THE CIVIL WAR MONTHS

THE CIVIL WAR MONTHS                              WALTER COFFEY
Posted:  June 3, 2014

 The Civil War obliterated America's past, along with many of the founders' visions of what America should be. Replacing those visions was the America that we have today. Any true understanding of America, both past and present, must include a specific understanding of this conflict.

This work, with a thought-provoking introduction exploring the true causes of the war, traces the entire story of the conflict in a concise monthly summary. In addition to all the major events that shaped the war, key facts that have disappeared from most mainstream texts are also included, such as:

Both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis lost young sons during the war

The legendary Robert E. Lee faced intense southern criticism for military failures in the war's first year

U.S. forces battled the Sioux Indians during the war, leading to the largest mass execution in American history

A former Ohio congressman was banished to the South by Lincoln for opposing the war

Facts are explored and myths are exposed as the conflict is put in its proper chronological perspective. For anyone seeking a general resource guide to the seminal event in American history, this is required reading.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This is a through look at the civil war from before Lincoln is elected President to after he is assassinated. With Andrew Johnson becoming President, the Funeral for Lincoln, the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, the surrender of the Tennessee Army and other surrenders. The capture and trail of Booth and eight other people who were convicted with him. He talks about a steam boat named Sultana that was bringing home Federal prisoners released from a confederate prison, and due to a faulty boiler an explosion accrued and a fire broke out and due to the condition of the men over 1,238 died but it could have been higher. This story in all of the books I have read about the Civil War I had never heard about before. There is so much information in this book that I actually read it twice. This is not just your average book about the civil war. It seems every month something was going on not just a battle but some type of decision had to be made by Lincoln, yes he could look at his cabinet, but he was the one who it came to rest upon. Weather it was changing a general or a policy. At the very end of the book in the afterward the most powerful paragraph is the last.” The most important result of the war was the permanent change in the relationship between the Federal government and the states. Before the war, many considered nullification and secession to be effective checks on the threat of growing Federal power. The war removed these checks, which has led to a gradual increase in the power of government over the people, am increase that continues to this day”. I thought this to be one of the better books about the total civil war not just won area. I got this book from net galley.