BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
In the course of this second of three intended five-year stints, the third of which will bring me to defeat and victory at Appomattox, my debt has grown heavier on both sides of the line where the original material leaves off, but most particularly on the near side of the line. Although the Official Records, supplemented by various other utterances by the participants, remain the primary source on which this narrative is based, the hundredth anniversary has enriched the store of comment on that contemporary evidence with biographies, studies of the conflict as a whole, examinations of individual campaigns, and general broodings on the minutiae—all of them, or anyhow nearly all of them, useful to the now dwindling number of writers and readers who, surviving exposure to the glut, continue to make that war their main historical concern. So that, while I agree in essence with Edmund Wilson’s observation that “a day of mourning would be more appropriate,” the celebration of the Centennial has at least been of considerable use to those engaged, as I am, in the process Robert Penn Warren has referred to as “picking the scab of our fate.”
Not that my previous obligations have not continued. They have indeed, and they have been enlarged in the process. Kenneth P. Williams, Douglas Southall Freeman, J. G. Randall, Lloyd Lewis, Stanley F. Horn, Carl Sandburg, Bell I. Wiley, Bruce Catton, T. Harry Williams, Allan Nevins, Robert S. Henry, Jay Monaghan, E. Merton Coulter, Clifford Dowdey, Burton J. Hendrick, Margaret Leech are but a handful among the many to whom I am indebted as guides through the labyrinth. Without them I not only would have missed a great many wonders along the way, I would surely have been lost amid the intricate turnings and the uproar. Moreover, the debt continued to mount as the exploration proceeded: to Hudson Strode, for instance, for the extension of his Jefferson Davis at a time when the need was sore, and to Mark Mayo Boatner for his labor-saving Civil War Dictionary. Specific accounts of individual campaigns, lately published to expand or replace the more or less classical versions by Bigelow and others, have been of particular help through this relentless stretch of fighting. Edward J. Stackpole’s Chancellorsville, for example, was used in conjunction with two recent biographies of the hero of that battle, Frank E. Vandiver’s Mighty Stonewall and Lenoir Chambers’ Stonewall Jackson. Similarly, for the Vicksburg campaign, there were Earl Schenck Miers’s The Web of Victory and Peter F. Walker’s Vicksburg, a People at War, plus biographies of the two commanders, Pemberton, Defender of Vicksburg and Grant Moves South, by John C. Pemberton and Bruce Catton. For Gettysburg, there were Clifford Dowdey’s Death of a Nation, Glenn Tucker’s High Tide at Gettysburg, and George R. Stewart’s Pickett’s Charge. For the battles around Chattanooga, there were Glenn Tucker’s Chickamauga and Fairfax Downey’s Storming of the Gateway. James M. Merrill’s The Rebel Shore, Fletcher Pratt’s Civil War on Western Waters, and Clarence E. Macartney’s Mr. Lincoln’s Admirals contributed to the naval actions, as Benjamin P. Thomas’ and Harold M. Hyman’s Stanton did to events in Washington. These too were only a few of the most recent among the many, old and new, which I hope to acknowledge in a complete bibliography at the end of the third volume, Red River to Appomattox. Other obligations, of a more personal nature, were carried over from the outset: to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which extended my fellowship beyond the norm: to the National Park Service, whose guides helped me (as they will you) to get to know so many confusing fields: to the William Alexander Percy Memorial Library, in my home town Greenville, Mississippi, which continued its loan of the Official Records and other reference works: to Robert D. Loomis of Random House, who managed to keep both his temper and his enthusiasm beyond unmet deadlines: to Memphis friends, who gave me food and whiskey without demanding payment in the form of talk about the war. To all these I am grateful: and to my wife Gwyn Rainer Foote, who bore with me.
Other, less specific obligations were as heavy. The photographs of Mathew Brady, affording as they do a gritty sense of participation—of being in the presence of the uniformed and frock-coated men who fought the battles and did the thinking, such as it was—gave me as much to go on, for example, as anything mentioned above. Further afield, but no less applicable, Richmond Lattimore’s translation of the Iliad put a Greekless author in close touch with his model. Indeed, to be complete, the list of my debts would have to be practically endless. Proust I believe has taught me more about the organization of material than even Gibbon has done, and Gibbon taught me much; Mark Twain and Faulkner would also have to be included, for they left their sign on all they touched, and in the course of this exploration of the American scene I often found that they had been there before me. In a quite different sense, I am obligated also to the governors of my native state and the adjoining states of Arkansas and Alabama for helping to lessen my sectional bias by reproducing, in their actions during several of the years that went into the writing of this volume, much that was least admirable in the position my forebears occupied when they stood up to Lincoln. I suppose, or in any case fervently hope, it is true that history never repeats itself, but I know from watching these three gentlemen that it can be terrifying in its approximations, even when the reproduction—deriving, as it does, its scale from the performers—is in miniature.
As for method, it may explain much for me to state that my favorite historian is Tacitus, who dealt mainly with high-placed scoundrels, but that the finest compliment I ever heard paid a historian was tendered by Thomas Hobbes in the foreword to his translation of The Peloponnesian War, in which he referred to Thucydides as “one who, though he never digress to read a Lecture, Moral or Political, upon his own Text, nor enter into men’s hearts, further than the Actions themselves evidently guide him … filleth his Narrations with that choice of matter, and ordereth them with that Judgement, and with such perspicuity and efficacy expresseth himself that (as Plutarch saith) he maketh his Auditor a Spectator. For he setteth his Reader in the Assemblies of the People, and in their Senates, at their debating; in the Streets, at their Seditions; and in the Field, at their Battels.” There indeed is something worth aiming at, however far short of attainment we fall.
—S.F.
COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS
Volume One
I.
CHAPTER 1. PROLOGUE–THE OPPONENTS
1. Secession: Davis and Lincoln
2. Sumter; Early Maneuvers
3. Statistics North and South
CHAPTER 2. FIRST BLOOD; NEW CONCEPTION:
1. Manassas—Southern Triumph
2. Anderson, Frémont, McClellan
3. Scott’s Anaconda; the Navy
4. Diplomacy; the Buildup
CHAPTER 3. THE THING GETS UNDER WAY
1. The West: Grant, Fort Henry
2. Donelson—The Loss of Kentucky
3. Gloom; Manassas Evacuation
4. McC Moves to the Peninsula
II.
CHAPTER 4. WAR MEANS FIGHTING …
1. Pea Ridge; Glorieta; Island Ten
2. Halleck-Grant, Jston-Bgard: Shiloh
3. Farragut, Lovell: New Orleans
4. Halleck, Beauregard: Corinth
CHAPTER 5. FIGHTING MEANS KILLING
1. Davis Frets; Lincoln-McClellan
2. Valley Campaign; Seven Pines
3. Lee, McC: The Concentration
4. The Seven Days; Hezekiah
III.
CHAPTER 6. THE SUN SHINES SOUTH
1. Lincoln Reappraisal; Emancipation?
2. Grant, Farragut, Buell
3. Bragg, K. Smith, Breckinridge
4. Lee vs. Pope: Second Manassas
CHAPTER 7. TWO ADVANCES; TWO RETREATS
1. Invasion West: Richmond, Munfordville
2. Lee, McClellan: Sharpsburg
3. The Emancipation Proclamation
4. Corinth-Perryville: Bragg Retreats
CHAPTER 8. LAST BEST HOPE OF EARTH
1. Lincoln’s Late-Fall Disappointments
2. Davis: Lookback and Outlook
3. Lincoln: December Message
Volume Two
I.
CHAPTER 1. THE LONGEST JOURNEY
1. Davis, Westward and Return
2. Goldsboro; Fredericksburg
3. Prairie Grove; Galveston
4. Holly Springs; Walnut Hills
5. Murfreesboro: Bragg Retreats
CHAPTER 2. UNHAPPY NEW YEAR
1. Lincoln, Mud March; Hooker
2. Arkansas Post; Transmiss; Grant
3. Erlanger; Richmond Bread Riot
4. Rosecrans; Johnston; Streit
5. Vicksburg—Seven Failures
CHAPTER 3. DEATH OF A SOLDIER
1. Naval Repulse at Charleston
2. Lee, Hooker; Mosby; Kelly’s Ford
3. Suffolk: Longstreet Southside
4. Hooker, Stoneman: The Crossing
5. Chancellorsville; Jackson Dies
II.
CHAPTER 4. THE BELEAGUERED CITY
1. Grant’s Plan; the Run; Grierson
2. Eastward, Port Gibson to Jackson
3. Westward, Jackson to Vicksburg
4. Port Hudson; Banks vs. Gardner
5. Vicksburg Siege, Through June
CHAPTER 5. STARS IN THEIR COURSES
1. Lee, Davis; Invasion; Stuart
2. Gettysburg Opens; Meade Arrives
3. Gettysburg, July 2: Longstreet
4. Gettysburg, Third Day: Pickett
5. Cavalry; Lee Plans Withdrawal
CHAPTER 6. UNVEXED TO THE SEA
1. Lee’s Retreat; Falling Waters
2. Milliken’s Bend; Helena Repulse
3. Vicksburg Falls; Jackson Reburnt
4. Lincoln Exults; N.Y. Draft Riot
5. Davis Declines Lee’s Resignation
III.
CHAPTER 7. RIOT AND RESURGENCE
1. Rosecrans; Tullahoma Campaign
2. Morgan Raid; Chattanooga Taken
3. Charleston Seige; Transmississippi
4. Chickamauga—First Day
5. Bragg’s Victory Unexploited
CHAPTER 8. THE CENTER GIVES
1. Sabine Pass; Shelby; Grant Hurt
2. Bristoe Station; Buckland Races
3. Grant Opens the Cracker Line
4. Davis, Bragg; Gettysburg Address
5. Missionary Ridge; Bragg Relieved
CHAPTER 9. SPRING CAME ON FOREVER
1. Mine Run; Meade Withdraws
2. Olustee; Kilpatrick Raid
3. Sherman, Meridian; Forrest
4. Lincoln-Davis, a Final Contrast
5. Grant Summoned to Washington
Volume Three
I.
CHAPTER 1. ANOTHER GRAND DESIGN
1. Grant in Washington—His Plan
2. Red River, Camden: Reevaluation
3. Paducah, Fort Pillow; Plymouth
4. Grant Poised; Joe Davis; Lee
CHAPTER 2. THE FORTY DAYS
1. Grant Crosses; the Wilderness
2. Spotsylvania—“All Summer”
3. New Market; Bermuda Hundred
4. North Anna; Cold Harbor; Early
CHAPTER 3. RED CLAY MINUET
1. Dalton to Pine Mountain
2. Brice’s; Lincoln; “Alabama”
3. Kennesaw to Chattahoochee
4. Hood Replaces Johnston
II.
CHAPTER 4. WAR Is CRUELTY …
1. Petersburg; Early I; Peace?
2. Hood vs. Sherman; Mobile Bay; Memphis Raid; Atlanta Falls
3. Crater; McClellan; Early II
4. Price Raid; “Florida”; Cushing; Forrest Raids Mid-Tenn.
5. Hood-Davis; Lincoln Reelected.
CHAPTER 5. YOU CANNOT REFINE IT
1. Petersburg Trenches; Weldon RR
2. March to Sea; Hood, Spring Hill
3. Franklin; Hood Invests Nashville
4. Thomas Attacks; Hood Retreats
5. Savannah Falls; Lincoln Exultant
III.
CHAPTER 6. A TIGHTENING NOOSE
1. Grant; Ft. Fisher; 13th Amendment
2. Confed Shifts; Lee Genl-in-Chief?
3. Blair Received; Hampton Roads
4. Hatcher’s Run; Columbia Burned
CHAPTER 7. VICTORY, AND DEFEAT
1. Sheridan, Early; Second Inaugural
2. Goldsboro; Sheridan; City Point
3. Five Forks—Richmond Evacuated
4. Lee, Grant Race for Appomattox
CHAPTER 8. LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT
1. Davis-Johnston; Sumter; Booth
2. Durham; Citronelle; Davis Taken
3. K. Smith; Naval; Fort Monroe
4. Postlude: Reconstruction, Davis
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM VINTAGE BOOKS
The Civil War: A Narrative
Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
“A stunning book full of color, life, character and a new atmosphere of the Civil War, and at the same time a narrative of unflagging power. Eloquent proof that an historian should be a writer above all else.”—BURKE DAVIS
“This is historical writing at its best.… It can hardly be surpassed.” —Library Journal
“Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War, as thousands of Americans apparently do, will go through this volume with pleasure.… Years from now, Foote’s monumental narrative most likely will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind.” —New York Herald Tribune Book Review
“There is, of course, a majesty inherent in the subject. Some sense of that ineluctable fact, however reluctant its expression, is evident in every honest consideration of our history. But the credit for recovering such majesty to the attention of our skeptical and unheroic age will hereafter belong peculiarly to Mr. Foote.”—M. E. BRADFORD, The National Review
The Civil War: A Narrative
Volume III, Red River to Appomattox
“Foote is a novelist who temporarily abandoned fiction to apply the novelist’s shaping hand to history: his model is not Thucydides but The Iliad and his story, innocent of notes and formal bibliography, has a literary design. Not by accident … but for cathartic effect is so much space given to the war’s unwinding, its final shudders and convulsions.… To read this chronicle is an awesome and moving experience. History and literature are rarely so thoroughly combined as here; one finishes this volume convinced that no one need undertake this particular enterprise again.” —Newsweek
“I have never read a better, more vivid, more understandable account of the savage battling between Grant’s and Lee’s armies.… Foote stays with the human strife and suffering, and unlike most Southern commentators, he does not take sides. In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail, in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject. Written in the tradition of the great historian-artists—Gibbon, Prescott, Napier, Freeman—it stands alongside the work of the best of them.” —New Republic
“The most written-about war in history has, with this completion of Shelby Foote’s trilogy, been given the epic treatment it deserves.”—Providence Journal
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Although he now makes his home in Memphis, Tennessee, SHELBY FOOTE comes from a long line of Mississippians. He was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and attended school there until he entered the University of North Carolina. During World War II he served in the European theater as a captain of field artillery. In the period since the war, he has written five novels: Tournament, Follow Me Down, Love in a Dry Season, Shiloh and Jordan County. He has been awarded three Guggenheim fellowships.
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