Description
The 10 essays in this volume examine the end of the Overland Campaign of the Civil War, focusing on the fighting from Cold Harbor in June through the Battle of the Crater in July as the last phase of the operation. They discuss specific elements of the operations, connections between military affairs and the home fronts, and long-term consequences. Historians from the US explore various specific topics: why Grant received harsher critiques than Lee; the assimilation of new troops into the Army of Northern Virginia following heavy losses in May 1864; the role of volunteer soldiers; Confederate engineering efforts during the campaign and the attitude of soldiers towards this new type of warfare; the life and role of Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow; the withdrawal from Cold Harbor; morale among soldiers in the trenches around Petersburg, as well as the civilian experience during the siege; African American troops at the Battle of the Crater; and representations of the Crater in recent fiction and film. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
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Between the end of May and the beginning of August 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee oversaw the transition between the Overland campaign—a remarkable saga of maneuvering and brutal combat—and what became a grueling siege of Petersburg that many months later compelled Confederates to abandon Richmond. Although many historians have marked Grant's crossing of the James River on June 12–15 as the close of the Overland campaign, this volume interprets the fighting from Cold Harbor on June 1–3 through the battle of the Crater on July 30 as the last phase of an operation that could have ended without a prolonged siege. The contributors assess the campaign from a variety of perspectives, examining strategy and tactics, the performances of key commanders on each side, the centrality of field fortifications, political repercussions in the United States and the Confederacy, the experiences of civilians caught in the path of the armies, and how the famous battle of the Crater has resonated in historical memory. As a group, the essays highlight the important connections between the home front and the battlefield, showing some of the ways in which military and nonmilitary affairs played off and influenced one another.Contributors include Keith S. Bohannon, Stephen Cushman, M. Keith Harris, Robert E. L. Krick, Kevin M. Levin, Kathryn Shively Meier, Gordon C. Rhea, and Joan Waugh.
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