Product Description

"You would be surprised to see what men we have in the ranks," Virginia cavalryman Thomas Rowland informed his mother in May 1861, just after joining the Army of Northern Virginia. His army -- General Robert E. Lee's army -- was a surprise to almost everyone: With daring early victories and an invasion into the North, they nearly managed to convince the North to give up the fight. Even in 1865, facing certain defeat after the loss of 30,000 men, a Louisiana private fighting in Lee's army still had hope. "I must not despair," he scribbled in his diary. "Lee will bring order out of chaos, and with the help of our Heavenly Father, all will be well."

Astonishingly, after 150 years of scholarship, there are still some major surprises about the Army of Northern Virginia. In General Lee's Army, renowned historian Joseph T. Glatthaar draws on an impressive range of sources assembled over two decades -- from letters and diaries, to official war records, to a new, definitive database of statistics -- to rewrite the history of the Civil War's most important army and, indeed, of the war itself. Glatthaar takes readers from the home front to the heart of the most famous battles of the war: Manassas, the Peninsula campaign, Antietam, Gettysburg, all the way to the final surrender at Appomattox. General Lee's Army penetrates headquarters tents and winter shanties, eliciting the officers' plans, wishes, and prayers; it portrays a world of life, death, healing, and hardship; it investigates the South's commitment to the war and its gradual erosion; and it depicts and analyzes Lee's men in triumph and defeat.

The history of Lee's army is a powerful lens on the entire war. The fate of Lee's army explains why the South almost won -- and why it lost. The story of his men -- their reasons for fighting, their cohesion, mounting casualties, diseases, supply problems, and discipline problems -- tells it all.

Glatthaar's definitive account settles many historical arguments. The Rebels were fighting above all to defend slavery. More than half of Lee's men were killed, wounded, or captured -- a staggering statistic. Their leader, Robert E. Lee, though far from perfect, held an exalted place in his men's eyes despite a number of mistakes and despite a range of problems among some of his key lieutenants.

General Lee's Army is a masterpiece of scholarship and vivid storytelling, narrated as much as possible in the words of the enlisted men and their officers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94579 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

From Publishers Weekly
You cannot say that University of North Carolina professor Glatthaar (Partners in Command) did not do his homework in this massive examination of the Civil War–era lives of the men in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Glatthaar spent nearly 20 years examining and ordering primary source material to ferret out why Lee's men fought, how they lived during the war, how they came close to winning, and why they lost. Glatthaar marshals convincing evidence to challenge the often-expressed notion that the war in the South was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight and that support for slavery was concentrated among the Southern upper class. Lee's army included the rich, poor and middle-class, according to the author, who contends that there was broad support for the war in all economic strata of Confederate society. He also challenges the myth that because Union forces outnumbered and materially outmatched the Confederates, the rebel cause was lost, and articulates Lee and his army's acumen and achievements in the face of this overwhelming opposition. This well-written work provides much food for thought for all Civil War buffs. (Mar.)
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Review
"A unique, often controversial description of Lee's soldiers, their background and the conditions under which they fought." -- Kirkus Reviews

Review
"The storied history of the Army of Northern Virginia has never had a better chronicler than Joseph Glatthaar. Like all armies, it reflected the strengths and weaknesses of the society from which it was recruited. Glatthaar has written its story as it should be written -- a fast-paced narrative of campaigns and battles, to be sure, but also an analysis of the army's socioeconomic makeup based on research more thorough and penetrating than has been done for any other Civil War army." -- James M. McPherson, author of This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War

"Joseph T. Glatthaar brings a fresh and revealing perspective to the much-studied history of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Prodigious research, a meticulous use of statistical information, and analytical acuity mark this book, which abounds with surprising information about the makeup of the army, its casualties, and the quality of its leadership. This is now the indispensable first place to go for anyone interested in Lee, his army, and their storied campaigns." -- Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War

"This is a splendid piece of work, buttressed by wondrously thorough research in a vast array of primary material, and destined to be a great classic." -- Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain

"A unique, often controversial description of Lee's soldiers, their background and the conditions under which they fought." -- Kirkus Reviews

Customer Reviews

An Intimate Look at the Soldiers of a Great Army
Joseph Glathaar's "General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse" is not the kind of Civil War book I ordinarily buy -- my shelves hold relatively few Confederate-specific titles. By geography and ancestry my fundamental orientation is pro-Union (several members of my family served in various Union Army regiments, none in Confederate units) and a part of me must view the Confederate Army as "the enemy". But what I saw of Glatthaar's new volume on the bookstore shelves persuaded me to buy it. It is in part a narrative history of the campaigns and battles of the Army of Northern Virginia (I suppose I would say that this forms the skeleton upon which to hang the main narrative), but is much more a "socioeconomic" look at the common soldiers (and common field officers) of the ANV, especially how their attitudes and morale evolved over the course of the war. Glatthaar bases his study in part upon a statistical analysis of many soldiers in the ANV, but the main thrust of the book is firmly based on good-old history drawn from innumerable primary sources, and it provides an excellent look at the men who served for so long in a terrible struggle. I found it worthwhile reading, even for a dyed-in-the-wool-uniform New England Yankee.

Good book... but reflects the time it was written
As a long time Civil War buff and a history major I have often found the historiography of the Civil War as interesting as the history. Many times the objectives and tone of author reflects the times they were written. This may prove to be the case with this work.
Overall I enjoyed the book for its focus on the men who fought and their motives. However, I have to agree with another review that I couldn't help feeling that the author had preconceived ideas that he was looking for data to prove. The effort that the author expends illustrating that the average Confederate soldier fought to preserve slavery seems to be disproportionate to that of his other goals. In the opening chapters he sets out to prove statistically that, while most Confederates didn't own slaves, many more had direct association with the institution. He seems to go out of his way to quote soldiers who owned slaves and often opens the citation by stating how many he or his family owned even if the point of his citation was to illustrate other issues. At many points throughout the book I thought to my self, "OK, I get it...you made your point!"
There seems to be renewed effort being focused on proving slavery as the cause of the war. Unfortunately the answer to histories questions is often far more complicated. My research of the war has led me to the conclusion that slavery was the cause of secession and secession was what the war was fought over. Evidence is overwhelming that the primary war aim of the Lincoln administration was to preserve the Union. I fear that the casual reader of this book will come away from it with the notion that every southern soldier fought and died with slavery at the forefront of their thoughts.

THE WAY THEY WERE ............. FROM THEIR OWN VOICES IN LETTERS


I am not what you would call a Civil War buff or expert of that war, yet I do have many volumes on that conflict in my home library, with several of my ancestors fighting for and perishing in the conflict for the Union. A few years ago I felt a volume on Lee's retreat from Gettysburg was needed, and a book from the University of North Carolina soon appeared that did deal with that very subject. Many times I've thought a book was also needed on the mainstay of the Confederacy, the Army of Northern Virginia. and now this volume appears. This new book is both well overdue and well done.

Sometimes when doing a review it seems I have read a different book than many other reviewers doing reviews on that book. Sadly, I get that same feeling here. In the author's own words he has been crafting this book since the late 1980s, and much of the book is based on the participant's own words from their own letters. How anyone can quibble with what these men wrote is beyond my understanding. And in reading these letters, many of the writers did not live beyond the war, so one just must accept what they wrote, felt, saw, and how they prioritized their last months. Many saw state's rights as #1, others saw northern invasion as #1, while others mention slavery as #1. Doesn't really matter, does it, all of these items forged them into what became the Army of Northern Virginia. And early on, one fact the author mentions, is the affect of the home on the battlefront and conversely how the battlefront affected the home. As a newly formed nation, they knew their future depended on supporting one another if there was to be any chance of a successful outcome.

Don't be mislead by the fact of my living in Virginia: I was born and raised in Ohio, and except for my own years of military service, I never really left the state of Ohio for 50+ years. Yet in retirement for various reasons, I have chosen to reside permanently in Virginia.

These letters, facts, and expressed opinions as laid out in this book are not only interesting in many ways to me but they also confound me in some ways. My views, since I remain a northerner or a "Yankee" down here, would certainly not entirely match the views of many Virginia friends, but a book such as this is needed if for no other reason than to show exactly what those Virginians of the war period thought and felt. What drove them to defy a country many of their grandparents had helped to fashion and build. They were very much aware they were in process of destroying what earlier Virginians felt worth building.

Also the Virginia of 2008 in many ways is not the Virginia of the 1861-1865 period, so in a wonderful way the book also puts the contemporary reader in touch with what it meant to be a Virginian back then. Back then Virginia was a commonwealth as it is yet today, and back then Virginians also felt themselves equally blessed and special, as most of that holds true even today.

This book makes interesting reading while offering many facts previously unknown to me, also offering facts I must digest and ponder whether I willingly want to believe in them or not. Though I live in Virginia as an ex-Ohioian I cannot express how many wonderful people I have met here and the feeling too that I myself am now blessed by living in this great state of Virginia. It is almost as if there is something in the land and air, and as I write, this is yet a wonderfully patriotic and faith based state.

Praise this book or curse it, but unless you read it without bias, you will never truly know what it was like to be and feel as a Virginian was and felt in the war years of 1861-1865. And once General Lee's army was through and done with, so too was not only Virginia, but the entire Confederacy as well. When one talks about the Army of Northern Virginia one is speaking, whether realized or not, of the heart of the Confederacy as well. And that heart stopped beating when the Army of Northern Virginia died.

Semper Fi.