Synopsis

Winner of the Fletcher Pratt Award

"A long-awaited work on an important topic—a counterpart for T. Harry Williams's celebrated Lincoln and His Generals. Woodworth's conclusions are exciting. He writes in a good, clear style that should appeal to a wide audience. I found many passages to be pure pleasure to read."—Herman Hattaway, author of How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War

"Highly readable, stimulating, and at times provocative. This fast-paced and compelling narrative provides a very effective overview of Confederate command problems in the West."—Albert Castel, author of General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West

Author Biography: Steven E. Woodworth is an assistant professor of history at Texas Christian University. He is the author of Civil War Generals in Defeat, and a two-time winner of the prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award, for his books Davis and Lee at War and Jefferson Davis and His Generals.

Library Journal

In his highly readable, sometimes humorous account, which mirrors T. Harry Williams's classic treatment of Lincoln and His Generals (1952), Woodworth discovers a Jefferson Davis who is not as inflexible and indifferent to political needs as his contemporaries and later scholars have insisted, but one whose pride, misplaced loyalty to friends, and, in 1862-64, bad management undercut Confederate command in the West. Woodworth takes a fresh look at the canards and myths surrounding the man. His major new, and most controversial, finding is that Davis lacked self-confidence. A more assured Davis might have won the West and, with it, the war. The argument will fuel debates on the Civil War for some time. Highly recommended. History Book Club main selection.-- Randall Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia