Civil War reading
I used my Christmas break to read some newer US Civil War (CW) books. I started this hobby of CW reading when a new friend of mine started to initiate a conversation with something along the lines of, "You don't believe the South rebelled to portect slavery do you? No. It was about States rights." So I've been a reader ever since. Everything I read convinces me it was about States Rights, that is the right ot keep slaves and deprive them of rights and privileges that whites had. At the time of the CW Mississippi's population was half African American, but most were property and even if they weren't slaves they couldn't vote to determine that state's constitutional right to own people like themselves. Not that Northern states allowed African Americans to vote either, but abolitionist whites could campaign on their behalf without threat of violence in retaliation.
So I read two good books over this little Christmas break. Unfortunately, they weren't inspirational. In fact, mostly, they were depressing, but like a mirror I needed to look into to recognize how close is my own wickedness. The first is Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War by Melvin Claxton, Mark Puls. From the bookflap
"Ordered to take this heavily fortified Confederate position that twice before repelled white Union troops with heavy losses, Fleetwood and his companions marched without cover up a hill where 2,000 enemy soldiers waited with artillery and rifles. They walked into a hailstorm of rebel fire. Even as their comrades fell, others stepped up to take their place. The decimated, bloodied regiments pressed forward and, in an astonishing victory, took the hill. What happened that day on rolling hills and grassy knolls of Virginia is the stuff of legend. It is a story that every American should know, and no one who reads it will ever forget."
The 2nd book is about a battle on the Mississippi River called the Fort Pillow Massacre, overseen by incompetent Federal officers and the Confederacy's Gen. Nathanael Bedford Forrest. River Run Red : The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War by Andrew Ward. Out of 500 Federals holding that fort 300 were massacred. Forrest himself said a few times afterwards that the river ran red with Federal blood for 200 yards. From the book description,
"On April 12, 1864, a force of more than 3,000 Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest galloped across West Tennessee to storm Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, overwhelming a garrison of some 350 Southern white Unionists and over 300 former slaves turned artillerymen. By the next day, hundreds of Federals were dead or wounded, more than 60 black troops had been captured and reenslaved, and more than 100 white troops had been marched off to their doom at Andersonville. Confederates called this bloody battle and its aftermath a hard- won victory. Northerners deemed it premeditated slaughter."
Let me add one more book that has influenced my thinking, although i read it last year The South Vs. The South : How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War by William W. Freehling.
So I read two good books over this little Christmas break. Unfortunately, they weren't inspirational. In fact, mostly, they were depressing, but like a mirror I needed to look into to recognize how close is my own wickedness. The first is Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism, and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War by Melvin Claxton, Mark Puls. From the bookflap
"Ordered to take this heavily fortified Confederate position that twice before repelled white Union troops with heavy losses, Fleetwood and his companions marched without cover up a hill where 2,000 enemy soldiers waited with artillery and rifles. They walked into a hailstorm of rebel fire. Even as their comrades fell, others stepped up to take their place. The decimated, bloodied regiments pressed forward and, in an astonishing victory, took the hill. What happened that day on rolling hills and grassy knolls of Virginia is the stuff of legend. It is a story that every American should know, and no one who reads it will ever forget."
The 2nd book is about a battle on the Mississippi River called the Fort Pillow Massacre, overseen by incompetent Federal officers and the Confederacy's Gen. Nathanael Bedford Forrest. River Run Red : The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War by Andrew Ward. Out of 500 Federals holding that fort 300 were massacred. Forrest himself said a few times afterwards that the river ran red with Federal blood for 200 yards. From the book description,
"On April 12, 1864, a force of more than 3,000 Confederate cavalry under Nathan Bedford Forrest galloped across West Tennessee to storm Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, overwhelming a garrison of some 350 Southern white Unionists and over 300 former slaves turned artillerymen. By the next day, hundreds of Federals were dead or wounded, more than 60 black troops had been captured and reenslaved, and more than 100 white troops had been marched off to their doom at Andersonville. Confederates called this bloody battle and its aftermath a hard- won victory. Northerners deemed it premeditated slaughter."
Let me add one more book that has influenced my thinking, although i read it last year The South Vs. The South : How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War by William W. Freehling.
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