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Confederate General P.G.T.Beauregard once wrote that "no people ever warred for independence with more relative advantages than the Confederates." If there was any doubt as to what Beauregard sought to imply, he later to chose to spell it out: the failure of the Confederacy lay with the Confederate president Jefferson Davis. In Jefferson Davis' Generals, a team of the nation's most distinguished Civil War historians present fascinating examinations of the men who led the Confederacy through our nation's bloodiest conflict, focusing in particular on Jefferson Davis' relationships with five key generals who held independent commands: Joseph E. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, and John Bell Hood. Craig Symonds examines the underlying implications of a withering trust between Johnston and his friend Jefferson Davis. And was there really harmony between Davis and Robert E. Lee? A tenuous harmony at best, according to Emory Thomas. Michael Parrish explores how Beauregard and Davis worked through a deep and mutual loathing, while Steven E. Woodworth and Herman Hattaway make contrasting evaluations of the competence of Generals Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood. Taking a different angle on Davis' ill-fated commanders, Lesley Gordon probes the private side of war through the roles of the generals' wives, and Harold Holzer investigates public perceptions of the Confederate leadership through printed images created by artists of the day. Pulitzer Prize-winner James M. McPherson's final chapter ties the individual essays together and offers a new perspective on Confederate strategy as a whole. Jefferson Davis' Generals provides stimulating new insights into one of the most vociferously debated topics in Civil War history. Jefferson Davis's Generals is one of the most complete examinations of the Confederate president's relationship with his top military officers. A collection of essays edited by Gettysburg College professor Gabor S. Boritt, it benefits from a variety of viewpoints and concise interpretations. Davis's reputation as a wartime leader inevitably suffers in comparison to Abraham Lincoln, as James M. McPherson (author of Battle Cry of Freedom) points out: "Davis was thin-skinned and lacked Lincoln's ability to work with critics for a common cause." His relationship with General Joseph E. Johnston is deemed "dysfunctional" on these pages, and another writer says his dealings with General P.G.T. Beauregard "reeked of mutual loathing." After the war, both Johnston and Beauregard blamed Davis for the South's defeat. Emory M. Thomas offers a revisionist view of Davis and his most famous commander, Robert E. Lee: "Historians have believed, as the Confederate president believed, that Lee and Davis were in strategic accord when, in fact, they were not." This is a provocative idea, but it is argued persuasively here. Davis, says Thomas, wanted to fight an essentially defensive war of attrition; Lee believed all along that only a speedy war would secure Southern independence. Another essay, by Lesley J. Gordon, focuses on the neglected subject of how Davis and his generals' wives influenced their husbands. Many readers will no doubt want to delve deeper into the issues raised in Jefferson Davis's Generals, and the book's final pages offer a very helpful narrative bibliography for further reading. --John J. Miller -- Amazon.com See also:
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