A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, 2000 - History - 612 pages

A Great Civil War is a major new interpretation of the events which continue to dominate the American imagination and identity nearly 150 years after the war's end. In personal as well as historical terms, more even than the war for independence, the Civil War has been the defining experience of American democracy.

A lifelong student of both strategy and tactics, Weigley also brings to his account a deep understanding of the importance of individuals from generals to captains to privates. He can put the reader on the battlefield as well as anyone who has ever written about war. All of the important engagements are covered, and he does it countless times in A Great Civil War. From Fort Sumter to the early clashes in the West and border states to the naval encounters in the East and on through the great and horrible battles whose names resound in American history--Shiloh, Corinth, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Antietam, Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomattox. A brilliant narrator of battle action and historical events, Weigley is never content merely to tell a good story. Every student of war will find new insights and interpretations at the strategic and the tactical level. There are firm judgments throughout of the leaders on both sides of the conflict.

A Great Civil War also analyzes the politics of both sides in relationship to battlefield situations. Weigley is unique in his ability to put all of the pieces on the board at once; the reader understands as never before how war and politics (and individuals) interacted to produce the infinitely complex story which is the Civil War.

As with any major work, there are themes and subtexts, explicit and implicit:

Both sides began the war with strategic and tactical concepts based on Napoleon which were already obsolete because of changes in technology--and both sides struggled throughout the war to develop new strategic and tactical procedures.

The Civil War was great not only in the massiveness of the slaughter and destruction. It was, for all its horror, a war about values--democracy and the freeing of the slaves--that was worth the effort.

The South, despite its powerful defense, was ultimately ambivalent about leaving the Union and gave up more easily than might have been expected.

Finally, there is an intimacy, a sense of personal urgency, in Weigley's grand account. He is connected by blood as well as profession. Jacob Weigley, the author's great grandfather, visited Gettysburg soon after the battle and wrote about it to his brother Francis, who was serving with the 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry; Francis later died in a Confederate prison camp. Then and now the Weigleys live in Pennsylvania, and the war and its lessons remain part of the family's living memory, as it is also the nation's.

From inside the book

Contents

VI
1
VIII
6
IX
10
X
16
XI
21
XII
23
XIII
29
XV
32
LXIII
204
LXIV
210
LXV
217
LXVI
223
LXVII
229
LXVIII
231
LXX
236
LXXI
242

XVI
36
XVII
39
XVIII
45
XIX
49
XX
55
XXI
58
XXII
64
XXIV
67
XXV
72
XXVI
77
XXVII
81
XXVIII
85
XXIX
90
XXX
92
XXXI
95
XXXII
96
XXXIII
99
XXXIV
101
XXXV
106
XXXVI
108
XXXVII
111
XXXVIII
115
XXXIX
118
XL
119
XLI
120
XLII
122
XLIII
126
XLIV
129
XLV
135
XLVII
144
XLVIII
155
XLIX
157
L
160
LI
163
LIII
168
LIV
170
LV
177
LVI
180
LVII
185
LVIII
191
LIX
193
LXI
197
LXII
201
LXXII
253
LXXIII
256
LXXIV
264
LXXV
270
LXXVI
271
LXXVII
277
LXXVIII
285
LXXIX
286
LXXXI
289
LXXXII
293
LXXXIII
297
LXXXIV
303
LXXXV
308
LXXXVI
317
LXXXVIII
321
LXXXIX
324
XC
330
XCI
336
XCII
338
XCIII
341
XCIV
344
XCV
347
XCVI
358
XCVIII
363
XCIX
367
C
378
CI
384
CIII
386
CIV
396
CV
402
CVI
412
CVIII
416
CIX
423
CX
434
CXI
442
CXII
446
CXIII
450
CXIV
453
CXV
459
CXVI
562
CXVII
565
CXVIII
587
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2000)

Russell F. Weigley (1930-2004) was Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Temple University. He is author of numerous books, including The American Way of War, Eisenhower's Lieutenants, and The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo, all available from Indiana University Press.

Bibliographic information