STORM OVER the LAND: A PROFILE of the CIVIL WAR by Carl Sandburg

 

Originally published in 1942 by Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc.

I read a 2009 re-print published by Konecky and Konecky.

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

In 1940, the famed poet, journalist and author Carl Sandburg won a Pulitzer Prize for his four volume biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (published in 1939.)

In 1942, his publishers came to him and asked him to re-work the biography into a history of the Civil War in response to America's recent entry into World War II. 

The result is a pretty solid history of the Civil War from basically the Union point of view. 

Carl Sandburg is best known as a poet and that shines though with some of his prose. From time to time, he comes up with a different and interesting way of telling the story of the war. 

The most obvious weakness to this history is the story of African-Americans in the war - the free, the enslaved, the recently freed, the soldiers and others. He mentions them, but does not look at them very hard. To be fair to Sandburg, this book was published 81 years ago and he covered the topic about as well as any mainstream history would have.

I rate this history 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: STORM OVER the LAND: A PROFILE of the CIVIL WAR by Carl Sandburg.

CONFEDERATE GENERALS of the CIVIL WAR (Collective Biographies series) by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford

 

Published in 1998 by Enslow Publishers, Inc.

Part of a series of 8 books, Confederate Generals of the Civil War was intended to be a classroom or school media center supplement for students to use as a resource. It is not a large book - 112 pages including a glossary, some charts comparing the the Union and the Confederacy, 2 maps and a timeline of the Civil War.

There are 10 biographies, arranged in alphabetical order. Each biography is 8-9 pages, including a photograph of the general and a related picture (photo of a battlefield, drawing of a battle scene, etc.). 

The biographies themselves are pretty neutral, although it does take some mild stands on a few controversial items. It states in a matter of fact manner that Robert E. Lee was anti-slavery (It was definitely more complicated than that). It puts a lot of blame for Pickett's Charge on Longstreet, not on Lee. And, it gets sappily sentimental in the last paragraph of Pickett's biography. I would rate it as very mildly slanted towards the old "Lost Cause" theory of the war (the three areas I mentioned are all at the heart of the theory), but not fatally so. 

The featured generals are:

Nathan Bedford Forrest;

William Joseph Hardee;

A.P. Hill;

John Bell Hood;

"Stonewall" Jackson;

Confederate General George Pickett
(1825-1875)

Joseph Johnston;

Robert E. Lee;

James Longstreet;

George Pickett;
J.E.B. Stuart

Other books in the series include a collection of biographies of Union Generals, "Women in America's Wars" and "American Heroes of Exploration and Flight".

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5. The biographies are just not all that interesting out of context. This book can be found on Amazon.com here:CONFEDERATE GENERALS of the CIVIL WAR (Collective Biographies series) by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford.

THE BLUE and the GRAY: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH and SOUTH by Martin F. Graham, Richard A. Sauers and George Skoch.

Published in 1997 by Publications International, LTD.

At first glance, The Blue and the Gray: The Conflict Between North and South is a typical coffee table book about the Civil War. There are tons of them - I ought to know, I own several myself. They are all over-sized, hardback and full of great pictures. Most have lots of details about the battles and the strategies of the war and a little about topics such as the daily life of the soldier, medicine of the time, the use of spies or daily life in camp. This book is set up exactly in the reverse. It is all about those other topics, discusses the overall strategy and offers very little about the specifics of any actual battles. There are literally no battle maps.

But, that doesn't stop this from being a great book. It is a great book precisely because it doesn't treat those other topics as interesting filler - it treats them as topics that can stand alone and are worthy of exploration. 

Every page is colored either blue or gray. If it is a blue page, it discusses something about the Union, if it is gray, it discusses the Confederacy. Almost always, they go back and forth on the same theme, such as: Lincoln's Cabinet vs. Davis's Cabinet; manufacturing; the Union Strategy vs. the Confederate Strategy; the New York Draft Riots vs. the Richmond Bread Riots; Prison Camps; Uniforms; Northern Weapons Technology vs. Southern Weapons Technology; Newspapers on both sides; Artists on both sides; the two First Ladies; Spies; and how Reconstruction affected both sides. 

Union General Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881)

I particularly enjoyed the story of the Memphis Appeal, a successful newspaper that was forced to flee (printing press and all) from from advancing Union troops who wanted to shut it down. It fled from Memphis to Grenada, Mississippi to Jackson, Mississippi and then on to Atlanta. They fled to Montgomery, Alabama and were finally caught , after nearly three years of flight, in Columbus, Georgia after the war was over. The Union General and the editor had a drink and within 6 months the paper was once again publishing in Memphis (with that same much-traveled press). 

I found this to be an exceptionally balanced and well-written collection. It is an excellent choice to give to a student of the Civil War or to keep in a classroom as a resource. Really, the only problem I saw was on a general map on page 111. My adopted hometown of Indianapolis is placed about 50 miles too far to the south.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: THE BLUE and the GRAY: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN NORTH and SOUTH.

THE BATTLE of EZRA CHURCH and the STRUGGLE for ATLANTA (audiobook) by Earl J. Hess

Published in May of 2015 by Blackstone Audio
Read by Joe Barrett
Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes
Unabridged

During the Atlanta campaign in the Summer of 1864 Confederate President Jefferson Davis changed the nature of the campaign with the simple stroke of a pen.

Up to that point, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman was slowly forcing his way southward towards Atlanta by way of a series of flanking maneuvers. His opponent, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, was slowly retreating, hoping to find an opening for a fatal strike against his opponent. Unfortunately for him, Sherman's mistakes were too small to be exploited and eventually Johnston found himself backed up against Atlanta itself.

Oliver O. Howard (1830-1909).
Photo by Matthew Brady.

At this point, President Davis intervened and removed Johnston on July 17, replacing him with John Bell Hood. While Johnston was cautious, Hood was by nature an aggressive general. Also, given the circumstances of Johnston's removal, Hood knew that his president expected offensive action to drive the Union army away from Atlanta.  So, Hood complied. On July 20, 22 and 28 there were attacks to stop the Union advance. All of them were costly to the Confederate army since they were running low on everything, including soldiers. 

The Battle of Ezra Church started out as yet another flanking maneuver by the Union army under newly promoted General O.O. Howard. The goal was to reach the railroad line and further cut off Atlanta. Hood knew that the Union army would try for this railroad line and he sent men out stop them. Interestingly, they were also under the command of a new general, Stephen D. Lee. 

One of the more interesting story lines of The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta is how these two experienced armies dealt with the transplanted officers brought in to lead them (Howard easily gets the nod here). But, there is more than that. It is also a story of Hood vs. Sherman and Hood's style vs. Johnston's style.

Stephen Dill Lee (1833-1908)

The actual details of the battle are well-researched but not presented in a a particularly interesting manner. I think that is mostly due to the nature of the battle. General Stephen Lee sent his men in successive waves. The story of the battle is repetitive as the Confederates make a foolhardy charge against hastily assembled union defenses, retreat and gather themselves up and charge again. Meanwhile, the Union forces are reinforced just in time and make another defensive stand. 

This is not to say that were are interesting tales inside of the larger tale, but this was an audiobook and the repetitive nature of the battle made me wonder more than once if I was re-listening to part of the story. 

Who won? Well, that is actually a matter of some debate. The Union objective (the railroad) was not reached so the Confederates can claim that as a victory. But, the cost in men was so high, perhaps as many as 5 Confederates killed for every 1 Union soldier, that the Union can claim that as a victory. Also, the nature of the battle is odd - the Union soldiers were technically on offense but they hid behind hastily constructed defensive positions while the Confederates, who were technically on defense, charged those positions repeatedly and eventually withdrew.

The last three chapters of the book were quite excellent. They dealt with the immediate aftermath of the battle and how they dealt with all of the wounded and the dead. It also included some of the internal bickering in Hood's army as Lee tried to deflect blame to everyone else and still claim a victory. In the Union army, Howard was accepted as a tried and true leader by most of his army even though he was forced to fight on his second day as its general. The last chapter dealt with the last few days of the campaign for Atlanta. 

Joe Barrett read this audiobook. I have heard him read other audiobooks and I am not usually very fond of his "folksy" voice. But, his unique style worked well with the extensive quotes from letters and reports read throughout this audiobook. 

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta.

Note: I was sent a copy of this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr

Majestic and Poetic - an Outstanding Experience

Published in 2007 by Picador

Howard Bahr

If you pick up The Judas Field give it about 30 pages. Up to that point I was fairly confused and lost. Then, it suddenly comes together and this book became one of the most powerful books I've read all year.

The book features two story lines - one set approximately 20 years after the Civil War and one that consists of flashbacks about the Battle of Franklin. Both are interesting. Bahr's descriptions of the battle contain some of the most poetic descriptions of the most awful things that men can do to one another that I've ever read. Truly beautifully written.

On top of that there is an ongoing discussion about the role of God in war. Does he take sides? Has he forsaken both sides? This discussion is not done lightly. These are not post-modernist characters - they believe in God but they must reconcile that belief with the awful experience of war - what they did, what they saw done, what they prayed for, and why God has allowed it. Here's a snippet of this discussion:

Confederate soldiers at the end of the war.

" 'What do you ask for then?' said the boy.

Roger pulled the quilt around his shoulders. 'To be forgiven,' he said.

They were quiet then. The snow swirled around them, borne on a cutting wind, and through it ghostly shapes began to pass, bending, searching, speaking softly." (pp. 168-9)

The dialogue works. The descriptions are so thorough that I could almost hear the horses stamp and the men groan and stretch. This book is an outstanding experience.

I rate this novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Judas Field: A Novel of the Civil War by Howard Bahr.

Reviewed on October 24, 2008.

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

Tries too hard to set a mood, loses focus on the history.

Published in 2011 by Grand Central Publishing.

As a history teacher, I love well-written historical fiction. It places the reader right in the story. A judicious author can blend the history and the fiction together in a harmless fashion and tell the story in an accurate and entertaining way.

A Separate Country does not live up to those standards. It it presumptuous of an author of historical fiction to take the first person with a very famous historical figure. Commonly, if a first person perspective is used it is with a fictional character - an aide to a general that witnesses events but does not effect them, for example. In this case, Hicks has taken one of the "name" generals from the Civil War and turned him on his head. He has sacrificed the "historical" in the name of the "fiction."

Hicks places John Bell Hood into a series of historic events, some of which are quite true (such as the lottery drawings - many Confederate ex-generals were lottery commissioners) and some of which are of dubious truth (Hood's fascination with the comatose Pascal, for example). A great deal of the book is supposed to be Hood's secret autobiography, but it reads more like a modern blog than a Victorian era journal.

Confederate General John Bell Hood
(1831-1879)

The problem is that Hood's real life story is subordinate to this fiction in the story. It is peopled with characters with symbolic names (for example, Pascal's name is like paschal - an Easter term referring to Jesus and his sacrifice). Hood becomes a part of a much larger morality play about race, love and sacrifice. He even works in a young Homer Plessy, of later Plessy vs. Ferguson claim.

The author, Robert Hicks, is fascinated with Hood's performance at Nashville and Franklin, TN but almost completely ignores his other battles, which read like a roll call of the war itself: The Peninsula Campaign, 2nd Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg (Also, another historical inaccuracy - Hood never would have heard Lee apologize to the survivors of Pickett's Charge - Hood was in the infirmary trying to save his mangled arm), Chickamauga (where he lost his leg) and Atlanta.

The book is just tedious. The use of three points of view to tell the story guarantee us extended descriptions of the heat, humidity and the lush plant and insect communities of New Orleans. Page after page of descriptions of the plagues that strike New Orleans. Enough already!

This history teacher says pass on this one.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: A Separate Country by Robert Hicks.

Reviewed on August 3, 2009.

The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War by Thomas Buell

Good, thought provoking

Published in 1997 by Crown.

In The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War, Buell analyzes three Confederate and three Union generals with six very different leadership styles.

Buell gives a title to each of the six different men and they are:

The Yeoman: Ulysses S. Grant
The Aristocrat: Robert E. Lee
The Knight-Errant: John Bell Hood
The Roman: George H. Thomas
The Cavalier: John B . Gordon
The Puritan: Francis C. Barlow

Buell researched this book heavily, including delving into the National Archives to the point that he actually found boxes of papers from the Civil War that had not even been opened since they were packaged and delivered after the war, a fact that I find amazing given the vast number of books written on the war every year.

Buell is quite clear in his book that Robert E. Lee was vastly overrated and quite possibly incompetent (he never says it outright but he infers it). I agree that Lee has been overrated by some, but his incompetence is refuted, in my mind, by his track record against a much larger, better equipped army over the course of the war. To his credit, Buell does not lay the blame for the vast number of casualties in the Seven Days Battles in the Peninsular Campaign on Lee - which I consider fair considering that he was forced to take charge during the battles due to the wounding of Confederate General Joseph Johnston. Lee can't really take the blame for a situation he did not create.

Buell also is extremely critical of Grant, sometimes in a contradictory manner. At the beginning of the book he is critical of Grant's strategy as unimaginative at the end of the war (press Lee constantly, despite the constant casualties since Lee could not replace his casualties and Grant could easily replace his own - it quickly became a numbers game and denied Lee his famed mobility) and then, towards the end of the book he praises it.

General George H. Thomas
"The Rock of Chickamauga"

Buell's favorite is obviously Thomas, a brilliant organizer who built the army that literally simultaneously destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee (under Thomas) and was the core of Sherman's famous March to the Sea through Georgia. However, he was ultimately relieved of command by Grant for being too deliberate - a conclusion that I share with Grant. Buell, however, believes that it was an unjust firing. Grant believed that action was often more important than preparation - sometimes true, sometimes not, but Thomas never seemed to be prepared enough...

Although I disagreed with many of his conclusions, I did enjoy Buell's book. It was informative and well-written.

Reviewed in 2004.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War by Thomas Buell.