The Leaders of the Confederacy - The Lives and Legacies of Jefferson Davis Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson

Editors Charles River

Sinopsis

Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) holds a unique place in American history, as the man best remembered for being the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. While other famous Confederates like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are still celebrated across the reunited country, Davis continues to be the object of scorn, derided over his attempt to flee after the Civil War and criticized as ineffective by historians. Among the Confederates still lauded by today’s Southerners, Davis is well down the list.

Given his Civil War legacy, which often obscures his antebellum and postwar life, it’s easy to forget why Davis was made president in the first place. As a career civil servant in the United States government during much of his adult life, both as a Senator and Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis was a natural choice to be elected President of the seceding Southern states in early 1861.

History has accorded Abraham Lincoln a spot in the pantheon of American politics for the manner in which he steered the Union to victory and into the Reconstruction period after the war. In turn, Davis has been heavily criticized. Davis constantly clashed with Confederate generals like Joseph Johnston, the South’s diplomacy failed to obtain foreign intervention, and he was unable to keep the Southern states together cohesively as the Confederate economy began to collapse. Whether the Civil War would have ended any differently with someone else in charge of the Confederacy will never be known, but Davis had a tumultuous presidency.

With the exception of George Washington, perhaps the most famous general in American history is Robert E. Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870), despite the fact he led the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia against the Union in the Civil War. As the son of U.S. Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, and a relative of Martha Custis Washington, Lee was imbued with a strong sense of honor and duty from the beginning. And as a top graduate of West Point, Lee had distinguished himself so well before the Civil War that President Lincoln asked him to command the entire Union Army. Lee famously declined, serving his home state of Virginia instead after it seceded.

Lee is remembered today for constantly defeating the Union’s Army of the Potomac in the Eastern theater from 1862-1865, considerably frustrating Lincoln and his generals. His leadership of his army led to him being deified after the war by some of his former subordinates, especially Virginians, and he came to personify the Lost Cause’s ideal Southern soldier. His reputation was secured in the decades after the war as a general who brilliantly led his men to amazing victories against all odds.

Thomas Jonathan Jackson is one of the most famous generals of the Civil War, but many of the people he continues to fascinate probably don’t remember his whole name. That’s because Jackson earned his famous “Stonewall” moniker at the First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run, when Brigadier-General Bee told his brigade to rally behind Jackson, whose men were standing like a stone wall. Ironically, it’s still unclear whether that was a compliment for standing strong or an insult for not moving his brigade, but the nickname stuck for the brigade and the general itself.

Jackson would only enhance his legend over the next two years, first leading his army on one of the most incredible campaigns of the war in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862. Known as the Valley Campaign, Jackson kept 3 Union armies occupied north of Richmond with less than 1/3 of the men, marching his army up and down the Valley 650 miles in three months. The impressive feat helped his men earn the nickname “foot cavalry.” He is equally known for his famous flank march and attack at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, which completely surprised the Army of the Potomac’s XI Corps and rolled the Union line up.

Disponible desde: 04/05/2025.

Longitud de impresión: 140 páginas.

Otros libros que te pueden interesar

Sound N’ Fury - Rock N’ Roll...

Alan Niven

Most rock ’n’ roll books are a bore. They all have the same narrative arc and are aimed at the dwindling following that now follows an artist that has long passed their AARP date. 
		 
Sound N’ Fury does not have a story arc. It is a collection of anecdotes, like a record comprised of various tracks — each one has its point and purpose. Alan Niven, who guided Guns N’ Roses from the gutter of Los Angeles to Wembley Stadium, shares stories from his remarkable life as a manager with an immediacy delivered by an extraordinary recall of dialogue. Readers will encounter not just Guns N’ Roses (who have sold almost 10 million tickets to their shows) but The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Clarence Clemons, Whitesnake, Elton John, and others who came from humble origins and experienced fame known only to few. Small-town minds collided with worldwide adulation, expectations, and demands. The results are amusing, affirming, and, predictably, disastrous. Keep in mind that rock ’n’ roll is God’s occupation for the unemployable.
		 
Written with a crisp and fluid style, the magnificence and idiocy of the music world will dance off the pages and engross even those who are not rock fans.

Ver libro

Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup

"They can take your freedom, but they cannot take your identity."

In 1841, Solomon Northup was a professional violinist and family man living in Saratoga Springs, New York. After being lured to Washington D.C. with the promise of work, he was drugged, shackled, and stripped of his name. For the next twelve years, he was passed from master to master in the bayous of Louisiana, enduring the sadistic cruelty of men like Edwin Epps while witnessing the quiet heroism of his fellow enslaved people. Twelve Years a Slave is a visceral, unflinching look at the "peculiar institution" through the eyes of a man who knew both the dignity of liberty and the agony of the lash. It remains a foundational text of American history and a testament to the endurance of the human spirit.

The Mechanics of Oppression: Northup provides a meticulous, almost journalistic description of the economics and daily operations of the slave trade. He details the cultivation of cotton and sugar, the social hierarchies of the plantation, and the psychological warfare used to keep human beings in subjection.

A Quest for Justice: The narrative is propelled by Northup's secret attempts to communicate with his family in the North. His eventual rescue is a heart-stopping moment of tension and triumph, highlighting the legal and social complexities of a divided nation where a man's status as "property" or "person" could depend entirely on the color of his skin and the geography of his location.

Why It Is a Vital Classic: While many narratives were edited to suit political agendas, Northup's account is praised for its stark realism and descriptive power. It provides names, dates, and locations that were later verified by historians, making it one of the most credible and devastating indictments of slavery ever written.

Bear witness to the truth. Purchase "Twelve Years a Slave" today.

Ver libro

The Boy Who Survived Auschwitz

Adriana Lerman

Levi Lerman was a cheerful and lively boy from the town of Ostrowiec. He was only fourteen years old when his life took an unimaginable turn with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when the Nazi forces invaded Poland and occupied his hometown.
Over a painful six-year period, Levi endured a harsh life in the Ostrowiec ghetto, suffered devastating losses, performed exhausting forced labor, and survived countless transfers to concentration camps, including the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In the middle of this torment, a single light guided him through the darkness: his unbreakable determination to live and to protect his father—a strength that helped him survive against all odds.

Ver libro