Rhea Cole
Major
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Location
- Murfreesboro, Tennessee
In his book about Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi Valley author Neil P. Chatelain fills in a missing gap. Those of us who have studied the river war have, for good reason, concentrated on the Union Army-Navy conquest of the Mississippi River. The narrative is one of the Confederate river forces playing the part of the Washington Generals to the USN Globetrotters throughout the war. Apart from biographies of individual ironclads & their inevitable fiery cutting by their crews, there hasn't been a book that explores what the Confederate leadership planned to do, what they did do & how their efforts played out.
I was fortunate to hear Neil Chatelain's online CivilWarTalk zoom cast. He began by graphing the multiple commands that fractured the defense of the Mississippi. To those of us familiar with the Army of Tennessee the personality driven infighting & self-defeating territorial bureaucracies are all too recognizable. The dour effects of a fractured chain of command that was fighting a unified opponent is enlightening.
The tactical victories that are the highlights of Defending the Arteries of Rebellion never produced strategic advantages that the Confederacy so desperately needed. This book deserves a place on your shelf, right next to Tinclads in the Civil War & Johnsonville. They are like dovetails that click together to create a strong joint that holds the narrative together.
I was fortunate to hear Neil Chatelain's online CivilWarTalk zoom cast. He began by graphing the multiple commands that fractured the defense of the Mississippi. To those of us familiar with the Army of Tennessee the personality driven infighting & self-defeating territorial bureaucracies are all too recognizable. The dour effects of a fractured chain of command that was fighting a unified opponent is enlightening.
The tactical victories that are the highlights of Defending the Arteries of Rebellion never produced strategic advantages that the Confederacy so desperately needed. This book deserves a place on your shelf, right next to Tinclads in the Civil War & Johnsonville. They are like dovetails that click together to create a strong joint that holds the narrative together.