"General Lee's Army" Topic

Anyone else read this new book? In my opinion, and I have read a lot of books on the Army of Northern Virginia, this one is destined to become THE book on the subject.

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Thanks for the review. Looks like a must have.

Thanks for the review. My summer reading is full.

You are welcome! Author Robert Krick calls Glatthaar's new book "a splendid piece of work" that is "destined to be a great classic."

Gary Gallagher deems it "fresh and revealing," and calls General Lee's Army "the indispensable first place to go for anyone interested in Lee, his army, and their storied campaigns."

High praise indeed, but the book really is that good.

One review on Amazon really lambasts it. I do not know the reviewer's credentials and I am no ACW expert.

The other reviews say the book is great, so I suppose there is always one naysayer in a crowd.

Thanks for the review Scott. Your opinion carries a lot of weight on things about the ACW. Guess my pile of books to read will have to get one higher.

Rusty Musket,

By policy, I do not read other people's reviews of books that publishers have asked me to formally review. In most cases, I have arrangements with publishers to offer my unbiased and frank opinions of new works, either in manuscript form, galley proofs, or as finished review copies. I only read others' opinions and reviews after I post my own in order to avoid being influenced unduly.

Scott Mingus,

That is good to know. I know you are knowledgeable and now I know your reviews are unabiased by others' opinions.

It is very difficult to know anything to be the truth. When I look at Amazon reviews I read through them all and then make a decision. I recently bought a book going against a negative review and found the negative review made good points. I would not have bought the book. So I am gun shy.

I prefer to go to a bookstore and look at it myself before I make my decision, but sometimes I can't resist the price of a seemingly desireable book. I should just control by book-buying urges better.

Scott,
You stated "using a variety of primary sources not often used in other contemporary works" in your review.

Out of curiosity, what primary sources did Mr. Glatthaar utilize?

Cheers
R.O. Bemis

I am on the road this week for business, so I cannot directly answer your inquiry in terms of specifics. There are a lot of letters, diary entries, newspaper articles written by the veterans, and other sources that I have not seen previously in other contemporary works. Many of course were published or cited in older books, but not in the more recent ones.

I've got this one too, but I haven't gotten around to reading it. I actually know the negative Amazon reviewer James Durney (he runs a Civil War book discussion group at Yahoo). In this particular case, I don't think you should let his negative review stop you from buying this book.

Brett S.

I bought this book when it first came out and have already read it.

Prof G evidentally spent many years gathering the details from many soldiers' letters that are in archives all over the place. The result is a book that contains a lot of "Joe says this" and "Frank says that" about a host of conditions we already knew existed. For example, we already knew that the Confederate supply system was a total failure. So how important is it to read heretofore unpublished comments by privates so-in-so of such-in-such Georgia and North Carolina regiments about being hungry?

Outside that aspect, I'm not sure how taken I am with Prof G's analysis which, during my first read through, strikes me as thin. However, profs in his position are not into offering up analysis. So I am of the opinion that the book has value, but knowing now what is in the book, I wish I'd have waited until it came out in paperback, or waited until the hardback edition was remaindered.

Since I miss things all the time, I would like to ask Mr Mingus what about this book makes it what he describes as THE book on the subject?

Me ke aloha,

MJ

Hi Jim!

Strictly my opinion of course… I have read most of the leading books specifically on the Army of Northern Virginia, and I have mixed feelings about most. Most go into far more depth on battlefield tactics, maneuvers, and the fighting ability of the ANV than General Lee's Army, but that was not Glatthaar's goal. He gives the broadest overview of the topic and touches on just about every imaginable facet of the soldier's life in that army. It's exactly the kind of broad look that I enjoy reading (just my taste).

There are certainly books on Lee and his men that dive much deeper, but frankly, I find many of them quite boring and repetitious.

Just one old Buckeye's opinion about thios book about my ancestors' mortal enemies.

thios = this, of course.

Another positive review for this new book comes from John Hoptak, a well respected park ranger at Antietam.

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