The 10 Biggest Civil War Blunders

by Edward H. Bonekemper III

Overview

What makes the Civil War so fascinating is that it presents an endless number of "what if" scenarios—moments when the outcome of the war (and therefore world history) hinged on a single small mistake or omission.

In this book, Civil War historian Edward Bonekemper highlights the ten biggest Civil War blunders, focusing in on intimate moments of military indecision and inaction involving great generals like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman as well as less effective generals such as George B. McClellan, Benjamin Butler, and Henry W. Halleck. Bonekemper shows how these ten blunders significantly affected the outcome of the war, and explores how history might easily have been very different if these blunders were avoided.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621576648
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	01/22/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Edward H. Bonekemper III was an adjunct lecturer on military history at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, an attorney for the U.S. government, and the book review editor of Civil War News. He wrote many books on the Civil War, including Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor Not a Butcher, Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian, Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War, The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won, and The 10 Biggest Civil War Blunders.

Table of Contents

Prologue xiii

1 Cotton 1

Confederates Misplay the Cotton Card

2 Corinth 17

Henry Halleck Fails to Eliminate a Confederate Army and Halts Union Offensive Actions

3 Antietam Campaign 27

George McClellan Fails to Destroy Robert E. Lee's Army

4 Black Soldiers 57

Confederates Fail to Use Slaves as Soldiers

5 Gettysburg 73

Robert E. Lee Conducts a Blundering Campaign

6 Chickamauga and Chattanooga 111

Davis, Lee, and Bragg Fail to Destroy a Union Army and to Keep Chattanooga in Rebel Hands

7 Mobile, Alabama 129

Abraham Lincoln and Henry Halleck Fail to Attack or Capture Mobile in 1863 or Early 1864

8 Snake Creek Gap 149

William T. Sherman Misses the Chance for a Game-Changing Victory Early in the Atlanta Campaign

9 Petersburg 173

Ulysses S. Grant and a Bevy of Union Generals Fail to End the War by Capturing Petersburg in June 1864

10 Atlanta and Savannah 193

William T. Sherman Fails to Capture Enemy Armies and Shorten the War

Acknowledgments 205

Bibliography 207

Notes 231

Index 283