Procure Recollections Of A Confederate Staff Officer Picturized By G. Moxley Sorrel Displayed In Manuscript
Written and Concise
Original source material is a wonderful way too learn about history, Sorrel is clear and concise in his writing which makes this book all the more readable and enjoyable, Sorrel wastes little time in either effusive praise or unnecessary censure, His experiences have a solid ring of truth, I enjoyed reading this book, Interesting Anecdotes of a Confedarate Officer from Georgia
After visiting the Sorrel Weed home in Savannah, I was curious to read this book by General Sorrel.
I found the collection of experiences to be very interesting, Moxley Sorrel was one of the best staff officers in the Confederate army, He served as one of the key staff officers in the service of Gen, James Longstreet's First Corps. This book, in his own words, is one of the more insightful books by an "insider" from the Civil War,
The book provides some brief background, prior to Sorrel joining Longstreet's staff which, by the way, appears to have been one of the better corps staffs on the Confederate sideeast or west or transMississippi.
His career was distinguished and he had a rare opportunity to observe Longstreet and other major Confederate officers, The book portrays Sorrel's views on major battles of the warfrom the Peninsula to Seven Pines to the Seven Days to Second Manassas and on to Gettysburg.
Then, an examination of the First Corps' movement to the western theatre, where it played a key role at Chickamauga,
Sorrel became a battlefield figure at the Wilderness, as he led a flanking attack on Union General Winfield Scott Hancock, He finished the war as a battlefield commander rather than a staff officer,
What is best about this book, though, is his careful and thoughtful analysis of events and officers, A very nice work indeed, Coming off reading Col. John S. Mosby's "Memoirs," I was a little apprehensive about buying this book, It looked to be another of those privatelypublished, poorly edited reissues which are a struggle to get through despite their short length, Nothing could have been further from the truth, This is an easy, pleasant, often touching read which gives a very interesting account of the Civil War as viewed by a man who saw it from its beginning to its end, always in the thick of the action.
If you want to "be there," this book will put you there, in the strange and fantastical atmosphere of that great time,
When the War broke out in April of, G, Moxley Sorrel was working as a bank clerk in Savannah, He slipped away to watch Fort Sumter fall, then promptly offered his services to the new Confederacy, In short order he found himself working as a staff officer for James Longstreet, then a brigade commander, It was the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership that lasted 'til the end of the war, Longstreet, who eventually rose to the command of the famous First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was known as Lee's "War Horse," not only participated in nearly every major battle fought in the East during the conflict, he also fought with the Army of the Tennessee in, and helped win the Battle of Chickamauga.
Returning to Virginia in early ', Sorrel was at Longstreet's side for the terrible fighting at the Wilderness and participated in the fighting there, gaining fame for a charge he led against Hancock's corps which won the first day of the battle for Lee.
He continued his service, rising to the rank of brigadier general, and commanded troops in the field Georgians, of course before wounds took him away from the siege of Petersberg.
On his way back to rejoin Lee in April of ', he heard the news of Lee's surrender, which ended a meteoric military career and returned him to civilian life and an uncertain future.
It should be noted here that Sorrel, who was very old when he penned these pages, makes no attempt to consult with history books or even letters or papers written during the war, but simply pours out his thoughts as they occurred to him.
This makes the book very loose on dates, geography, orders of battle, etc, etc. but contributes to its clarity and readability, He is by no means attempting a history of the war or the campaigns he served in, but rather his own personal memories and recollections which he thinks will be of interest to the reader.
This includes many humorous anecdotes such as his tendency to get swindled in horsetrading, and some disturbing ones the tendency of Southern generals to feud bitterly with each other, even to the point of dueling as well as a real look as to
the character, mentality and ability of many Confederate leaders, including Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Stuart, Bragg, Early, the Hills, etc.
, etc. as Sorrel saw them. Anyone familiar with Shaara's novel "The Killer Angels" will quickly realize that he depended very heavily on Sorrel's accounts of Longstreet generally and Gettysburg specifically to write that famous work his fingerprints are also all over Shelby Foote's masterful Civil War series superpopularized by Ken Burns' documentary.
To be sure, Civil War buffs and historians may take issue with some of Sorrel's conclusions, He places the blame for Gettysburg entirely on Jeb Stuart, which is why Jack Mosby spent half of his own memoir abovementioned, defending Stuart's reputation and blaming Sorrel and others on the staff for sullying it and he avoids criticisms of some generals who probably deserved more of it, like Joe Johnston and Leonidas "Bishop" Polk.
By and large, though, it's hard to argue with a man who was "there" and Sorrel was always "there," except when his wounds prevented it.
He comes off as a decent, funloving, thoroughly conscientious and brave man who bore no rancor toward his enemies and accepted defeat as graciously as he had accepted victory.
When he died, a British military observer named Freemantle, who had been present at Gettysburg, wrote this touching passage which probably summed up how many felt in regards to Moxley Sorrel:
"His gallant clay is lying in the cemetery at Savannah, the long, pendulant southern moss laying softly over it.
His 'Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer' has for me, like all books I love, a low, natural, wild music and as sure as I live, the spirits who dwell in that selfsewn grove called literature were by his side, were with him when we wrote the last pages, his pen keeping in step with his beating heart.
" Interesting overview of one officers experience Written by the officer who became General Longstreet's most trusted associate, this memoir takes the reader inside the workings of the Confederate army staff, relating the action of the Civil War as Sorrel saw amp experienced it.
.