America's Civil War

by Reid, Brian Holden

• ISBN13: 9781591026051
• ISBN10: 1591026059
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-01
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

"In this successor volume to his acclaimed Origins of the American Civil War, military historian Brian Holden Reid examines the diverse contexts of the war that influenced strategic planning and the operational execution of battlefield tactics in both the Union and the Confederate forces. He reveals how the aims and ideologies of the North and the South changed over the course of the first three years of conflict, starting within the armies themselves." "Though some historians claim that mid-nineteenth-century armies were invulnerable when on the defensive, Holden Reid makes a powerful argument against this mode of thinking. He visits the victories and the defeats of the early campaigns, rejects unsupported comparisons between the strategies employed in this war and other wars of the 1800s, and offers informed views of the social and political climate of this immortal conflict."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 9
Introduction	p. 13
Why the War Came, How It Was Fought	p. 25
The First Phase: April 1861 to March 1862	p. 49
War on the Margins: September 1861 to June 1862	p. 79
Union Frustration: April to July 1862	p. 127
Confederate Frustration: July to September 1862	p. 165
The Confederacy Fumbles and a Bold Union Move: September to October 1862	p. 203
Errors in the Attack: November 1862 to March 1863	p. 229
The Ebb and Flow of Battle: April to July 1863	p. 265
Grant Triumphs over Adversity: July 1862 to July 1863	p. 313
Breaking the Deadlock in Tennessee: June to December 1863	p. 345
Halftime: The Transformation of a War	p. 389
The Experience of War	p. 413
Postscript: The Problem of Indecisiveness	p. 441
Bibliography	p. 451
Index	p. 471
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.