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Bezig met laden... A Crisis In Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, And The Army Of The Trans-Mississippidoor Jeffery S. Prushankin
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This excellent volume not only details the contentious command relationship between Richard Taylor and Edmund Kirby-Smith in the Trans-Mississippi, but provides good coverage of the campaigns fought there, especially the Red River Campaign. Bottom line: Taylor was a pain in the rear subordinate, but Kirby-Smith was a duplicitous bureaucrat lacking in leadership skills. Taylor was surely correct that Kirby Smith had ruined a good chance to crush Banks and possibly destroy Porter's fleet when Smith took Taylor's infantry away for a vainglorious and pointless offensive in Arkansas. Prushankin provides sharp analysis of the correspondence between the two generals that is fair but reveals the weakness of Smith's actions. ( ) Between the title and the subtitle you will learn all you need to know about this book, as the author examines in detail the political and personal strains that short-circuited the efforts of Edmund Kirby Smith and Richard Taylor from accomplishing all that they might have in their region of the Confederacy. In particular, Prushankin sees a missed opportunity to really smash Nathaniel Banks' Red River operation, had Kirby Smith demonstrated a wider strategic perspective. While there is nothing particularly wrong with this book, the author might have cultivated a somewhat wider perspective himself, by considering the wider problem of the Confederacy not being able to trade space for time, as to trade space would mean the destruction of the way of life that was being fought for, even if the ground in question was taken back. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
In A Crisis in Confederate Command, Jeffery S. Prushankin scrutinizes the antagonistic relationship between Confederate general Edmund Kirby Smith and his key subordinate, Richard Taylor. Prushankin offers a perspective on the events in the Trans-Mississippi through the eyes of these two high-strung men and analyzes how their clash in personalities and in notions of duty and glory shaped the course of the Civil War. Smith and Taylor, Prushankin explains, disagreed over how to thwart Federal incursions across Louisiana and Arkansas. Smith, a West Point graduate and disciple of Joseph E. Johnston, owed a debt to politicians in Arkansas and Missouri for helping him secure his appointment and so opted for a defensive policy that favored those states. Taylor, a Louisiana political general who had served his apprenticeship under Stonewall Jackson, argued for an offensive strike against the enemy. The friction between the two reached a climax at the Red River campaign in 1864 when Taylor blatantly disobeyed orders from Smith and attacked Federal troops. Prushankin shows that what began as a dispute over strategy degenerated into a battle of egos and a succession of caustic personal attacks that eventually led to Smith's relieving Taylor from command. Despite their discord, Prushankin argues, Smith and Taylor produced one of the Confederacy's greatest military accomplishments in the Red River campaign victory against a Yankee juggernaut. With his insightful portraits of Smith and Taylor, use of previously untapped primary sources, and new interpretations of correspondence from key figures, Prushankin imparts fresh understanding of the psychology of leadership in the Civil War as a whole. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)973.742History and Geography North America United States Administration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 Civil War General military history Southern sideLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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