Being there . . . . to meet a host of sympathizing Civil War confederates banding together in a
loose league of southern states backed by the Army of the Confederacy. Among them, you will
be privileged to greet honorable Lieutenant-General James Longstreet (1821 – 1904), an
American soldier born in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Although he fought valiantly
for the US in the Mexican War (1846 – 48), he resigned from our Army at the outbreak of the
War between the States (1861 – 1865) to join the Army of the Confederacy at Gettysburg
(1863). As the Civil War concluded, he surrendered with Lee at Appomattox Courthouse (April
1865). Then, salute and address with expressions of kind good wishes and courtesy the 187,000
black soldiers in 167 regiments (perhaps best not all at the same time), 17 of whom wore the
sacred Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest award for valor during remarkable
military action and achievement. From that warm, gracious experience, head to the nearest
classroom to learn about an innovative evaluation approach focusing on six elements of victory
in nine important Western Theater engagements during 1862 alone, a year when the North had
not yet fully mobilized for war. In three brand new McFarland softcovers, us buffs of the most
tragic war American men and boys ever fought in have a rare opportunity to squarely and
emotionally relive, reassess, and repine the absolute, senseless, irreparable carnage of our own
dead.
RELIVE THE SAD AMERICAN CIVIL WAR VIA A RARELY FOCUSED UPON CONFEDERACY VIEW
Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi
“LONGSTREET AT GETTSBURG – A Critical Reassessment”, by Cory M. Pfarr, Foreword by Harold
M. Knudsen. McFarland & Company, Inc.: 2019, 205 pages, softcover, 7” x 10”. Visit,
www.mcfarlandpub.com.
“BLACK UNION SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR”, by Hondon B. Hargrove. McFarland & Company,
Inc.: 1988, first published, 250 pages, softcover, 6” x 9”. Visit, www.mcfarlandpub.com.
“MORE THAN JUST GRIT – – Civil War Leadership, Logistics and Teamwork in the West, 1862”, by
Richard Zimmermann. McFarland & Company, Inc.: 2023, 209 pages, 7” x 10”. Visit,
www.mcfarlandpub.com.
McFarland Publishing proudly announces the very first book-length analysis of Lieutenant
General James Longstreet’s thinking and actions during the three-day epic Gettysburg battle.
Brilliantly, Cory Pfarr insists, and perhaps rightly so, that General Longstreet has been
discredited unfairly, beginning with character assassinations by his fellow generals and
contemporaries after the war, and angrily by historians more than a century and a half
afterwards.
Via his ability to conduct an extensive study of the three-day battle and incisive
historiographical inquiry into the lieutenant’s general treatment by scholars, Harold Knudsen
presents an alternative view of Longstreet as an effective military leader and refutes endless
negative evaluations.
In “BLACK UNION SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR”, Hondon Hargrove refutes the ugly historical
slander that black soldiers did not fight for their emancipation from slavery. Initially rejected in
their enthusiasm to fight on the side of the Union, Blacks were eventually accepted into the
service, often via the efforts of individual generals who, frustrated with bureaucratic inaction in
the face of dwindling forces, overrode orders from the Secretary of War and Abe Lincoln,
himself. By the end of the Civil War, black soldiers had numbered over 187,000. By all accounts,
when the book was first published, it was greeted with priceless praise, i.e., “Excellent,
scholarly analysis”, “Fact-filled . . . extensive”, “Best-ever history of the black soldier in the Civil
War”, including references that Hondon B. Hargrove, lest we have forgotten, was the author of
the popular, “Buffalo Soldiers in Italy”, which received awards and ovations across America.
In “MORE THAN JUST GRIT – Civil War Leadership, Logistics and Teamwork in the West,
1862”, Richard J. Zimmermann zeroes in on the six strategic goals of winning:
- A clear objective;
- Mobilization of effective lieutenants;
- A competent staff;
- Seizing and holding the initiative;
- Deploying all available resources;
- Realizing a successful strategic outcome. In short, the more goals achieved, the greater
the victory.
It should be noted that Cory Pfarr’s “Prologue: Abandoned by History”, is magnificent, so
much so it is perhaps the most supporting, heartfelt, and teary-eyed acknowledging-tribute
this reviewer has ever read. As for the book itself, it addresses and ultimately uses specific
criticisms of Longstreet’s Gettysburg actions and modern writings for an entirely new
perspective of the great Confederate general.
