Need recommendations

[rbasin]

I am looking for books on Buell, Pope, McDowell, Bragg, all of the "maligned" generals of the war. These guys get reputations based on authors writing about others. Oh, and Rosecrans.

 

[Barrycdog]

When you read Company Aytch by Sam Watkins you get some soldiers perspective as they served under them.

 

[rbasin]

I will. thanks.

 

[James N.]

When you read Company Aytch by Sam Watkins you get some soldiers perspective as they served under them.

Of course that's only true for Bragg ( and Hood who you failed to mention ); Watkins spent some ink regretting that the Army of Tennessee had no Lee figure they could look up to, claiming they tried with Bragg, but that it was simply impossible. A book on the unloved and unloveable Braxton is Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat. I own volume I and the story goes the author, Grady McWhitney, was so bummed out writing it that he never returned to the project! I believe there now IS a Volume II, finished by a different author. As for the Northern generals you mention, I also have The Edge of Glory by William Lammers who without difficulty likes his subject, William S. Rosecrans, who he feels got a bum rap, especially from the malevolent Grant. There is a fairly recent favorable book on Pope, but I haven't seen it, nor do I remember the title.

 

[Georgia Sixth]

I am looking for books on Buell, Pope, McDowell, Bragg, all of the "maligned" generals of the war. These guys get reputations based on authors writing about others. Oh, and Rosecrans.

Lee White contributes to this blogsite: http://bullyforbragg.blogspot.com
He's something of an apologist for Bragg and continually unearths new pro-Bragg writing from the actual time of the war. Historian Steven Woodworth also believes Bragg has an undeserved reputation; he doesn't consider him a great general, but certainly not a bad one. You would find his book "Jefferson Davis and His Generals" very interesting, as it focuses on the western theater only and so Bragg is a prominent player. It is a very good book, and, I think, gives a much more objective evaluation of the performances of generals and the president in regards to the west.

 

[rbasin]

Thanks for the info. I think there must be more to these guys than the accepted views. I started a thread a while back on Helleck and it got me thinking about others with bad reputations, either deserved or undeserved. I am going into this with the thought that the accepted views are correct, and, at least in my head, will try to disprove.

 

[1SGDan]

Edge of Glory: Biography of William S. Rosecrans by William Lamers

 

[rbasin]

Am starting with the one I knowthe least about, D.C. Buell. Been reading a couple of essays online about him, and every where I turn is Badeau. Except for Grant and Lincoln, he didn't like anyone!!

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Peter Cozzens has an excellent biography of John Pope.

For Buell see "Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All" by Stephen Engle.

 

[rbasin]

YOU ROCK!!!

 

[Sid J.]

Military Memoirs of John Pope
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807824445/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Not one that you mentioned, but having heard the author speak...

Sickles at Gettysburg: The Controversial Civil War General Who Committed Murder, Abandoned Little Round Top, and Declared Himself the Hero of Gettysburg by James Hessler