Confederate Generals in the Western Theater, Vol. 1

Classic Essays on America's Civil War

Lawrence L. Hewitt, Arthur W. Bergeron

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781621900313
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

This collection, the first of several projected volumes, brings together some of the best previously published essays on Confederate commanders in the Western Theater. Including articles by such distinguished historians as Grady McWhiney, Charles P. Roland, T. Harry Williams, Frank E. Vandiver, Archer Jones, and Edwin C. Bearss, many of these pieces have only appeared in academic journals, and most have long been out of print. In resurrecting them, this volume introduces a new generation of readers to some of the mid–twentieth century’s most significant Civil War scholarship.

As part of a new series, The Western Theater in the Civil War, this volume reflects the premise that truly understanding the outcome of the war can only be gained through greater knowledge of the western campaigns and the generals who waged them. The essays gathered here—such as Roland’s reassessment of Albert Sidney Johnston, Williams’s examination of P. G. T. Beauregard’s role at Shiloh, Bearss’s look at Bedford Forrest’s great tactical victory at Brice’s Cross Roads, and Vandiver’s analysis of John Bell Hood’s use of logistics—are admirable contributions to this goal. Significantly, in addition to highlighting the Western Theater’s best-known generals, this volume also includes essays on two of its less familiar ones, Patton Anderson and Daniel C. Govan, thus rescuing these fascinating figures from undeserved oblivion.

Future volumes of Confederate Generals in the Western Theater will showcase the latest scholarship with new essays written expressly for the series. By gathering classic earlier work between one set of covers, this opening foray sets a high standard indeed.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Series Editor’s Foreword, Gary D. Joiner
• Foreword, Terrence J. Winschel
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• A Bishop as General, Grady McWhiney
• Albert Sidney Johnston and the Defense of the Confederate West, Charles P. Roland
• Beauregard at Shiloh, T. Harry Williams
• Mansfield Lovell, Arthur W. Bergeron Jr.
• Braxton Bragg and the Confederate Invasion of Kentucky in 1862, Lawrence Lee Hewitt
• Tennessee and Mississippi, Joe Johnston’s Strategic Problem,, Archer Jones
• Misused Merit: The Tragedy of John C. Pemberton, Michael B. Ballard
• Soldier with a Blunted Sword: Braxton Bragg and His Lieutenants in the Chickamauga Campaign, Steven E. Woodworth
• Patrick Cleburne’s Defense of Tunnel Hill Revisited, Craig L. Symonds
• Bedford Forrest and His “Critter” Cavalry at Brice’s Cross Roads, Edwin C. Bearss
• A Reassessment of Jefferson Davis as War Leader: The Case from Atlanta to Nashville, William J. Cooper Jr.
• General Hood as Logistician, Frank E. Vandiver
• Hardee’s Defense of Savannah, Nathaniel C. Hughes Jr.
• Patton Anderson: Major General, C.S.A., Richard M. McMurry
• No Better Officer in the Confederacy: The Wartime Career of Daniel C. Govan, Daniel E. Sutherland
• Recommended Readings
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index