Posted date: 2010-03-09
Posted By :
Marc
In the first five chapters of this book, McPherson gives a detailed yet interesting account of the antebellum historical background of the country as a whole and by region. This background covered not only of the years immediately preceding the Civil War, but also the trajectory of political power since the founding of the Republic. The reader may think back to some long-ago history class to recall test questions on the Kansas-Nebraska Act or the Missouri Compromise. McPherson takes it a step further and gives the reader an idea of the differences that had long simmered beneath the surface. He fills the canvas with far more detail, without being wordy. The reader that is not particularly well-versed in American history will likely find unexpected emphasis on such places as California and New Mexico, as well as a stunning mixture of rhetorical genius and complete barbarity.
At this point in the book, the reader has been given a much sharper image of such men as Stephen Douglas, William Seward, Henry Clay, and a number of others who had so stoked the fires of the 1850s.
While McPherson's treatment seems fair, I think a lot of Southerners would consider much of the research biased in favor of the Republicans, Know-Nothings and Whigs at the expense of the pro-slavery Democrats. The detailed footnotes go a long way toward quashing any complaints that might arise. While this book reads like a novel, it has all the hallmarks of a scholarly masterpiece.
As the narrative enters the late pre-war period, McPherson illustrates the mood with the words of those present. Here is a snippet of Senatorial rhetoric in the context of legislating enforcement of the Dred Scott decision: If pirates seized ships owned by citizens of Massachusetts, senators of that state would demand naval protections. "Have I, sir, less right to demand protection for my slave property in the Territories?" If you of the North "deny to us rights guarantied by the Constitution ... then, sir ... the Union is a despotism [and] I am prepared to retire from the concern." This illustrates how McPherson makes use of numerous quotations in support of the text. While going to lengths to present a fair portrayal, the author doesn't hide the overt racism of much secessionist speech. This is from a speech by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown:"Among us the poor white laborer ... does not belong to the menial class. The negro is in no sense his equal. ... He belongs to the only true aristocracy, the race of white men." Some time was devoted to Lincoln's seeming mastery of the political situation in light of feuding individuals and factions within even his own party. Lincoln seems to continue on a campaign-like footing even after the election is over. He attempts to appease enemies while keeping an eye on rivals and all the while maintaining the demeanor of a confident leader.
We see samplings of the true "brother versus brother" character of the war from its very beginning, with the offspring of such men as Crittenden and Clay being split between the two sides. McPherson describes what would later become leaders in the terms of their early experiences:[Grant was considered a] man of no reputation and little promise
...
In August, Richmond newspapers had predicted that [Lee] would drive the Yankees back to Ohio; in October they mocked him as "Granny Lee" and "Evacuating Lee." The acerbic Richmond Examiner pronounced Lee "outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgeneraled." foreshadowing what was to come.
Moving away from the early land battles, the author goes into great detail on the naval efforts. It is easy to to overlook this important aspect of the war. Relatively few people consider that even more than as the advent of trench warfare, Europe saw the swan song of the traditional wooden-hulled navy in this war. From the Times of London:Whereas we had available for immediate purposes one hundred and forty-nine first-class warships, we have now two, these two being the Warrior and her sister Ironside [Britain's experimental ironclads]. There is not now a ship in the English navy apart from these two that it would not be madness to trust in an engagement with that little Monitor. McPherson continues with a fascinating discussion of the political machinations in London and Paris primarily on behalf of the Confederacy. From the descriptions of the naval side of the story, I wonder if the British government didn't read more into Union superiority than less seaward-oriented eyes.
In countering the incongruously large disruption the small Confederate cavalry under such men as Forrest and Morgan was having, the Union developed U.S. Military Rail Roads under the administration of former Erie Railroad executive Daniel McCallum. In this and other ways, the author conveys how the U.S. was able to effectively counter military problems with bureaucratic solutions. It is telling that a Confederate attempt at creating a similar office was far less effective. The Union, however, was not the only victim of the Confederate cavalry:"If God Almighty," wrote an angry [North Carolina Governor Zebulon B.] Vance to the War Department in 1863, "had yet in store another plague worse than all others which he intended to have let loose on the Egyptians in case Pharaoh still hardened his heart, I am sure it must have been a regiment or so of half-armed, half-disciplined Confederate cavalry." In later chapters, McPherson notes the borderline and overtly criminal acts of the Confederate cavalry throughout the South and even as far north as the outskirts of the District of Columbia. Sherman hunted fruitlessly for Forrest:... an angry Sherman ordered another and larger expedition out of Memphis to "follow Forrest to the death, if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There never will be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead." The author takes every opportunity to relate telling anecdotes that shed light on Lincoln's storied wit:The question, said Hooker, was not whether he would take Richmond, but when. "The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation." Lincoln remarked pointedly, "because she never cackles until the egg is laid." But more to the point, we see the incredible obstacles thrown in front of him. He contended ably with timid generals, infighting and outright treachery in the government, and just an incredible run of bad luck. It is easy to forget that during all the drama of a truly devastating war, the Union managed to expand its economy. Most of the damage was to the infrastructure, the people, and the cities of the South.... by war's end much of the South was an economic desert. The war had not only killed one-quarter of the Confederacy's white men of military age. It also killed two-fifths of southern livestock, wrecked half of the farm machinery, ruined thousands of miles of railroad, left scores of thousands of farms and plantations in weeds and disrepair, and destroyed the principal labor system on which southern productivity had been based. Two-thirds of assessed southern wealth vanished in the war. As Union armies marched through more and more territory, the Davis maintained his defiant rhetoric:"Nothing has changed in the purpose of [the Confederacy's] Government, in the indomitable valor of its troops, or in the unquenchable spirit of its people." It was to quench that spirit that Sherman set forth on his march from Atlanta to the sea. This style of perfectly marrying the narrative to real-time speeches and letters gives the reader a very real sense of the situation.
Near the end of the war, we see the Southern leadership attempt to take drastic measures in diametric opposition to the principles for which they were supposedly fighting. Higher taxation, arming and training slaves, suspending habeus corpus, and other actions already undertaken by the enemy were entertained at the highest level of government. Irrational inability to cooperate worked against the Confederacy every step of the way, and here was no exception:"Victory itself would be robbed of its glory if shared with slaves," said a Mississippi congressman. It would mean "the poor man ... reduced to the level of a nigger," insisted the Charleston Mercury. "His wife and daughter are to be hustled on the street by black wenches, their equals. Swaggering buck niggers are to ogle them and elbow them." Elements of modern political movements can be found here, in their historical roots.
The McPherson finishes the narrative with a brief and touching scene at Appomattox Courthouse. He leaves the reader with only a brief picture of the immediate post-war period. In the epilogue, however, the author presents several very well-constructed explanations for the fortunes of the war as it happened. Each is reasoned and eloquent. Yet he proceeds to pick each apart, even the most plausible. He ultimately shows the reader numerous examples of seemingly insignificant events whose outcomes could have greatly altered the course of the war.
This is the most insightful book on the subject that I have ever read. Rather than focusing on tactics and battles, this book is absolutely filled with economic and geopolitical information that proved even more important than campaigns. The footnotes are probably 5% of the volume of the book, yet it is compelling far beyond what could be expected given its 900-pages. I read this book after reading a more recent work by the same author, This Mighty Scourge. Together, they make for some very thought-provoking reading that is entirely too timely nearly a century and a half after the events described. Fascinating.
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