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40+ Werke 1,738 Mitglieder 17 Rezensionen Lieblingsautor von 1 Lesern

Über den Autor

Steven E. Woodworth was born on January 28, 1961. He received a B.A. in history from Southern Illinois University in 1982 and a Ph.D. from Rice University in 1987. He is a professor of history at Texas Christian University and an expert on the Civil War. He has written a number of books on the mehr anzeigen topic including Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West, While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers, Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee 1861-1865, Manifest Destinies: Westward Expansion and the Civil War, and This Great Struggle: America's Civil War. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen
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Werke von Steven E. Woodworth

The Oxford Atlas of the Civil War (2004) 112 Exemplare
Davis and Lee at War (1995) 70 Exemplare
Sherman (2009) 53 Exemplare
Civil War Generals in Defeat (1999) 43 Exemplare
The Art of Command in the Civil War (1998) — Herausgeber — 19 Exemplare
Vicksburg Besieged (Civil War Campaigns in the West) (2020) — Herausgeber — 11 Exemplare

Zugehörige Werke

The citizen-soldier, or, Memoirs of a volunteer (1879) — Einführung, einige Ausgaben132 Exemplare
Jefferson Davis (1907) — Einführung — 15 Exemplare
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2001 (2001) — Author "The Scapegoat of Arkansas Post" — 9 Exemplare
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 2002 (2002) — Co-Author "Calm Before the Storm" — 8 Exemplare
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2005 (2005) — Author "Bloody Field at Champion's Hill" — 7 Exemplare
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 2004 (2004) — Author "Grant's Scheming Subordinate" — 5 Exemplare

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Excellent regimental history, accomplishing the key task of the genre: making memorable characters out of the various soldiers through whose letters and memoirs the stories are told. The first-hand descriptions of combat are powerful. Succeeds in conveying the entire war experience of the men of the regiment, from early war fever to the bitter end at Appomattox.
 
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MarkHarden | Jun 23, 2022 |
A careful coat of paint cannot hide a revisionist history. This is a great read, as long as you don't look into what it says. (And as long as you don't look for such important helps as a sufficiency of maps and orders of battle.)

This might as easily have been titled "The Decline and Fall of Braxton Bragg." Most histories of the Civil War in the west in 1863 concentrate on the Battle of Chickamauga, or possibly on Chickamauga and its sequel Chattanooga. This book starts earlier -- with the aftermath of the battle of Stones River at the end of 1862, including the long stalemate which followed, the Tullahoma campaign which ended the stalemate, and then Chickamauga and Chattanooga. To accomplish this in a fairly short book, it has to pull back a little -- the descriptions of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, especially the latter, are relatively brief.

There is nothing wrong with that. You can't understand Chickamauga unless you understand how the armies got there! It's good to have such a careful examination of the whole campaign. But I can't bring myself to entirely like the result. It seems clear that author Woodworth has his favorite generals, and he wraps the entire history around them. And, almost uniquely, his absolute favorite is Braxton Bragg.

This is noteworthy because nobody likes Bragg. His subordinates despised him (as Woodworth readily admits). The press of the time savaged him. Historians have generally given him low marks. Woodworth seems convinced that Bragg would have been great -- if only someone, anyone, had obeyed his orders.

If one of a general's subordinates disobeys his commander, it's proper to blame it on the subordinate. If they all are alleged to have disobeyed, then surely one must conclude that the fault lies with the general! To paint his picture, Woodworth must portray all of Bragg's juniors as basically unruly children: Leonidas Polk as a pompous fool (OK, that one's partly right), William J. Hardee as a better man who somehow swallowed Polk's opinions entire, D. H. Hill as a carping fumbler (the carping is true, but Hill had been a fine division commander at least), James Longstreet as an ambitious blockhead (the fact that Longstreet was not suited for independent command does not change the fact that Robert E. Lee trusted Longstreet implicitly and gave him tasks he gave no other man -- and that Longstreet was the one who won Bragg's battle at Chickamauga for him!).

Woodworth isn't as biased about the Federals, but the amount of shade he casts on George H. Thomas is ridiculous. The fact that Ulysses S. Grant never liked Thomas doesn't change the fact that no Federal general in the entire war had a better record than Thomas. The fact that Thomas was methodical when circumstances permitted it doesn't change the fact that he was brilliantly methodical -- and that he could act fast when he had to, as e.g. when he saved the Union army at Chickamauga.

So this book becomes the story of how Bragg, after two tactical victories that proved strategic defeats (Perryville and Stones River) entered into his final campaign that resulted in one battle won and one lost, the latter of which ended with Bragg out of a job. It's almost like a Greek tragedy -- except that a Greek tragedy requires a hero with a tragic flaw. Flaws Braxton Bragg had. I can't see much sign of heroism.

I ended up feeling as if this was a good history of the campaign but a terrible history of the personalities involved. You can trust what happened. But as for the personal interactions that led to those events, I'd feel a lot more confident if they fit better with what every other historian says -- or, at minimum, if Woodworth explained why he thinks everyone else wrong.

[Correction made Dec. 20, 1863: Corrected "Hardy" to "Hardee"; I don't know what came over my fingers!]
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½
 
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waltzmn | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Jul 16, 2021 |
historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-figures, politics, military-history, socioeconomics, American Civil War *****

This historical presentation goes beyond the nuts and bolts of the complex military campaigns of the area and includes the background of the politics and other factors that created the perceived need for the combatants to meet in the Chattanooga area. The material is well researched and documented and the conclusions appear valid. The actions and blunders of the generals on both sides are very clearly presented.
I feel that this study would be an asset to both history geeks and students of militaria alike.
The narration is performed by Bill Nevitt whose no nonsense delivery only adds to the credibility of the material.
Note: I am not military, and our reenactments are American Revolutionary War
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jetangen4571 | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Oct 5, 2018 |
This book is supposed to be part of a series on "leadership" via generals, but what was there must be inferred...except for Sherman's use of maneuver warfare. That, was aptly demonstrated. In this audible book, Wesley Clark babbles through an introduction to little effect. I'll admit that this book was a good intro to his life and is fine work for those who want a quick and accessible entree, but it fell short of a leadership lessons. Instead of the usual writing about generals, i.e. details about their battles, I'd much rather read about the man, his motivations, background & integrity, which this book didn't really do. After reading about Sherman in other books, I conclude that his legacy was more than the pitiful conclusion stated in this one. For example, he also contributed to and influenced the US Army Air Corps and Naval strategy, to include 8th Air Force as well as MacArthur's and Nimitz' conduct of WWII. This was not even mentioned. Where are the lessons?… (mehr)
 
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buffalogr | Jun 20, 2015 |

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