A Savage Conflict
The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War
Sutherland, Daniel E.
Hardcover
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BOOK SUMMARY
The first work to treat guerrilla warfare as critical to understanding the course and outcome of the Civil War.
Submit a book reviewBOOK SYNOPSIS
The American Civil War is famous for epic battles involving massive armies outfitted in blue and gray uniforms, details that characterize conventional warfare. A Savage Conflict is the first work to treat guerrilla warfare as critical to understanding the course and outcome of the Civil War. Daniel Sutherland argues that irregular warfare took a large toll on the Confederate war effort by weakening support for state and national governments and diminishing the trust citizens had in their officials to protect them.
Sutherland points out that early in the war Confederate military and political leaders embraced guerrilla tactics. They knew that "partizan" fighters had helped to win the American Revolution. As the war dragged on and defense of the remote spaces of the Confederate territory became more tenuous, guerrilla activity spiraled out of state control. It was adopted by parties who had interests other than Confederate victory, including southern Unionists, violent bands of deserters and draft dodgers, and criminals who saw the war as an opportunity for plunder. Sutherland considers not only the implications such activity had for military strategy but also its effects on people and their attitudes toward the war. Once vital to southern hopes for victory, the guerrilla combatants proved a significant factor in the Confederacy's final collapse.
AUTHOR BIO
Daniel E. Sutherland is professor of history at the University of Arkansas. He is author or editor of thirteen books, including Guerrillas, Unionists, and Violence on the Confederate Home Front.
BOOK REVIEWS
"Scholarly attention to guerrilla activity during the Civil War has expanded dramatically in recent years, with Dan Sutherland leading the charge. A Savage Conflict is a culmination of that good work, in which Sutherland makes the fullest and most compelling case yet for the pervasiveness of irregular warfare, for the many forms it took and the forces that drove it, and for its considerable impact on the course of the war, both militarily and on the home front. It's a masterful study and a major contribution to our understanding of the internal divisiveness that characterized this most uncivil of civil wars."
--John C. Inscoe, coauthor of The Heart of Confederate Appalachia
"Sutherland argues that the Civil War cannot be truly understood unless one examines the brutal guerrilla fighting that spread across the Confederacy and even into the Midwest. In scope and breadth, A Savage Conflict approaches the encyclopedic, stretching from Florida to Iowa. There is nothing like it in Civil War studies."
--Kenneth W. Noe, Auburn University
FOR RELATED BOOKS
History Books :: United States Books :: Civil War Period (1850-1877) Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0807832774
ISBN(13-digit): 9780807832776
Dewey Decimal: 973.7/3013
Library of Congress: 2008050475
Book Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 435
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