Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This collection of contributions concerning Texas history during the Civil War is not a barn-burner, but contains some useful information. Its best features are the extensive notes at the end of each essay to direct the reader to further research and provide good information not contained in the narratives themselves.
On the flip side, this work seems to have been written to give faculty members in history an opportunity to place another publication on their vitae, as some essays appear to have been extracted from earlier work by the same authors. For example, Linda Huston's essay of the Knights of the Golden Circle seems like it was cut and pasted from her master's thesis and some of her unpublished seminar papers.
There is also a significant anti-South bias in some of the liberal authors, regardless of their positions on faculties in Texas universities. I noted with dismay that the editor, Kenneth Howell, was "mesmerized by Ken Burns's documentary "The Civil War." As Burns's work was essentially a one-sided Northern propaganda piece demonizing the South and making a very large number of very questionable conclusions and analytical points, it is difficult to understand how a scholar could find this work anything but disgusting. Statements like (page 243): "Despite the dedication of its leaders ... the South had no chance to win ..." and "... they never gave up, never admitted that their cause was not only lost from the beginning, but was indefensible" and "Lubbock had declared that the war was a fight for liberty, but it was not; it was a war to defend the abomination of human slavery ..." do not belong in scholarly works. They do sound, however, like Ken Burns.
Essay by Essay:
(1) "The Impact of New Studies about Texas and Texans on Civil War Historiography" -- lists various studies and some of their thrusts or conclusions -- somewhat useful.
(2) "The Civil War and the Lone Star State: A Brief Overview" -- too brief to be useful except to abject beginners.
(3) "The Impending Crisis: A Texas Perspective on the Causes of the Civil War -- OK, slavery caused the secession, but it was not why the primary reason the soldiers fought. See McPherson, "Why They Fought." Texas really was no different except in some minor points. This essay did not provide new information of note.
(4) "The Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas, 1858-1861" -- Excellent for the novice who has never heard of the organization, but then the author tried too hard to move its primary focus (in Texas) from defending slavery to Texas expansion. Basically good.
(5) "Frontier Defense: Enlistment Patterns for the Texas Frontier Regiments in the Civil War" -- shows that these troops were older and generally enlisted to defend their homes and families from Indian depredations. Good, but hardly seminal.
(6) "Reckoning at the River: Unionists and Secessionists on the Nueces, August 19, 1862" -- tells the story of the attack on the German union sympathizers from the hill country. Good introduction on an interesting topic.
(7) "Without a Fight: The Eighty-Four-Day Union Occupation of Galveston, Texas" -- Good, short presentation.
(8) "Nothing but Disaster: The Failure of Union Plans to Capture Texas" -- this answers the "how" question, but leaves the "why." Union forces were singularly unsuccessful in their efforts, and this essay almost leaved more questions then it answers (like why did Weitzel and his infantry never land to attack Fort Griffin?)
(9) "Hide Your Daughters: The Yankees Have Arrived in the Coastal Bend, 1863" -- one of the better essays on the campaigning.
(10) "Red and White Fighting the Blue: Relations between Texans and Confederate Indians" -- the skirmishes/battles are not sufficiently detailed to be useful. Please note that the Indians kept substantial numbers of black slaves -- an often overlooked feature in the history of slavery.
(11) "Defending the Lone Star: The Texas Cavalry in the Red River Campaign" -- misses the mark. Not enough detail for the historian and not enough meat for the novice. Green did not campaign in a vacuum.
(12) "Prison City, Camp Ford: Largest Confederate Prisoner-od-war Camp in the Trans-Mississippi" -- probably the best essay. Contains interesting information.
(13) "The Confederate Governors of Texas" -- a often overlooked part of Civil War history in each Confederate state -- their governors. I liked this presentation.
(14) "A Sacred Charge upon on Hands; Assisting the Families of Confederate Soldiers in Texas" -- a social history treatise. Good, but probably required for political correctness (the presentation of the woman's side.)
(15) "On the Edge of First Freedoms: Blact Texans and the Civil War" -- didn't see any new ground here, again probably included for political correctness (the minority viewpoint.)
(16) "Feed the Troops of Fight the Drought; The Dilemma Texas Beef Contractors Faced in 1861-1865" -- confusing presentation with a poor time line.
(17) "Distress, Discontent, and Dissent: Colorado County, Texas, during the Civil War" -- a good topic, but the treatment was too light to be meaningful.
All in all, there were eight useful winners, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13 and 14; two OK, 1 and 10; and seven could be skipped, 2, 3, 8, 11, 15, 16 and 17.
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