Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (Civil War America)

New
Illustrated
1998
$51.81

Originally published by UNC Press in 1989, Fighting for the Confederacy is one of the richest personal accounts in all of the vast literature on the Civil War. Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail-- this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides. |Rescued from an archive and published only eight years ago, this private memoir by Confederate General Porter Alexander is now recognized as one of the best books by a participant in the Civil War.

Synopsis

Originally published by UNC Press in 1989, Fighting for the Confederacy is one of the richest personal accounts in all of the vast literature on the Civil War. Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail-- this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides. |Rescued from an archive and published only eight years ago, this private memoir by Confederate General Porter Alexander is now recognized as one of the best books by a participant in the Civil War.

$51.81

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 692
Edition: 1
Publisher: University North Carolina Pr
Published: 31 Mar 1998
ISBN 10: 0807847224
ISBN 13: 9780807847220
Book Overview: Winner of the 1990 Douglas Southall Freeman History Award, Military Order of the Stars and Bars, and winner of the 1991 Founders Award, Museum of the Confederacy.

Media Reviews

This book is destined to become a classic. It is simply must reading.

Blue and Gray

[A] new landmark in Civil War historiography, one that no historian of the period can afford to ignore.

Journal of Southern History

[A]ltogether livelier and more irreverent than anything in Grant's and Sherman's books.

New Republic

Alexander's new memoirs are relaxed and engaging, lacking the self-importance that mars the memoirs of a good many soldiers.

American Heritage

The publication of Fighting for the Confederacy constitutes the most important addition to Confederate historiography in years.

Civil War History

A new landmark in Civil War historiography, one that no historian of the period can afford to ignore.

Journal of Southern History

Alexander's new memoirs are relaxed and engaging, lacking the self-importance that mars the memoirs of a good many soldiers.

American Heritage

A ltogether livelier and more irreverent than anything in Grant's and Sherman's books.

New Republic

[A] new landmark in Civil War historiography, one that no historian of the period can afford to ignore.

Journal of Southern History

Author Bio

Edward Alexander is professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of numerous books, including The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies, The Holocaust and the War of Ideas, and Lionel Trilling and Irving Howe: And Other Stories of Literary Friendship.