Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War

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U of Nebraska Press, Oct 1, 2007 - History - 338 pages
For more than a century, conventional wisdom has held that the South lost the Civil War because of bad luck and overwhelming Union strength. The politicians and generals on the Confederate side have been lionized as noble warriors who bravely fought for states? rights. But in Dixie Betrayed, historian David J. Eicher reveals the real story, a calamity of political conspiracy, discord, and dysfunction that cost the South the Civil War. ø Drawing on a wide variety of previously unexplored sources, Eicher shows how President Jefferson Davis viciously fought with the Confederate House and Senate, state governors, and his own cabinet. Some Confederate senators threatened one another with physical violence; others were hopeless idealists who would not bend even when victory depended on flexibility. Military commanders were assigned not on the basis of skill but because of personal connections. Davis frequently interfered with his generals, micromanaging their field campaigns, ignoring the chain of command, and sometimes trusting utterly incompetent men. Even more problematic, some states wanted to set themselves up as separate nations, further undermining a unified war effort. Tensions were so extreme that the vice president of the Confederacy refused to live in the same state as Davis. ø Dixie Betrayed blasts away previous myths about the Civil War. It is essential reading for Civil War buffs and for anyone interested in how governments of any age can self-destruct during wartime.

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Contents

Birth of a Nation
17
DIXIE
18
3
37
4
49
5
63
6
77
7
91
8
108
15
206
16
224
17
244
18
256
S 36 R 2
276
ND P ASS P AGES
278
Executive Officers of the Confederate States 18611865
293
DAVID J EICHER 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
294

9
123
BETRAYED
124
10
134
11
153
12
166
I think it important that we should at least seem united harmonious to the enemy
172
13
180
14
194
Acknowledgments
300
Notes
303
Bibliography
316
University of Nebraska Press 35 S Lincoln 36 R 3
318
RD P AGES P
319
Index
325
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

David J. Eicher is the author of numerous books about the Civil War, including The Longest Night.

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