Confederate tide rising : Robert E. Lee and the making of Southern strategy, 1861-1862
Joseph L. Harsh takes a fresh, not to say controversial, look at Confederate war aims during the first sixteen months of the Civil War. This book is Harsh's meticulously argued and persuasive analysis of the Lee-Davis relationship and its impact on Confederate military policy as it evolved in the first two years of the Civil War. In the first two chapters the author provides essential context, first by an overview of Confederate strategy in the war's first year, and then by an examination of Lee's life and military career up to his appointment as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The discussion of the late summer of 1862, which follows in the next four chapters, weaves the threads of campaign and battle narratives from the Seven Days Campaign through Chantilly together with an analysis of the Lee-Davis partnership as one "that allowed the Confederacy to survive longer than it had any right to expect" (xiv). Harsh takes issue with those who emphasize the differences between Lee and Davis over the proper course of both grand strategy and campaign strategy, arguing that the two worked together so well that they gave the Confederacy its best-and only-chance of victory. This study chronicles their shortcomings and failures in as much detail as their successes, enabling readers to appreciate the difficulties the two men faced in forging a coherent strategy
Print Book, English, 1998
The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, 1998