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. |
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Page ix
... later generations remember and commemorate that experience? During more than forty years of research and writing about the Civil War, I have tried to come to grips with these questions. The chapters that follow reaffirm some of my old ...
... later generations remember and commemorate that experience? During more than forty years of research and writing about the Civil War, I have tried to come to grips with these questions. The chapters that follow reaffirm some of my old ...
Page 9
... later insisted that the Confederacy fought for the principle of state sovereignty, voted with enthusiasm for the Fugitive Slave Law. When Northern legislatures invoked their states' rights against this federal law, the Supreme Court ...
... later insisted that the Confederacy fought for the principle of state sovereignty, voted with enthusiasm for the Fugitive Slave Law. When Northern legislatures invoked their states' rights against this federal law, the Supreme Court ...
Page 10
... later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation.”13 In Illinois, senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln launched his campaign with a theme taken from the Bible: “A house divided against itself cannot ...
... later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation.”13 In Illinois, senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln launched his campaign with a theme taken from the Bible: “A house divided against itself cannot ...
Page 12
... Later, however, as a distinguished historian of the antebellum South and the Confederacy, Dew was “stunned” to discover that protection of slavery and white supremacy was the dominant theme in secession rhetoric. Apostles of Disunion is ...
... Later, however, as a distinguished historian of the antebellum South and the Confederacy, Dew was “stunned” to discover that protection of slavery and white supremacy was the dominant theme in secession rhetoric. Apostles of Disunion is ...
Page 15
... later it evolved into the Republican Party. “We are opposed to the extension of slavery,” declared a Free Soil newspaper, because if slavery goes into a new territory “the free labor of the states will not. . . . If the free labor of ...
... later it evolved into the Republican Party. “We are opposed to the extension of slavery,” declared a Free Soil newspaper, because if slavery goes into a new territory “the free labor of the states will not. . . . If the free labor of ...
Contents
THE LOST CAUSE REVISITED | 41 |
ARCHITECTS OF VICTORY | 107 |
HOME FRONT AND BATTLE FRONT | 143 |
LINCOLN | 185 |
Notes | 223 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Adams American American Civil War Ann Rutledge Antietam antislavery Army of Northern attack Basler battle biography campaign capture Charles Charles Francis Adams Civil command Confeder Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate Veterans Congress Constitution Copperhead Davis’s declared defeat defensive Democrats Diary election emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy Federal Fehrenbacher fighting forces fought Gettysburg 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 Papers peace political Potomac president Proclamation quoted raid rebels regiment Republican Richmond River secession Seven Days battles Seward Sherman slavery slaves South Carolina Southern strategy Tennessee territory theater tion troops Tubman Union armies Union soldiers United Vicksburg victory vols Washington William Wilson words wrote Yankee York York Tribune