Download or read book Braxton Bragg written by Earl J. Hess and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer. While Hess analyzes Bragg's many campaigns and battles, he also emphasizes how his contemporaries viewed his successes and failures and how these reactions affected Bragg both personally and professionally. The testimony and opinions of other members of the Confederate army--including Bragg's superiors, his fellow generals, and his subordinates--reveal how the general became a symbol for the larger military failures that undid the Confederacy. By connecting the general's personal life to his military career, Hess positions Bragg as a figure saddled with unwarranted infamy and humanizes him as a flawed yet misunderstood figure in Civil War history.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg General of the Confederacy written by Don Carlos Seitz and published by Books for Libraries. This book was released on 1924 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book General Braxton Bragg C S A written by Samuel J. Martin and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General Braxton Bragg is often described as a despicable, friendless man, the most hated general of the Confederacy. Historians have denigrated Bragg by accepting without challenge the self-serving accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, each of whom sought to explain their own failures by assigning them to Bragg. This biography, without dodging Bragg's deficiencies, refutes much of this false testimony. The result is a balanced view of this controversial general, from his early rise to power in the Western theater to his subsequent fall from grace in the latter years of the Civil War.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat written by Grady McWhiney and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Summer of 1863, Confederate General Braxton Bragg was commander of the Army of Tennessee, still reeling from its defeat in January at Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg General of the Confederacy With Portrait written by Don Carlos SEITZ and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Braxton Bragg written by Don Carlos Seitz and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Southern Rights written by Mark E. Neely and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the civil war that followed, not a day would pass when Confederate military prisons did not contain political prisoners."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat written by Grady McWhiney and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Civil War history classic, now back in print.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg Vs William Rosecrans written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures of the battles' important generals. *Includes several maps of the battles. *Includes accounts of the battles written by important generals. . *Includes a Bibliography for each battle. "I know Mr. Davis thinks he can do a great many things other men would hesitate to attempt. For instance, he tried to do what God failed to do. He tried to make a soldier of Braxton Bragg." - General Joseph E. Johnston Of all the commanders who led armies during major battles of the Civil War, historians have by and large agreed that the most inept generals to face each other were the Union's William Rosecrans and the Confederacy's Braxton Bragg. The two generals would command the Union Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee against each other during the Battle of Stones River (Battle of Murfreesboro) at the end of 1862 and at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, two of the deadliest and most controversial battles of the war. In late December 1862, William Rosecrans's Union Army of the Cumberland was contesting Middle Tennessee against Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, and for three days the two armies savaged each other as Bragg threw his army at Rosecrans in a series of desperate assaults. Bragg's army was unable to dislodge the Union army, and he eventually withdrew his army after learning that Rosecrans was on the verge of receiving reinforcements. Though the battle was stalemated, the fact that the Union army was left in possession of the field allowed Rosecrans to declare victory and embarrassed Bragg. Though Stones River is mostly overlooked as a Civil War battle today, it had a decisive impact on the war. The two armies had both suffered nearly 33% casualties, an astounding number in 1862 that also ensured Rosecrans would not start another offensive campaign in Tennessee until the following June. The Union victory also ensured control of Nashville, Middle Tennessee, and Kentucky for the rest of the war, prompting Lincoln to tell Rosecrans, "You gave us a hard-earned victory, which had there been a defeat instead, the nation could scarcely have lived over." The battle and its results also set into motion a chain of events that would lead to Rosecrans and Bragg facing off at the crucial battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, a battle that is often viewed as the last gasp for the Confederates' hopes in the West. During the height of the Battle of Chickamauga, Rosecrans inadvertently created a gap in his line just as a Confederate attack led by James Longstreet advanced straight toward that part of the line. Longstreet's attack was successful in driving one-third of the Union Army off the field, with Rosecrans himself running all the way to Chattanooga, where he was later allegedly found weeping and seeking solace from a staff priest. As the Confederate assault continued, George H. Thomas led the Union left wing against heavy Confederate attack even after nearly half of the Union army abandoned their defenses and retreated from the battlefield, racing toward Chattanooga. Dubbed "The Rock of Chickamauga," Thomas's heroics ensured that Rosecrans' army was able to successfully retreat back to Chattanooga. In the aftermath of the Battle of Chickamauga, several Confederate generals blamed the number of men lost during what would be the bloodiest battle of the Western Theater on Bragg's incompetence, and also criticizing him for refusing to pursue the escaping Union army. General Longstreet later stated to Jefferson Davis, "Nothing but the hand of God can help as long as we have our present commander." Bragg vs. Rosecrans comprehensively covers the campaigns and the events that led up to the battles, the fighting itself, and the aftermath of the battles. Accounts of the battles by important participants are also included, along with maps of the battles and pictures of important people, places, and events.
Download or read book The Battle of Peach Tree Creek written by Earl J. Hess and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 20, 1864, the Civil War struggle for Atlanta reached a pivotal moment. As William T. Sherman's Union forces came ever nearer the city, the defending Confederate Army of Tennessee replaced its commanding general, removing Joseph E. Johnston and elevating John Bell Hood. This decision stunned and demoralized Confederate troops just when Hood was compelled to take the offensive against the approaching Federals. Attacking northward from Atlanta's defenses, Hood's men struck George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland just after it crossed Peach Tree Creek on July 20. Initially taken by surprise, the Federals fought back with spirit and nullified all the advantages the Confederates first enjoyed. As a result, the Federals achieved a remarkable defensive victory. Offering new and definitive interpretations of the battle's place within the Atlanta campaign, Earl J. Hess describes how several Confederate regiments and brigades made a pretense of advancing but then stopped partway to the objective and took cover for the rest of the afternoon on July 20. Hess shows that morale played an unusually important role in determining the outcome at Peach Tree Creek--a soured mood among the Confederates and overwhelming confidence among the Federals spelled disaster for one side and victory for the other.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat written by Grady McWhiney and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 1991-11-30 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Civil War history classic, now back in print. Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Volume I, examines General Braxton Bragg’s military prowess beginning with his enlistment in the Confederate Army in 1862 to the spring of 1863. First published in 1969, this is the first of two volumes covering the life of the Confederacy’s most problematic general. It is now back in print and available in paperback for the first time. A West Point graduate, Mexican War hero, and retired army lieutenant colonel, Bragg was one of the most distinguished soldiers to join the Confederacy, and for a time one of the most impressive. Grady McWhiney’s research shows that Bragg was neither as outstanding nor as incompetent as scholars and contemporaries suggest, but held positions of high responsibility throughout the war. Not an overwhelming success as commander of the Confederacy’s principal western army, Bragg nevertheless directed the Army of Tennessee longer than any other general, and, after being relieved of army command, he served as President Davis’s military adviser. Of all the Confederacy’s generals, only Robert E. Lee exercised more authority over such an extended period as Bragg. Yet less than two years later Bragg was the South’s most discredited commander. Much of this criticism was justified, for he had done as much as any Confederate general to lose the war. The army’s failures were Bragg’s failures, and after his defeat at Chattanooga in November 1863 Bragg was relieved of field command.
Download or read book Leonidas Polk written by Huston Horn and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leonidas Polk was a graduate of West Point who resigned his commission to enter the Episcopal priesthood as a young man. At first combining parish ministry with cotton farming in Tennessee, Polk subsequently was elected the first bishop of the Louisiana Diocese, whereupon he bought a sugarcane plantation and worked it with several hundred slaves owned by his wife. Then, in the 1850s he was instrumental in the founding of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. When secession led to war he pulled his diocese out of the national church and with other Southern bishops established what they styled the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America. Polk then offered his military services to his friend and former West Point classmate Jefferson Davis and became a major general in the Confederate Army. Polk was one of the more notable, yet controversial, generals of the war. Recognizing his indispensable familiarity with the Mississippi Valley, Confederate president Jefferson Davis commissioned his elevation to a high military position regardless of his lack of prior combat experience. Polk commanded troops in the Battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Meridian as well as several smaller engagements in Georgia leading up to Atlanta. Polk is remembered for his bitter disagreements with his immediate superior, the likewise-controversial General Braxton Bragg of the Army of Tennessee. In 1864, while serving under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, Polk was killed by Union cannon fire as he observed General Sherman’s emplacements on the hills outside Atlanta.
Download or read book Confederate Struggle for Command written by Alexander Mendoza and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Though he has traditionally been saddled with much of the blame for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet was a capable, resourceful, and brave commander. Lee referred to Longstreet as his "Old Warhorse," and Longstreet's men gave him the sobriquet "Bull of the Woods" for his aggressive tactics at Chickamauga." "Now, historian Alexander Mendoza offers a comprehensive analysis of Longstreet's leadership during his seven-month assignment in the Tennessee theater of operations. He concludes that the obstacles to effective command faced by Longstreet during his sojourn in the west had at least as much to do with longstanding grievances and politically motivated prejudices as they did with any personal or military shortcomings of Longstreet himself."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Rails To Oblivion The Decline Of Confederate Railroads In The Civil War Illustrated Edition written by Dr. Christopher R. Gabel and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes 2 charts, 7 maps, 7 figures and 5 Illustrations. Renowned Military Historian Dr Christopher Gabel charts the decline of the Confederate Railways system that was to spell ultimate doom to the outnumbered soldiers of the Southern states. Military professionals need always to recognize the centrality of logistics to military operations. In this booklet, Dr. Christopher R. Gabel provides a companion piece to his “Railroad Generalship” which explores the same issues from the other side of the tracks, so to speak. “Rails to Oblivion” shows that neither brilliant generals nor valiant soldiers can, in the long run, overcome the effects of a neglected and deteriorating logistics system. Moreover, the cumulative effect of mundane factors such as metal fatigue, mechanical friction, and accidents in the civilian workplace can contribute significantly to the outcome of a war. And no matter how good some thing or idea may look on paper, or how we delude ourselves, we and our soldiers must live with, and die in, reality. War is a complex business. This booklet explores some of the facets of war that often escape the notice of military officers, and as COL Jerry Morelock intimated in his foreword to “Railroad Generalship,” these facets decide who wins and who loses.
Download or read book Lincoln s Autocrat written by William Marvel and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869), one of the nineteenth century's most impressive legal and political minds, wielded enormous influence and power as Lincoln's secretary of war during most of the Civil War and under Johnson during the early years of Reconstruction. In the first full biography of Stanton in more than fifty years, William Marvel offers a detailed reexamination of Stanton's life, career, and legacy. Marvel argues that while Stanton was a formidable advocate and politician, his character was hardly benign. Climbing from a difficult youth to the pinnacle of power, Stanton used his authority--and the public coffers--to pursue political vendettas, and he exercised sweeping wartime powers with a cavalier disregard for civil liberties. Though Lincoln's ability to harness a cabinet with sharp divisions and strong personalities is widely celebrated, Marvel suggests that Stanton's tenure raises important questions about Lincoln's actual control over the executive branch. This insightful biography also reveals why men like Ulysses S. Grant considered Stanton a coward and a bully, who was unashamed to use political power for partisan enforcement and personal preservation.
Download or read book Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat without special title written by Grady McWhiney and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reminiscences of General Braxton Bragg written by L. H. Stout and published by . This book was released on 1942 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
