Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military History of the Civil War

296 Pages·1997·11.256 MB·English

by  Herman Hattaway

SHADES OF BLUE AND GRAY
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SHADES OF
BLUE AND GRAY
An Introductory Military History
of the Civil War
2lerman 2lattaway
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESS
COLUMBIA AND LONDON
Copyright © 1997 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 01 00 99 98 97
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hattaway, Herman.
Shades of blue and gray: an introductory military history of the
Civil War / Herman Hattaway.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8262-11 07 -0 (alk. paper)
1. United States-History-Civil War, 1861-1865-Campaigns.
2. Military weapons-United States-History-19th century.
3. Military art and science-United States-History-19th century.
4. Strategy-History-19th century. 1. Title.
E470.H345 1997
973.7'3-DC21 97-4455
CIP
§ ™ This paper meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Designer: Kristie Lee
Typesetter: BOOKCOMP
Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Typefaces: Minion, Copperplate
TO BROOKS D. SIMPSON
In grateful appreciation for encouragement and help during an extended time
when 'twas most sorely needed.
AND
to the cadets and the other military and civilian personnel with whom it was
my honor and pleasure to work during that wonderful school year, 1990-1991,
u.s.
when it was my delight and honor to be visiting professor at the Military
Academy, West Point.

CONTENTS
Preface IX
Acknowledgments Xl
Prologue The Dawn of Military Professionalism and an
Era of Great Technological Change 1
PART I Background and Opening Phases of
the American Civil War 29
Chapter 1 Transition to Civil War 33
Chapter 2 The Fighting Begins 46
Chapter 3 The War in the West: Henry W. Halleck
and Ulysses S. Grant 61
PART II The War in Apparent Stalemate 79
Chapter 4 The Peninsula Campaign 81
Chapter 5 A Rival Displaces McClellan; and a Second
Chance 91
Chapter 6 The Abortive 1862 Confederate Invasion:
Kentucky and Middle Tennessee 100
Chapter 7 The Fredericksburg Campaign: A Study in
Generalship 106
Chapter 8 The Chancellorsville Campaign 113
PART III The Great Turning Points 125
Chapter 9 The Confederate "Jewels" on the Mississippi:
Vicksburg and Port Hudson l27
Chapter 10 The Gettysburg Campaign 139
Chapter 11 The "Long Pull" of the War 151
Chapter l2 Continuing Confederate Viability 164
vii
viii SHADES OF BLUE AND GRAY
PART IV Endgame Phases
Chapter 13 No End in Sight: Late 1863-Early 1864
Chapter 14 Grant and Sherman in Grand Simultaneous
Advance 206
Chapter 15 The War Draws to a Conclusion 218
Epilogue The Full Embodiment of Military
Professionalism 245
Glossary
Index
PREFACE
In the fall of 1960, near the end of my time as a college undergraduate, I first
encountered T. Harry Williams. He changed my life. His brilliant lectures on
the Civil War and his dynamic and magnetic personality drew me to him and
to his field, making me want to spend my career as a historian specializing in
this fascinating subject. He became my graduate major professor and directed
my dissertation on the life of Confederate Gen. Stephen D. Lee.
Sometime in 1975 or 1976 I encountered Archer Jones. He changed my life
almost as much as had Williams. Jones became my inspiring mentor, helping me
to shape the Lee biography into the prize-winning book that it finally became,
General Stephen D. Lee (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1976), and
then the two of us produced How the North Won: A Military History of the
Civil War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983)-which I suspect is and
will remain the magnum opus of my career. Subsequently, we also worked
with Richard E. Beringer and William Still Jr. to write Why the South Lost the
Civil War (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986; abridged as Elements of
Confederate Defeat, 1988).
It has been a fun way to spend the past three and one-half(and still-counting)
decades!
I originally envisioned this book as part of a much larger whole, a multi
authored history of the modern military art. Several of my friends, colleagues,
and even a few critics, however, have persuaded me that a sufficient body of
readers may find it useful, even appealing, as it is, alone. For those new to
Civil War study, I hope this will be for them the "hook"- just as my relations
with Williams and Jones were for me-that will give a good grounding in
fundamental Civil War military history and be the guide to further reading;
for those who already are my "fellow travelers:' I offer this distillation of my
thinking and my ideas; and for teachers and students, here is an attempt at
synthesis, incorporating the important fresh work done in the past dozen or so
years. I am referring to, for example, the essence of the work by Lauren Cook
Burgess (on women who served as soldiers, disguised as men-over 150 specific
documented cases have now been researched); Albert Castel (on the Atlanta
campaign); Mark Grimsley (on "hard war"); Reid Mitchell (on the sociology
ix