Any Civil War buffs here?

[daveleau]

Are there any Civil War buffs here? Even though I am from an area that is steeped in CW history, I know little about it. Heck, the men (cadets) that fired the first shots of the CW were from my college.

Anyway, I just finished reading Michael Shaara's Killer Angels. I read it because I found it at a used book store and I recognized it from the USAF Chief of Staff's reading list. It was a very interesting and utterly entertaining book, but how accurate is it?

I have been brought up around people who hold Lee up to the same light that most hold Lincoln and Washington and other great world leaders. Heck, in High School I worked for a man on a construction crew whose sons were name Robert Lee King and Jefferson Davis King. Talk about fanatical. I was never swept up into that. As a matter of fact, the only trace of southern on me are my college ring and the fact that I say "y'all" (I learned to talk while living in Toledo so I have no southern draw). Only since joining the military have I begun reading about history. I have concentrated on great leadership examples, the presidents and the Revolutionary War, so far. My next project was to begin reading on Roman society and The Empire. This is my first foray into the Civil War. Unfortunately, I slept too much in HS history to have gotten even a cursory knowledge of how things went on in the CW.

Anyway, if you don't want to read my long post , my question is: how accurate is Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels"? Or Jeff Shaara's books on our other conflicts ("God's and General's", "The Glorious Cause", "Rise to Rebellion", etc?

Thanks
Dave

[pickel]

Being from NYC, I'm more versed on gang wars.

[daveleau]

(MY post here is) Off-topic, but... I am reading about Andrew Jackson right now. A very interesting man. Not exactly the role-model I was expecting, but very interesting. Jackson, MS is of course named after A.J.

[Toddly]

I've read the 3 Sharra books and really liked them as well. The first one was written by the father (Micheal I think) and he passed away. His son Jeff then got interested in the Civil War and his fathers writing and continued with the other 2.
I thought that I had read that the history in the book is pretty accurate but that some of the dialogue between the characters was not . It makes for great reading. One thing I learned right off is that Lincoln offered Lee the position of Army Commander at the beginning but he turned it down because of alligience to Virginia. He was a great general and loved by his troops. If they weren't under nourished and provisioned it may have been a far different country than where we are today. The Union generals come off as incompetent until Grant comes along and plows his way through the South.
To bad the recent movie was a stinker.

[Bill in SD, CA]

Dave, I cannot comment on these books as I have not read them. I grew up in Maryland in the early 60's and my U.S. history teacher was way deep into the Civil War. Field trips to Antietam, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Bull Run, Etc.

The Civil War is one of the fascinating studies in American history and an even more fascinating study into military blunders and sheer luck. The tactics employed by the generals in battles were dated and cost countless lives to no avail. Some forward thinking generals on either side could have ended the war much sooner and perhaps with a much different ending.

Many people believe the war was fought to end slavery. My studies have led me to believe it was over state's rights versus federal survival. Slavery was (IMO) an instrument to recruit soldiers to both sides.

Studying this conflict will be a never ending (but amazing) study into where we as a country came from and evolved.

Bill

P.S. Thanks for serving!

Bill

[DaveLewis]

IMO the Shaara (father and son) books seem to be pretty accurate. SInce I read Killer Angels I've gained a great appreciation for Joshua Chamberlain. He probably was one of the better field commanders of the war. I still go back and re-read Bruce Catton's civil war books. They're fifty years old but continue to tell the story well. For a southern view of the war, read Shelby Foote's works.

At the risk of restarting the Civil War - or war of northern aggression as some of my southern friends call it - I get the feeling that the Shaara's considered Lee to often be in over his head. The only things that often saved him were the quality of his troops and the fact that the northern generals were often much worse. I'd say that they viewed Longstreet as the best southern general - he certainly understood the implications of "modern" war much better than his boss.

The film Gettysburg seems to capture the spirit of the battle pretty well. The uniforms, weapons and drill are excellent as they used Civil War re-enactors as extras. If they could have just gotten rid of the obviously fake beards on the southern generals....

[Knothead]

Hi, Dave, gimme a few minutes, and then you'll get the PM of your dreams.

[pickel]

Seriuosly speaking, the tour at Battlefield Park in Vicksburg should be on your list if you're traveling I 20 and have a few hours
to spend. The overlook on the Mississippi River brings you back to the seige..if you let your mind ramble.

[M_Six]

daveleau,

I write reviews for the Historical Novel Society. I have read and reviewed all of Jeff Shaara's books and I have read his father's Killer Angels as well. Killer Angels won a Pulitzer Prize. It is simply the finest Civil War novel in print. If you really want some some insight into the Civil War, start with Jeff Shaara's Gone for Soldiers. It's about the Mexican War and really brings to light all the friendships between the generals who fought the Civil War. Then read Gods and Generals, which was just out in theatres a few months ago, then comes Killer Angels, which you've read. Lastly is Last Full Measure. After reading those novels you will have a considerable understanding of how the war was fought, although not so much about the reasons.

Shaara's Rise to Rebellion and Glorious Cause are about the Revolutionary War and are equally outstanding.

[Xeroid]

The book Killer Angles is fairly accurate. A little literary license was taken to make it flow a little better. If you want a more accurate and indepth account of the Gettysburg Campaign, take a look at Shelby Foote's Stars In Their Courses (ISBN # 0-679-60112-0).

For that matter take a look at The Civil War A Narrative which is a 3 volume set that covers the entire American Civil War. (ISBN # 0-394-74623-6 volume 1, 0-394-74621-X volume 2, 0-394-74622-8 volume 3, or 0-394-74913-8 for the 3 volume boxed set). We are talking major detail here.

When you get tired of reading about Generals and campaigns you might want to take a look at the following books which deal mainly with the common soldier and how they coped with the war.

Berry Benson's Civil War Book -memoirs of a Confederate Scout and Sharpshooter: (out of print) I was lucky to find a copy. (University of Georgia Press, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-14236)

This is a book that you can't set down when you start it. Benson was from Hamburg, South Carolina. His company was mustered into service at Charleston, South Carolina on January 8th 1861. Benson served in the Confederate Army (mainly the Army of Northern Virginia) from the opening at Fort Sumter to the end at Appomattox. He was in Yankee prisons for five months, escaping twice. (Once from Point Lookout Prison but was recaptured and sent to Elmira prison in New York. He escaped from Elmira and made his way back thru 3 states to the Confederate lines at Petersburg Virginia.) When Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Benson and his brother determined to join up with Joseph Johnston's Army of Tennessee. On arrival he learned Johnston was going to surrender so Benson and his brother went home without ever surrendering.

Co. Aytch, A side show of the big show by Sam Watkins (a private in the Army of Tennessee). Served from 1861 till April of 1865 when Joseph Johnston surrendered to Sherman. This is another book that's hard to put down. Sorry but I can't find an ISBN # for this one but it's fairly easy to purchase.

Hardtack & Coffee by John Billings. ISBN # 0-8032-6111-X. This book describes what it was like to be a Union Soldier in the Army of the Potomac.

Sorry for being so long winded. This is one of my favorite past times. (can you tell?)

Mike