Thomas redefined the field of Civil War history and reconceptualized the Confederacy as a unique entity fighting a war for survival. Inside the Confederate Nation honors his enormous contributions to the field with fresh interpretations of all aspects of Confederate life—nationalism and identity, family and gender, battlefront and home front, race, and postwar legacies and memories. Many of the volume's twenty essays focus on individuals, households, communities, and particular regions of the South, highlighting the sheer variety of circumstances southerners faced over the course of the war. Other chapters explore the public and private dilemmas faced by diplomats, policy makers, journalists, and soldiers within the new nation. All of the essays attempt to explain the place of southerners within the Confederacy, how they came to see themselves and others differently because of secession, and the disparities between their expectations and reality. AUTHOR BIO: Lesley J. Gordon is an associate professor of history at the University of Akron. She is the author of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend; coeditor of Intimate Strategies of the Civil War: Military Commanders and Their Wives; and coauthor of This Terrible War: The Civil War and Its Aftermath. John C. Inscoe is the author, editor, or coeditor of eight books, including The Heart of Confederate Appalachia; Enemies of the Country: New Perspectives on Unionists in the Civil War South; and Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation. He is a professor of history at the University of Georgia.
Customer Reviews:
A superbly presented and organized model of anthologized, specialized, analytical historical studies........2007-06-09
The academically impressive and deftly collaborative editorial effort of Lesley J. Gordon (Associate Professor of History, University of Akron) and John C. Inscoe (Professor of History, University of Georgia), "Inside The Confederate Nation" is a compilation of essays in honor of Emory M. Thomas by a series of learned contributors and scholars that focus on the subject of the conservative revolution of 1861 that transformed an essentially conservative American South into a radically different socio-political culture by the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865. The contributions are organized into four major sections: 'Nationalism and Identity'; 'Family and Gender'; 'Race'; 'Memory and Legacies'. Enhanced with an informative introduction by Professors Gordon and Incoe, and the article by Russell Duncan and Jennifer Lund Smith, 'Emory M. Thomas and the Confederate Imagination', and concluding with a Select Bibliography, a list of Editors and Contributors, and a comprehensive Index, "Inside The Confederate Nation is a superbly presented and organized model of anthologized, specialized, analytical historical studies. Also available in a hardcover edition (9780807130995, $65.00), "Inside The Confederate Nation" is a very strongly recommended addition to academic and community library Civil War Studies and 19th Century American History Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
Average customer rating:
- Singing the New Nation
- A History Book That's a Pleasure to Read!
- singing the new nation
- A delightful look at the music that inspired a generation
- A delightful look at the music that inspired a generation
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Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865
E. Lawrence Abel
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Rousing Songs & True Tales of the Civil War
ASIN: 0811702286 |
Book Description
10 b/w illustrations,6 x 9
Comprehensive list of sheet music published in the South during the war
Covers all of the known bands of the Confederate army Confederate music extended far beyond "Dixie" and "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and in fact played a significant role throughout the Civil War. From the recruiting songs that celebrated early war efforts to the "lost cause" songs of the Confederacy's last days, this new study chronicles how soldiers and civilians coped with war through their music. Included are many never-before-told histories of patriotic anthems, sentimental songs, operas, and minstrel shows.
Customer Reviews:
Singing the New Nation.......2002-09-25
This is a study of music and songwriting in the Confederacy.
Abel sees nationalism as consciously spearheaded from above, a "goal" aimed at by the higher classes and imposed upon the hoi polloi (sic). Though some of the more propagandistic songs may certainly reflect such a deliberate effort, it's noteworthy that this view of Confederate nationalism contradicts the analyses of scholars such as McPherson and Gallagher.
Abel's discussion of field calls is useful, and he's certainly picked an under-discussed topic. Though I didn't find his analysis entirely convincing, the history of individual songs (I was glad to know I'm not the only person who thinks the words of "Dixie" are lame) was interesting. I'd have liked to see a bit more on ballads and traditional music which would have been known to soldiers of the period, but then that's not the focus of the book.
Probably a "get from the library" rather than a "buy" book for most readers.
A History Book That's a Pleasure to Read!.......2000-05-30
I have to admit- I only acquired this book to do a little research and extract a few things from it but went on to read it cover to cover. Very enjoyable and I'd recommend it for historians, Civil War buffs and re-enactors, American music scholars and anyone else who likes a well researched history book on a subject overlooked for far too long!
singing the new nation.......2000-02-26
I wrote this book to show how Confederate music during the war reveals the social history of the South during the war. The book is not a bibliogrpahy of sheet music nor simply a collection of lyrics. Instead, it uses the lyrics and covers from various pieces of sheet music to illustrate what Southerns believed they were fighting for and the feelings they had about their families, homes and their fate. These songs bound Southerners from different classes and different regions together, thereby creating a collective sense of nationalism. The songs also provided an outlet for people who were otherwise restrained in their emotions, to express their feelings in public. It also traces the history of some of the better known Southern songs such as "Dixie" and the "Bonnie Blue Flag" and describes the integral place of field music and brass bands in the war effort.
A delightful look at the music that inspired a generation.......2000-02-05
Never before has a work so enchanted me. My grandfather used to sing the delightful ditties contained in this broad work by E. Lawrence Abel. From Goober Peas to John Brown's Body this book invoked my memories of the past and told me the history behind the songs I only knew before by name. Bruce Catton was be proud.
A delightful look at the music that inspired a generation.......2000-02-05
Never before has a work so enchanted me. My grandfather used to sing the delightful ditties contained in this broad work by E. Lawrence Abel. From Goober Peas to John Brown's Body this book invoked my memories of the past and told me the history behind the songs I only knew before by name. Bruce Catton was be proud.
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