Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Civil War

James M. McPherson

Oct 2014 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, a powerful new reckoning with Jefferson Davis as military commander of the Confederacy

“The best concise book we have on the subject… McPherson is… our most distinguished scholar of the Civil War era.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
History has not been kind to Jefferson Davis. Many Americans of his own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, not to mention a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but that it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. Gravely ill throughout much of the Civil War, Davis nevertheless shaped and articulated the principal policy of the Confederacy—the quest for independent nationhood—with clarity and force. He exercised a tenacious hands-on influence in the shaping of military strategy, and his close relationship with Robert E. Lee was one of the most effective military-civilian partnerships in history.

Lucid and concise, Embattled Rebel presents a fresh perspective on the Civil War as seen from the desk of the South’s commander in chief.

Ratings and reviews

McPherson has always had the same meme about the Civil War -- no one was to blame,. Gosh darn, everyone was men of principle too. McPherson may as well let Davis write this book, and in effect did. He just repeats Davis own self serving justifications and excuses. McPherson is almost comical defending Davis egomaniacal blunders and cowardice leading to CSA defeat. McPherson has never written one simple true sentence about who killed who, in Kansas, and why, nor of Davis and Sen Atchison's killing sprees in Kansas. Atchison and Douglas got Kansas Bill passed, then Davis appointed Atchison as General of Law and Order in Kansas, and went on killing sprees. This is the most basic event in US history leading up to the Civil War. Think McPherson doesn't know about it? Charles Sumner was beaten almost to death on floor of US Senate, for speaking about Atchison and what he was doing in Kansas. Davis actually hated state's rights, but to hear McPherson, he cared about state's rights. No one killed more, or dreamed up more excuses, to stop states rights than Davis. McPherson knows that. When McPherson finds the courage to deal with basic facts, let me know.

About the author

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. He is the bestselling author of numerous books on the Civil War, including Battle Cry of Freedom, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Tried by War, and For Cause and Comrades, both of which won the Lincoln Prize.