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General Braxton Bragg, C.S.A. (2011)

de Samuel J. Martin

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2514913,174 (3.83)5
"Historians have denigrated General Braxton Bragg by accepting the accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, who sought to explain their failures by assigning them to Bragg. This biography notes the sources of those characterizations and offers a view of the controversial general, from his early successes to the circumstances of his failed later campaigns at Murfreesboro and Chattanooga"--Provided by publisher.… (més)
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Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Possibly the most maligned and disliked of any Confederate General, Braxton Bragg has long been considered as an incompetent general who seriously damaged the Confederate war effort in the west. Martin argues that this flawed view of Bragg is the result of historians not challenging the self-serving accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, each of whom sought to explain their own failures by assigning them to Bragg. Bragg was, argues Martin, cursed with bad luck and incompetent subordinates. Martin does a good job of arguing that Bragg’s Civil War career has been misunderstood, but you’ll have o decide for yourself.

Martin makes good use of the sources and has produced a highly readable narrative. The main thing lacking from the book, as so often is the case, are good maps. I would also have liked to have seen a little more discussion of Bragg’s post-war years.

I received this book as a part of the LT early Reader program.
1 vota sgtbigg | Feb 4, 2013 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
General Braxton Bragg, CSA by Samuel J. Martin is indeed a well written book. Family issues have prevented me from completely reading the book but I think I have read enough to offer a few comments. This book would be especially helpfull to the Family Historian who has found a relationship to the General or a Military Historian who does well at comprehending battlefield strategy and details. Before opening the book I knew practically nothing about General Bragg except his name. The personal family stories were of particular interest such as his mother pulling out a pistol and shoting an impertinent black or his meeting Elise Ellis on that winter evening at a sparsely attended ball in Louisiana. The account of the aid he rendered Zach Taylor in the Mexican War was also of interest. The many personalities he associated with during pre Civil War days was amazing having made friendships with those from both North and South. I rather got lost in the battlefield details but I am sure those would be of interest to someone studying military history. In general I enjoyed what I was able to read but be prepared for a long read. ( )
  BookerBoy | Mar 31, 2012 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Few if any Confederate Generals are as maligned and misunderstood – both by their contemporaries as well as historians – as Braxton Bragg. To most today, a mention of the man’s name conjures up almost automatically an officer plagued by incompetence, bad luck, or both. But was Bragg truly the inept commander, who owed his position solely to his friendship with Jefferson Davis, that he is so often made out to be?

Author Samuel J. Martin, in his new General Braxton Bragg, CSA (2011 McFarland) argues no, and makes a very compelling case that Bragg was simply an officer whose Civil War career was cursed with bad luck and incompetent subordinates. Martin’s Bragg is not just a reappraisal of Bragg, but one also of Bragg’s personal friend and frequent battlefield enemy William T. Sherman, senior Confederate leaders in the Army of Tennessee, and Confederate strategy in the West overall. Understandably Martin is very critical of Bragg lieutenants Leonidas Polk and D.H. Hill, who were both very vocal opponents of Bragg while under his command and often disregarded his direct orders, but the author also is almost equally critical of John C. Breckinridge who was also a Bragg detractor (to the point that a duel between them was narrowly avoided). To this reviewer – an admitted fan of the former Vice President and victor at New Market – Martin’s criticism of Breckinridge’s generalship is a bit extreme. Other Bragg enemies – most notably James Longstreet and Simon Buckner – and their respective feuds with the commander of the Army of Tennessee are examined in detail as well.

The reader first finds Bragg’s family in humble beginnings in North Carolina. Martin proposes that part of Bragg’s difficulties with some officers – in particular Polk – may have stemmed from the societal class distinctions between them; that some from the Southern aristocracy just would not be made subordinate to someone who was their societal inferior, military rank and protocol be damned. After West Point Bragg was somewhat of a problem officer – one who had no qualms about writing directly to Washington or to newspapers to address perceived grievances and faulty practices, which understandably earned him some enemies among the pre-war Army’s senior officer corps, and a court martial. The Mexican War made Bragg a well-known war hero, at Buena Vista almost single-handedly giving Zachary Taylor the impetus he needed for his rise to the Presidency.

Many writers have posed that the friendship that was so evident in 1863 and ‘64 between Bragg and Jefferson Davis developed in Mexico. Martin destroys this premise – Bragg, who was never a fan of non-military men holding the office of Secretary of War, thought he would have a sympathetic ear in Washington when Davis became Franklin Pierce’s War Secretary. This notion was quickly squashed by Davis’ failure to accept some of Bragg’s policy recommendations; so brusquely was it squashed in fact that Bragg counted Davis among his enemies, and had nothing good to say about Davis in his letters to his wife Elise. In that regard, there was a strong similarity between the two men – their bluntness, ability to make enemies, and their quickness to take offense. But both were also very loyal to their friends and supporters, as shown by Davis’ continued support of Polk and later of Bragg, and Bragg’s support for commanders whose performance was often less than adequate but were reliable subordinates, like Joseph Wheeler.

Bragg’s Civil War career occupies the majority of the book, beginning with his command at Pensacola. Had fate been somewhat kinder to him, it could have been Braxton Bragg and Ft. Pickens rather than P.G.T. Beauregard and Ft. Sumter that garnered headlines in April 1861. Despite what many have written about the opinion of the men in the ranks toward Bragg, Martin argues that his original Pensacola troops revered him, despite his strict discipline. The oft-quoted Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee hated Bragg and his memoirs are filled with vitriol toward the General, sentiments which have been echoed by historians of this century, most notably pre-eminent early Army of Tennessee historian Stanley Horn.

“It seems obvious,” Martin writes, “that Bragg’s current critics are biased, looking in every instance to find fault with his actions. Bragg, as Elise [his wife] pointed out, never pursued personal glory. He assumed that history would fairly judge him. He had no idea that many students of the Civil War would instead believe the self-serving claims of his subordinate enemies, and as a result, sully his record whenever possible.” (p. 147)

Yet one notion Martin concedes to Bragg’s critics is that Bragg seldom led from the front, something he did at Shiloh and that the author proposes so shook him that he had no desire to be that close to the death and destruction resultant from his orders again– very similar to George McClellan in that regard. “Leading” from the rear on nearly every battlefield after Shiloh often caused Bragg’s orders to be not in accordance with a fluid situation at the front, and also gave his subordinates – Polk, Hill, William Hardee – the opportunity to disregard his orders.

For all its excellent scholarship and the author’s very readable narrative, three major flaws are to be found with Martin’s work. First, it is plagued by a number of misspellings and word omissions, many more than one would expect in a book of this size (and cost - $55). Second, the lack of adequate maps, especially when the author recounts the major battles of the Army of Tennessee, sends the reader scurrying for other, cartographically-better works. This is not to say the book lacks maps entirely, it does have several but these are very crude area maps for each major campaign with no troop positions. This reviewer is among those who thinks a book can never have too many maps. Third, for all the detail devoted to Bragg’s pre-war career (nearly 100 pages) and more than 350 to the Civil War years, Bragg’s post-war years are covered in a scant seven pages.

These criticisms aside, Samuel Martin has produced an excellent biography of a most misunderstood figure. An impartial view of Braxton Bragg has long been needed, and Martin delivers (although his criticism of Breckinridge and Hill sometimes goes beyond what is warranted). The reader certainly gains a new appreciation for Bragg the man as well as Bragg the officer, and the root of many of the quarrels which plagued the Army of Tennessee becomes evident. One certainly cannot have a clear understanding of the inner workings of that army without Martin’s biography. ( )
1 vota reenactorman | Feb 16, 2012 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
As I have really just begun this considerable work by Mr. Martin, I cannot give a recommendation to read or not. What I can review thus far is that the copy I received came in excellent condition (I cannot say that about all of my review copies), a very handsome hardcover. As far as I have read the work is very well researched with the use of many primary sources as his major resource. It reads fairly well with a flow you would expect from a book about General Bragg. The one thing that has struck me so far is, and I reserve the right to change my mind once the book is finished, is it seems a bit hagiographic in nature. The prologue seems to be almost a desperate plea to the reader to show that Bragg was a good guy and not some monster history has made him out to be. I wont say the author is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but we will see how well of a job Martin does representing his client. But so far his work seems to be that of a quality historian. I look forward to getting into the deep end of this one and reporting the outcome as others before me already have.
  Schneider | Feb 15, 2012 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Based upon reading most Civil War literature, Braxton Bragg spent almost as much effort fighting with his officers than with the Federals, was a tyrant to and hated by his troops, and whose generalship or more accurately lack of was a leading cause of the Confederate defeat.

After reading this book of the revisionist school, one finds that there could be more to Bragg than what is commonly known. Bragg, while certainly officious, having ordered an officer in his battery during the Mexican War to return under fire to strip harnesses off dead horses because unit commanders (i.e. him) could be court-marshaled for the loss of issued equipment, was also a commander known for training and taking good care of his troops. After the slaughter he saw at Shiloh, he could not stand seeing his troops suffer so he became a behind the lines commander at almost all his subsequent battles.

However, while Martin presents the last point several times as a sign of Bragg’s, like McClellan’s, love for his troops, it also could be a sign that Bragg had not quite the stomach for battle. His chosen post resulted in him not having what the British refer to as ‘grip’, the sense of the ebb and flow of the battle. He had to depend on what others reported to him and on dependable corp, division and brigade commanders to carry out their orders. This approach might work in the Army of Northern Virginia, given Lee, but not in the Army of Tennessee. Bragg was unable to exert sufficient control over his commanders (Breckenridge, Hardee, Polk, etc.) who often refused to obey orders, and was at times unable to remove them from their position due to the refusal of Davis to allow it. Even allowing for this and his vindictive nature, Bragg was an army commander who lost control of sufficient numbers of his officers to impact the combat performance of the Army of Tennessee despite his often good plans. ( )
1 vota surly | Feb 6, 2012 |
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"Historians have denigrated General Braxton Bragg by accepting the accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, who sought to explain their failures by assigning them to Bragg. This biography notes the sources of those characterizations and offers a view of the controversial general, from his early successes to the circumstances of his failed later campaigns at Murfreesboro and Chattanooga"--Provided by publisher.

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