Download In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications and Confederate Defeat (Civil War America) fb2

by Earl J. Hess

Americas

Author:

Earl J. Hess
ISBN:

0807832820
ISBN13:

978-0807832820
Genre:

History
Publisher:

The University of North Carolina Press; First edition (July 15, 2009)
Pages:

432 pages
Subcategory:

Americas
Language:

English
FB2 format

1959 kb
ePUB format

1933 kb
DJVU format

1117 kb
Rating:

4.1
Votes:

994
Formats:

txt lrf rtf mbr

More..

Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864 (Civil Wa. y Earl J. .In the preface to his new book, Earl Hess remarks that "Petersburg was less of a siege than it was a traditional field campaign with some limited aspects of siege warfare.

In the preface to his new book, Earl Hess remarks that "Petersburg was less of a siege than it was a traditional field campaign with some limited aspects of siege warfare. And he amply demonstrates thereafter that although field fortifications played a vital role (or multiple vital roles) in the Petersburg fighting, the campaign was much more than static trench warfare.

Joined with Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns and Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign, this book completes an extensive discussion of fortifications in the East

Series: Civil War America. The trenches at Petersburg became filthy by August. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. This book, the third volume in Earl Hess's trilogy on the war in the eastern theater, recounts the strategic and tactical operations in Virginia during the last ten months of the Civil War, when field fortifications dominated military planning and the landscape of battle. Officers tried to enforce cleanliness, but the men always dropped bits of food on the floor.

The Earl J. Hess Fortifications Trilogy, Omnibus E-book: Includes Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War; Trench Warfare Under Grant and Lee . Field fortification & confederate defeat. Hess Fortifications Trilogy, Omnibus E-book: Includes Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War; Trench Warfare Under Grant and Lee; and In the Trenches at Petersburg. Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West. Lee's Tar Heels: The acRae Brigade. The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort to Save Atlanta. The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta. The university of north carolina press.

The Petersburg campaign began June 15, 1864, with Union attempts to break an improvised line of Confederate field fortifications

The Petersburg campaign began June 15, 1864, with Union attempts to break an improvised line of Confederate field fortifications. By the time the campaign ended on April 2, 1865, two opposing lines of sophisticated and complex earthworks stretched for thirty-five miles, covering not only Petersburg but also the southeastern approaches to Richmond

Civil War America Series. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. In the opening work in the series, Hess establishes field fortification as a feature of eastern battlefields going back to the clash at Big Bethel, Virginia, in 1861.

Civil War America Series. Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee and In the Trenches at Petersburg continue the same overall approach, tracing campaigns with a focus on the construction and use of fieldworks in specific battles.

In the Trenches at Petersburg humanizes the experience of the soldiers working in the fortifications and reveals the human cost of trench warfare in the waning days of the struggle.

In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications and Confederate Defeat In the Trenches at Petersburg, the final volume of Earl J. Hess's trilogy of works on the fortifications of the Civil War, recounts the strategic and tactical operations around Petersburg during the last ten months of the Civil Wa. In the Trenches at Petersburg humanizes the experience of the soldiers working in the fortifications and reveals the human cost of trench warfare in the waning days of the struggle. Civil War America (Paperback). Longleaf Services on Behalf of Univ of N. Carolina.

Автор: Hess Earl J. Название: In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications .

Civil War America Its place in the literature on the American Civil War has received an.Thesis Statement: The Confederate failure to follow the principles of war led to their defeat at Vicksburg

Its place in the literature on the American Civil War has received an appropriately increasing amount of attention in the last two decades which has offered perspective on the importance of the campaign and correction and refinement of its interpretation. Often overlooked in favor of the. Thesis Statement: The Confederate failure to follow the principles of war led to their defeat at Vicksburg. Discussion: An examination of the Confederate management of the Battle of Vicksburg reveals many problem areas.

In the Trenches at Petersburg, the final volume of Earl J. Hess's trilogy of works on the fortifications of the Civil War, recounts the strategic and tactical operations around Petersburg during the last ten months of the Civil War. Hess covers all aspects of the Petersburg campaign, from important engagements that punctuated the long months of siege to mining and countermining operations, the fashioning of wire entanglements and the laying of torpedo fields to impede attacks, and the construction of underground shelters to protect the men manning the works. In the Trenches at Petersburg humanizes the experience of the soldiers working in the fortifications and reveals the human cost of trench warfare in the waning days of the struggle.

Rindyt

Earl J. Hess's "In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications & Confederate Defeat" completes a trilogy begun with "Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864" and continued with "Trench Warfare under Grant & Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign". Together with his "The Rifle-Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth", these books certainly place Hess in the forefront of military scholars who look at the "how" of battle and not just the traditional "what" and "who". The popular view of Civil War battle is more or less that everybody stood in long lines opposite one another and blazed away until there was no one left standing; Hess's work reveals a far more complex activity.

In the preface to his new book, Earl Hess remarks that "Petersburg was less of a siege than it was a traditional field campaign with some limited aspects of siege warfare." And he amply demonstrates thereafter that although field fortifications played a vital role (or multiple vital roles) in the Petersburg fighting, the campaign was much more than static trench warfare. In the past hundred years there have been only two general studies of the Petersburg Campaign published, Noah Andre Trudeau's "The Last Citadel" and John Horn's "The Petersburg Campaign", both works somewhat limited in their depth of scholarship, plus various separate works dealing with specific events during the overall campaign (most notably Richard J. Sommers's "Richmond Redeemed" and A. Wilson Greene's "Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion"). Therefore, in the present volume Hess has undertaken to provide "a general history of the campaign to set the proper context for understanding fortifications and engineering operations". He has done an admirable job of crafting a one-volume general history of the Petersburg Campaign, although of course special attention is paid to the use of field fortifications within that campaign. Hess contends that such fortifications were not merely of defensive importance, allowing Lee to long hold out against superior numbers, but also that the rapid construction of field works served a vital offensive purpose as well, allowing Union troops to secure newly-won positions against threatened counterattacks. Although Grant's weary army stumbled badly in its initial efforts to seize Petersburg in June, 1864, in large part due to Confederate use of fortifications, within a couple months Union forces had begun to demonstrate a grasp of a strategy (Hess calls it "bite-and-hold") of making short movements to the left to extend the line in short stages, consolidating those advances by means of field fortifications, that would eventually lead to Lee's defeat and the destruction of the South's per-eminent field army. Hess presents a picture of the lengthy Petersburg Campaign as not being so much a long sequence of Confederate successes and Union failures as instead a series of steps that inexorably led to a great victory by the Union forces.

Against this background of describing the overall campaign, Hess presents the details of how both Confederate and Union field fortifications were designed and built and their preservation into the modern era, and describes the practicalities of living and fighting in those entrenchments.

This is a first-rate work of military scholarship, worthy of a place on the bookshelves of almost any Civil War enthusiast, one of those too-rare books that provide a genuinely new understanding of the past.

Thoginn

I agree whole-heartedly with the other three reviewers in giving this work five stars. It is scholarly and breaks new ground on the battles around Petersburg or siege if you prefer. The author takes a rather unorthodox approach to the siege -- one stressing the fortifications and engineering on both sides during the siege. This approach explains a great deal as to why the siege progressed the way it did, and that after Meade's initial failure to seize Petersburg in Grant's surprise move from north of the James River, Lee's army was only going to be beaten by attrition and stretching them beyond their ability to defend their works.

Grant always possessed a superiority in numbers, but overall did not reach that point whereby the Confederates could not effectively man all their fortifications until April 2nd, immediately after the battle of Five Forks. At that point the Sixth Corps carried the Confederate works from West to East, effectively forcing Lee to abandon Petersburg.

One of the most interesting points made in this work is that the Federals were forced to extend their fortifications to the West with protection facing South as well as facing North against the Confederate lines defending Petersburg. The Union Army was constantly threatened by raids from the South and West, and each time Grant sent forces to the West to extend his lines, a battle ensued -- one that generally cost the Federals more casualties than the Confederates, but also forced the Confederates to progressively weaken their lines to meet the extended Federal threat of turning their western (right) flank.

The importance of fortifications came into being due to the armies remaining in close contact with each other. That was a new feature in the Virginia: after Grant attacked South in the Wilderness, from that point forward Grant remained in contact with Lee's army and forced Lee to react to his moves. Attacks were seldom successful against well-developed fortifications, and both sides attempted such attacks although Meade's attacks were larger and more costly. Towards the end, the soldiers on both sides refused to attack fortifications they felt were too strong, and even in his movements to lengthen his lines, Meade could not always depend on his soldiers. This contrasted markedly with the army's performance during Lee's retreat to Appomattox when both armies were in the open. Casualties were incurred and accepted without question by Federal soldiers while chasing Lee and attempting to bring the war to a close.

The only negative I have for this book concerns the maps. The work lacks a good overall map, and in spite of good efforts by the author to dovetail maps with his narrative, I found myself wanting more, and in some cases, more detailed maps showing troop movements in addition to just fortifications. For example, I was not able to see exactly how Mahone approached Warren in his counterattack during the 4th offensive.

I believe this work is destined to become a military classic, and it certainly belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in the military history of the Civil War. It presents information and action analysis not contained in the Official Record, and as such is a very great contribution to understanding how the Petersburg campaign went the way it did.

Highly recommended.

eBooks simillar to In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications and Confederate Defeat (Civil War America):