Overview

One of the most important and objective firsthand accounts of the Civil War Unlike some other Confederate memoirists, General Edward Porter Alexander objectively evaluated and criticized prominent Confederate officers, including Robert E. Lee. The result is a clear-eyed assessment of the bloody conflict that divided but subsequently united the nation. The memoir starts with Alexander heading to Utah to suppress the hostility of Mormons who had refused to establish a municipal government approved by President Buchanan. Only a few years later, Alexander found himself on the opposite side of a much larger rebellion of Confederates wanting to secede from the Union. In the years that follow, he is involved in most major battles including Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga. Alexander describes each battle and battlefield with a keen eye for detail. Few wartime narratives offer such insight and critical perspective as Alexander's memoir.

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9781094111926

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Altogether the best critique of the operations of the Army of Northern Virginia. -- Douglas Southall Freeman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author As Alexander drew lessons from the battles, so a lesson can be drawn from his book--that the finest military history may be written by a soldier who is also a scholar. -- T. Harry Williams, American historian

Author Information

Edward Porter Alexander (1835-1910) was a military engineer, railroad executive, planter, and author. He served first as an officer in the United States Army and later, during the American Civil War, in the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general. After the war, Alexander became a well-respected author. Many historians regard his memoirs as among the most objective and sharpest sources produced by a Civil War combatant. Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.

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