Download or read book Confederate Combat Commander written by Lawrence K. Peterson and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known as one of the most aggressive Confederate officers in the Western Theater, Brigadier General Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr. is legendary for having had eight horses shot out from under him in battle—more than any other infantry commander, Union or Confederate. Yet despite the exceptional bravery demonstrated by his dubious feat, Vaughan remains a largely overlooked Civil War leader. In Confederate Combat Commander, Lawrence K. Peterson explores the life of this unheralded yet important rebel officer before, during, and after his military service. A graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Vaughan initially commanded the Thirteenth Tennessee Infantry Regiment, and later Vaughan’s Brigade. He served in the hard-fought battles of the western area of operations in such key confrontations as Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and the Atlanta Campaign. Tracing Vaughan’s progress through the war and describing his promotion to general after his commanding officer was mortally wounded, Peterson describes the rise and development of an exemplary military career, and a devoted fighting leader. Although Vaughan was beloved by his troops and roundly praised at the time—in fact, negative criticism of his orders, battlefield decisions, or personality cannot be found in official records, newspaper articles, or the diaries of his men—Vaughan nevertheless served in the much-maligned Army of Tennessee. This book thus assesses what responsibility—if any—Vaughan bore for Confederate failures in the West. While biographies of top-ranking Civil War generals are common, the stories of lower-level senior officers such as Vaughan are seldom told. This volume provides rare insight into the regimental and brigade-level activities of Civil War commanders and their units, drawing on a rich array of privately held family histories, including two written by the general himself. Lawrence K. Peterson, a retired airline pilot, worked as a National Park Service ranger and USAF officer. He is the great-great grandson of Brigadier General Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr.
Download or read book The Warrior Generals written by Thomas Buell and published by Crown. This book was released on 1998-03-31 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: master historian gives readers a fresh new picture of the Civil War as it really was. Buell examines three pairs of commanders from the North and South, who met each other in battle. Following each pair through the entire war, the author reveals the human dimensions of the drama and brings the battles to life. 38 b&w photos.
Download or read book Brigadier General John D Imboden written by Spencer Tucker and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brigadier General John D. Imboden is an extremely important but often overlooked figure in the Civil War. Born in Virginia and trained as a lawyer, Imboden was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1850. Despite his limited military training, he secured a commission as a captain of artillery in a militia company. When Virginia seceded from the Union, Imboden came to play a prominent role in the fighting and rose to the rank of brigadier generals commanding the Shenandoah Valley District. Imboden, his four brothers, and his brother-in-law all served in the Confederate Army and were known as the "Six Brothers in Gray." Imboden claimed to have participated in "67 encounters with the enemy, battles, affairs, etc., in which the fighting was hard." He organized and led the Staunton Artillery in the capture of the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry and participated in the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas, organizing a cavalry command that fought under Stonewall Jackson in his Shenandoah Valley Campaign. His raid with Brigadier General William Jones into West Virginia, supported by 5,500 troops and cavalry, cut the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line and ravaged the Kanawha Valley petroleum fields. Imboden's cavalry screened the Army of Northern Virginia's left flank during the 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania. His protection of the wagon trains carrying wounded soldiers during the retreat from Gettysburg, culminating in a brilliant defensive battle at Williamsport on the Potomac, helped prevent Union troops from capturing important Confederate supplies. Imboden later led his men in hard fighting in the Shenandoah Valley in the battles of New Market, Piedmont, and Lynchburg. In late 1864, Imboden contracted typhoid fever. On his return to duty, he closed out his war service in command of Confederate prisons in Georgia, Alambama, and Mississippi. One of Imboden's hallmark characteristics was his concern for others, especially those in his charge, including Union prisoners of war at Andersonville. After the war, Imboden turned his interests to restoring the economic well-being of his native Virginia. He worked to promote the extension of rail lines and, to overcome a prolileration of different gauges, he invented a car lifter that was adopted by a number of lines. He traveled extensively to secure investments to develop the state's natural resources, founding the city of Damascus, which he hoped to make into a new iron and steel center.
Download or read book Confederate General R S Ewell written by Paul D. Casdorph and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Stoddert Ewell is best known as the Confederate General selected by Robert E. Lee to replace "Stonewall" Jackson as chief of the Second Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Ewell is also remembered as the general who failed to drive Federal troops from the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill during the Battle of Gettysburg. Many historians believe that Ewell's inaction cost the Confederates a victory in this seminal battle and, ultimately, cost the Civil War. During his long military career, Ewell was never an aggressive warrior. He graduated from West Point and served in the Indian wars in Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In 1861 he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and rushed to the Confederate standard. Ewell saw action at First Manassas and took up divisional command under Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign and in the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond. A crippling wound and a leg amputation soon compounded the persistent manic-depressive disorder that had hindered his ability to make difficult decisions on the battlefield. When Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia in May of 1863, Ewell was promoted to lieutenant general. At the same time he married a widowed first cousin who came to dominate his life -- often to the disgust of his subordinate officers -- and he became heavily influenced by the wave of religious fervor that was then sweeping through the Confederate Army. In Confederate General R.S. Ewell, Paul D. Casdorph offers a fresh portrait of a major -- but deeply flawed -- figure in the Confederate war effort, examining the pattern of hesitancy and indecisiveness that characterized Ewell's entire military career. This definitive biography probes the crucial question of why Lee selected such an obviously inconsistent and unreliable commander to lead one-third of his army on the eve of the Gettysburg Campaign. Casdorph describes Ewell's intriguing life and career with penetrating insights into his loyalty to the Confederate cause and the Virginia ties that kept him in Lee's favor for much of the war. Complete with riveting descriptions of key battles, Ewell's biography is essential reading for Civil War historians.
Download or read book Civil War Generalship written by W. J. Wood and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1997-04-09 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Higher level commanders on both sides were forced to create and develop a personal art of command while actually putting it into practice on campaign and on the battlefield. In so doing - however well or badly managed - the typical commanders under observation developed a pragmatic art that has left a legacy that still provides paradigms for military leaders in the late 20th century.
Download or read book Decisions at Perryville written by Lawrence K. Peterson and published by . This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The largest battle fought in Kentucky during the American Civil War occurred at a small, crossroads town named Perryville. As Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederate Heartland Offensive sputtered through Kentucky, Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's reformed Army of the Ohio pursued the Army of the Mississippi and clashed with its rearguard just outside Perryville. Believing that he faced only a part of Buell's army, Bragg ordered an assault on the Union left flank which resulted in Confederate victory. However, that evening Bragg determined the Army of the Ohio outnumbered him three to one and quickly decided to retreat. Outmanned, outmaneuvered, and lacking supplies and reinforcements, Bragg retreated through the Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee, and Kentucky remained in Union control for the rest of the Civil War. Decisions at Perryville explores the critical decisions made by Confederate and Union commanders during the battle and how these decisions shaped its outcome. Rather than offering a history of the battle, Larry Peterson hones in on a sequence of critical decisions made by commanders on both sides of the contest to provide a blueprint of the Battle of Perryville at its tactical core. Identifying and exploring the critical decisions in this way allows students of the battle to progress from a knowledge of what happened to a mature grasp of why events happened. Complete with maps and a driving tour, Decisions at Perryville is an indispensable primer, and readers looking for a concise introduction to the battle can tour this sacred ground--or read about it at their leisure--with key insights into the campaign and a deeper understanding of the Civil War itself. Decisions at Perryville is the eleventh in a series of books that will explore the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War.
Download or read book Decisions of the Atlanta Campaign written by Lawrence K. Peterson and published by Command Decisions in America's. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Intended for a general readership, Decisions of the Atlanta Campaign introduces readers to critical decisions made by both Union and Confederate commanders who faced harrowing situations and attempted to achieve strategic and tactical victories. Like four similar books by Matt Spruill, Dave Powell, and Peterson's own Decisions at Chattanooga, this contribution to the Command Decisions in America's Civil War series contains maps, photographs, and a guided tour of the battlefields. It will be the first in the series to tackle an entire campaign"--
Download or read book Brigadier General John D Imboden written by Spencer Tucker and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2010-09-12 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " John D. Imboden is an important but often overlooked figure in Civil War history. With only limited militia training, the Virginia lawyer and politician rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate Army and commanded the Shenandoah Valley District, which had been created for Stonewall Jackson. Imboden organized and led the Staunton Artillery in the capture of the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. He participated in the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas and organized a cavalry command that fought alongside Stonewall Jackson in his Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The Jones/Imboden Raid into West Virginia cut the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and ravaged the Kanawha Valley petroleum fields. Imboden covered the Confederate withdrawal from Gettysburg and later led cavalry accompanying Jubal Early in his operations against Philip Sheridan in Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Imboden completed his war service in command of Confederate prisons in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Spencer C. Tucker fully examines the life of this Confederate cavalry commander, including analysis of Imboden’s own post-war writing, and explores overlooked facets of his life, such as his involvement in the Confederate prison system, his later efforts to restore the economic life of his home state of Virginia by developing its natural resources, and his founding of the city of Damascus, which he hoped to make into a new iron and steel center. Spencer C. Tucker, John Biggs Professor of Military History at the Virginia Military Institute, is the author of Vietnam and the author or editor of several other books on military and naval history. He lives in Lexington, Virginia.
Download or read book Fighting Means Killing written by Jonathan M. Steplyk and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-10-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “War means fighting, and fighting means killing,” Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest famously declared. The Civil War was fundamentally a matter of Americans killing Americans. This undeniable reality is what Jonathan Steplyk explores in Fighting Means Killing, the first book-length study of Union and Confederate soldiers’ attitudes toward, and experiences of, killing in the Civil War. Drawing upon letters, diaries, and postwar reminiscences, Steplyk examines what soldiers and veterans thought about killing before, during, and after the war. How did these soldiers view sharpshooters? How about hand-to-hand combat? What language did they use to describe killing in combat? What cultural and societal factors influenced their attitudes? And what was the impact of race in battlefield atrocities and bitter clashes between white Confederates and black Federals? These are the questions that Steplyk seeks to answer in Fighting Means Killing, a work that bridges the gap between military and social history—and that shifts the focus on the tragedy of the Civil War from fighting and dying for cause and country to fighting and killing.
Download or read book Critical Sketches of Some of the Federal and Confederate Commanders written by Military Historical Society of Massachusetts and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Battle Hymn written by Richard M. Walsh and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining work analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the Civil War’s top Union and Confederate generals using extensive primary documents and original research. Included are the surprising answers to intriguing questions: How did Union general Ulysses S. Grant attain such a high rank after numerous failures in civilian life? What made the dour, almost fanatically religious Stonewall Jackson perhaps the best combat leader in the Confederacy? History professor Richard M. Walsh explains why Ambrose Burnside was demoted, who gave George McClellan the nickname “Little Napoleon,” and why men of both sides respected Robert E. Lee. Walsh even includes outstanding citizen soldiers who quickly advanced in rank on both sides in his remarkable chronicle. Fascinating facts are gathered in chapters that group the generals from the worst to the not so bad to the best, all punctuated by satirical portraits drawn by Charles H. Hayes. Walsh’s record is a must read for history buffs from both sides of the Mason-Dixon!
Download or read book Rashness of That Hour written by Robert Wynstra and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2010-12-08 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER, 2010, DR. JAMES I. ROBERTSON LITERARY PRIZE FOR CONFEDERATE HISTORY AWARD WINNER, 2011, THE BACHELDER-CODDINGTON LITERARY AWARD, GIVEN BY THE ROBERT E. LEE CIVIL WAR ROUND TABLE OF CENTRAL NEW JERSEY No commander in the Army of Northern Virginia suffered more damage to his reputation at Gettysburg than did Brig. Gen. Alfred Holt Iverson. In little more than an hour during the early afternoon of July 1, 1863, much of his brigade (the 5th, 12th, 20th, and 23rd North Carolina regiments) was slaughtered in front of a stone wall on Oak Ridge. Amid rumors that he was a drunk, a coward, and had slandered his own troops, Iverson was stripped of his command less than a week after the battle and before the campaign had even ended. After months of internal feuding and behind-the-scenes political maneuvering, the survivors of Iverson's ill-fated brigade had no doubt about who to blame for their devastating losses. What remained unanswered was the lingering uncertainty of how such a disaster could have happened. This and many other questions are explored for the first time in Robert J. Wynstra's The Rashness of That Hour: Politics, Gettysburg, and the Downfall of Confederate Brigadier General Alfred Iverson. Wynstra's decade-long investigation draws upon a wealth of newly discovered and previously unpublished sources to provide readers with fresh perspectives and satisfying insights. The result is an engrossing chronicle of how the brigade's politics, misadventures, and colorful personalities combined to bring about one of the Civil War's most notorious blunders. As Wynstra's research makes clear, Iverson's was a brigade in fatal turmoil long before its rendezvous with destiny in Forney field on July 1. This richly detailed and thoughtfully written account is biographical, tactical, and brigade history at its finest. For the first time we have a complete picture of the flawed general and his brigade's bitter internecine feuds that made Iverson's downfall nearly inevitable and help us better understand "the rashness of that hour." About the Author: Robert J. Wynstra recently retired as a senior writer for the News and Public Affairs Office in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in history and a Master's degree in journalism, all from the University of Illinois. Rob has been researching Alfred Iverson's role in the Civil War for more than ten years. He is finishing work on a study of Robert Rodes' Division in the Gettysburg Campaign.
Download or read book Generals in Gray written by Ezra J. Warner, Jr. and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2006-04-15 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Generals in Gray was published in 1959, scholars and critics immediately hailed it as one of the few indispensable books on the American Civil War. Historian Stanley Horn, for example, wrote, "It is difficult for a reviewer to restrain his enthusiasm in recommending a monumental book of this high quality and value." Here at last is the paperback edition of Ezra J. Warner's magnum opus with its concise, detailed biographical sketches and -- in an amazing feat of research -- photographs of all 425 Confederate generals. The only exhaustive guide to the South's command, Generals in Gray belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the Civil War.
Download or read book The Worst Military Leaders in History written by John M. Jennings and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2023-06-24 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning countries and centuries, a “how-not-to” guide to leadership that reveals the most maladroit military commanders in history—now in paperback. For this book, fifteen distinguished historians were given a deceptively simple task: identify their choice for the worst military leader in history and then explain why theirs is the worst. From the clueless Conrad von Hötzendorf and George A. Custer to the criminal Baron Roman F. von Ungern-Sternberg and the bungling Garnet Wolseley, this book presents a rogues’ gallery of military incompetents. Rather than merely rehashing biographical details, the contributors take an original and unconventional look at military leadership in a way that appeals to both specialists and general readers alike. While there are plenty of books that analyze the keys to success, The Worst Military Leaders in History offers lessons of failure to avoid. In other words, this book is a “how-not-to” guide to leadership.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals written by Samuel W. Mitcham and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-05-24 with total page 967 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renown military historian and frequent television commenter brings to life the generalship of the South during the Civil War in sparkling, information-filled vignettes. For both the Civil War completist and the general reader! Anyone acquainted with the American Civil War will readily recognize the names of the Confederacy’s most prominent generals. Robert E. Lee. Stonewall Jackson. James Longstreet. These men have long been lionized as fearless commanders and genius tacticians. Yet few have heard of the hundreds of generals who led under and alongside them. Men whose battlefield resolve spurred the Confederacy through four years of the bloodiest combat Americans have ever faced. In The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals, veteran Civil War historian, Samuel W. Mitcham, documents the lives of every Confederate general from birth to death, highlighting their unique contributions to the battlefield and bringing their personal triumphs and tragedies to life. Packed with photos and historical briefings, The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals belongs on the shelf of every Civil War historian, and preserves in words the legacies once carved in stone.
Download or read book Decisions of the 1862 Kentucky Campaign written by Lawrence K. Peterson and published by Command Decisions in America's. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Intended for a general readership, Decisions of the 1862 Kentucky Campaign introduces readers to critical decisions made by both Union and Confederate commanders who faced harrowing situations and attempted to achieve strategic and tactical victories. Like four similar books by Matt Spruill, Dave Powell, and Peterson's own Decisions at Chattanooga, this manuscript for the Command Decisions series contains maps, photographs, and a guided tour of the battlefields. It will be the second project in the series to tackle an entire campaign"--
Download or read book Confederate High Command At Shiloh written by Major Thomas K. Hall and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the actions of the senior Confederate commanders at the battle of Shiloh. The senior commander, General Albert Sidney Johnston and his second in command, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, did not come to a complete agreement on how to fight the battle. This disconnect between the two generals was the main reason for the South’s failure to achieve victory. The research method consisted of comparing the official records to other sources. These sources included books, biographies, telephone interviews, and one unpublished paper from the Shiloh National Military Park Library. Official records sometimes did not survive the test of scrutiny, particularly General Braxton Bragg’s assertion of actions at the close of April 6. The most important lesson that a student of military history can learn from this study is that commanders at all levels must ensure that the commander’s intent is clearly understood. Failure to do so almost guarantees confusion up and down the chain of command which will, most likely, result in defeat.
