This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil WarThe author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom and the New York Times bestsellers Crossroads of Freedom and Tried by War, among many other award-winning books, James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. In this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history. McPherson sheds light on topics large and small, from the average soldier's avid love of newspapers to the postwar creation of the mystique of a Lost Cause in the South. Readers will find insightful pieces on such intriguing figures as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Jesse James, and William Tecumseh Sherman, and on such vital issues as Confederate military strategy, the failure of peace negotiations to end the war, and the realities and myths of the Confederacy. This Mighty Scourge includes several never-before-published essays--pieces on General Robert E. Lee's goals in the Gettysburg campaign, on Lincoln and Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, and on Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. All of the essays have been updated and revised to give the volume greater thematic coherence and continuity, so that it can be read in sequence as an interpretive history of the war and its meaning for America and the world. Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, and packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War. |
Contents
A House Divided? | |
Was the Best Defense a Good Offense? | |
The Impact of Antietam Abroad | |
To Conquer a Peace? Lees Goals in the Gettysburg Campaign | |
Jesse James | |
The Lost Cause Textbook Crusade | |
The Hard Hand of | |
Lincoln Grant | |
Brahmins at | |
The Press | |
To Remember That He Had Lived | |
As CommanderinChief I Have a Right | |
Notes | |
Grant and Sherman | |
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abolitionist Abraham Lincoln Adams American Civil War Ann Rutledge Antietam antislavery Army of Northern attack Basler battle biography campaign capture Charles Charles Francis Adams civilian command Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate Veterans Congress Constitution Copperhead Davis’s declared defeat defensive Democrats Diary effort election Emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy Fehrenbacher fighting forces fought Gettysburg Gettysburg campaign Grant Greeley Halleck Harriet Harriet Tubman Henry Herndon historians Ibid James Jefferson Davis Jesse John Brown July later Lee’s army letter Lowell March Maryland Massachusetts McClellan McClernand military Mississippi Missouri negotiations newspapers North Northern Virginia officers Palmerston Papers peace political Potomac president Proclamation quotations quoted raid rebels regiments Republican Richmond River secession Seven Days battles Seward Sherman slavery slaves South Carolina Southern strategy Tennessee territory theater troops Tubman Union armies Union soldiers United Vicksburg victory vols Washington William Wilson words wrote Yankee York