Download Now The Darkest Days Of The War: The Battles Of Iuka And Corinth Composed By Peter Cozzens Accessible As EReader Version
Cozzens is rapidly becoming one of my favorite Civil War authors, and The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth is just one good example of why.
This a wellwritten, fastpaced historical accounting of a campaign and two sharply fought battles in the extreme northeastern corner of Mississippi in early fall, There may be other accounts of the battles of Iuka and Corinth out there in the many thousands of Civil War books that have been written, but I'm betting that this really is one of the best, if not the best.
It is a relatively fast read at something overpages, It contains some terrific illustrations and some truly superb maps,
Corinth was important from a strategic perspective to both the Union and Confederate forces, as it was a relatively important rail junction that accessed the Mississippi valley, Tennessee, and connected with Chattanooga and Atlanta.
The Union needed to control the Corinth region in order to facilitate planned movements toward Vicksburg and Chattanooga, The bottom line was that Corinth was, in a sense, a magnet that drew the opposing forces to it and if the war was going to be effectively prosecuted in the western theater, Corinth had to figure prominently in the plan and be controlled.
It was interesting to me that in reading this book I learned a lot about the early or formative periods, if you will, of Union Generals Ulysses S.
Grant and William S. Rosecrans. While Grant had largely kind of stumbled into a major victory at Shiloh in April, he really wasn't all that helpful or supportive of Rosecrans during the Corinth campaign described in this book.
For his part, Rosecrans exhibited traits during both of the battles at Iuka and Corinth that should have had the Union high command sit up and take notice and not in a good way.
Rosecrans seemed to have not handled stress well at all during the actual fighting phase of the battles he was involved in, and would become almost bizarrely disconnected and even panicstricken.
Grant, following his experiences at Shiloh, would learn and steadily improve his performance as both a strategist and battle commander, Unfortunately, Rosecrans really didn't shake his bad habits, and later as the commander of the Army of the Cumberland he was badly beaten at the bloody Battle of Chickamauga midSeptember.
Also, the professional relationship between Grant and Rosecrans soured following the Battle of Corinth, After the Corinth campaign, Grant moved on and conducted the brilliant Vicksburg campaign, and largely made himself indispensable to the Union cause, Meanwhile, Rosecrans again got lucky and barely eked out a victory at the bloody Battle of Stones River Murfreesboro in Tennessee on January,, By the fall of, Rosecrans was out of a job, and Grant was on his way to eventually becoming the GeneralinChief of all Union forces in early.
Intriguingly, the same sort of questionable leadership situation was sorting itself out on the Confederate side at Corinth too, The two rebel commanders, Earl Van Dorn, and Sterling Price were largely way over their heads in trying to conduct this campaign, and it was only through utter ineptitude, particular on the part of Van Dorn and several of his subordinate division commanders that Rosecrans wasn't decisively defeated at both Iuka and Corinth.
The really tragic part of this story, and Cozzens tells it well in this book, is that because of the blunders of the commanders on both sides, a lot of good and patriotic men in butternut and blue were killed or horribly maimed.
Peter Cozzens has written several books about the Civil War in the western theater, and while I still think his masterpiece This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga is one of the best, this book about the battles at Iuka and Corinth is an excellent account about a somewhat forgotten, but still quite important campaign.
Finally, I think by reading Cozzens' books about the Battles of Iuka, Corinth, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga the reader can't help but begin to better understand the strategic importance of the western theater and the commanders, on both sides, that had to fight for and defend these regions.
Cozzens, through his books, wants us to understand that there was much, much more to the Civil War than just the theater of operations around Washington, D.
C. and Richmond, Virginia, and that thousands upon thousands of men "gave the last full measure of devotion" on farflung little western battlefields like those at Iuka and Corinth.
A very informative read of these lesser but important battles, A Line of Battle treatment needs done for them, During the late summer of, Confederate forces attempted a threepronged strategic advance into the North, The outcome of this offensivethe only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemywas disastrous, The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and littlestudied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg.
Peter Cozzens presents here the first booklength study of these two complex and vicious battles, Drawing on extensive primary research, he details the tactical stories of Iukawhere nearly onethird of those engaged felland Corinthfought under brutally oppressive conditionsanalyzing troop movements down to the regimental level.
He also provides compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price, exposing the ways in which their clashing ambitions and antipathies affected the outcome of the campaign.
Finally, he draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles of Iuka and Corinth, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.
During the late summer of, Confederate forces attempted a threepronged strategic advance into the North, The outcome of this offensivethe only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemywas disastrous, The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and littlestudied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg.
Peter Cozzens details the tactical stories of Iuka and Corinth, analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level and providing compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price.
He also draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.
An interesting history of the battle for the train hub of Corinth, MS during the last half of the Civil War,
Listened to the unabridged audiobook on Audible, com. I will admit to being biased about the topic being that Corinth was the first battle my great great grandfather was in, I had spent countless hours reading reports from the officers who were in the battle to get some idea about what my ancestor went through, Then I found this book and it all came together,
This is a very well written and easy to read narrative of these two battle, Besides describing the battles themselves, Mr, Cozzens does a good job explaining the events leading up to Corinth and why this battle was so important, He includes very good maps, an order of battle, and an extensive bibliography, Of the three Confederate offensives in the late summer and early autumn of, the best known and documented is, of course, Lees Maryland campaign with the major battle at Antietam on September.
Lagging far behind in second place is Braggs Kentucky campaign which culminated at the battle of Perryville on October, And, usually relegated to a mere footnote in the more wellknown campaign studies, the obscure series of engagements at Iuka Sept,and Corinth Oct.in northeastern Mississippi and the rearguard action at Hatchie Bridge Oct,just across the state line in West Tennessee, constituted the third prong of the ambitious Confederate late summer drive, The indifference accorded these battles in the past leads one to suspect that most historians have found the fighting at Iuka and Corinth difficult to follow and adequately comprehend for themselves, and thus, impossible to easily explain to their readers.
Luckily, Peter Cozzens, the noted author of several excellent Civil War battle studies, has accepted that challenge, The result is a work that has added significantly to our knowledge of these relatively small but ferocious battles and their significance to Union and Confederate fortunes in the Western Theater.
In essence, the battles of Iuka and Corinth were a direct result of Braxton Bragg's Kentucky campaign, Jefferson Davis, having hobbled his commanders with ambiguously defined command jurisdictions, hoped for mutual cooperation among the forces under Kirby Smith in East Tennessee, Braxton Braggs Army of the Mississippi, Sterling Prices TransMississippi troops, and scattered commands responsible for the defense of Vicksburg under Earl Van Dorn.
On the Federal side, Ulysses S, Grant, still smarting from the near disaster at Shiloh, was unenthusiastically monitoring his various detachments guarding the railroads now under Union control in West Tennessee and northern Mississippi, while Don Carlos Buell, with the balance of Federal field forces, ponderously inched toward Chattanooga.
Although a major factor in initially spurring Bragg into taking offensive action, Smith proved remarkably uncooperative once the two Confederate commands arrived in Kentucky, Price wanted to support Braggs movement, but felt he had too few troops to move alone into Tennessee, Pleas to Van Dorn that he join him resulted in yet another shameful display of the Southern high command's inability or unwillingness to mutually cooperate unless unequivocally ordered to do so.
Van Dorn maneuvered behind Prices back to ensure Davis would place him in overall command of his own forces and Prices TransMississippi contingent in the event the commands should be united in the field.
Grant, who saw an opportunity to trap Prices command, ordered out converging Federal columns under generals Edward O, C. Ord and William S. Rosecrans. These forces collided near the small Mississippi community of Iuka, While good luck enabled
him to fight his way out of the Northern pincers, Price realized that if he and Van Dorn were to survive, they would have to unite their commands.
Price therefore swallowed his pride and placed himself and his troops under the command of Earl Van Dorn, Having already dismissed Prices suggestion of a move into Tennessee, but realizing he must do something to support Braggs offensive, Van Dorn instead concluded, based on a combination of faulty intelligence reports, wishful thinking, and a desire for personal glory, that the time was now opportune for the Confederates to attack and retake the vital railroad junction at Corinth.
The Darkest Days of the War is the first serious full treatment of the crucial battles that comprised this campaign, Since Cozzens had few secondary sources upon which to draw, he concentrated on locating firsthand and unpublished accounts, He has once again come through with newly discovered materials from newspapers, letters, diaries, and other public and private sources, The result, as we have come to expect from this author's previous battle studies, is a detailed blow by blow account of the fighting, delivered primarily at regimental level, but that also describes even company level movements and actions.
The author is highly critical of most of the major players, both Union and Confederate, involved in the Corinth campaign, As a matter of fact, few officers holding brigade command and higher escape his sometimes scathing criticism, However, Cozzens is at his best in depicting the actual fighting, where he allows most of the action to be reported through the words of the men who were there.
While this format has worked very well in Cozzens previous books, because Iuka, Corinth and Hatchie Bridge were such confusing affairs, this approach can occasionally make it difficult for the reader to follow the flow of important operational and tactical decisions being made at various higher command levels.
The author generally avoids this pitfall however, and, for the most part, expertly details the convoluted series of attacks and counterattacks that characterized all three engagements, More annoying is the frequent interruption of the flow of the action by a biographical essay every time we encounter a new division, brigade, or regimental commander.
Such material, although important, would be less intrusive if provided in chapter notes, or perhaps as a sidebar topic,
If chronicling the battle action can be considered Cozzens greatest strength, his background introductory material setting the battles within the context of the larger strategic situation and summary conclusions, reveal some weaknesses.
The author presents a rather biased introduction that seems to ignore, or at least fails to acknowledge the existence of, dissenting historical viewpoints, For example, Albert Sidney Johnston is portrayed as a weak, indecisive Confederate commander who effectively yields control to Beauregard during the Shiloh campaign, While some historians have certainly adopted this view of Johnston, others have presented strong arguments to the contrary, In a similar vein, the conclusions Cozzens has drawn of the consequences resulting from these battles and an examination of some “whatifs” are not always well supported.
For instance, while the author posits that if only Mansfield Lovell had used his division more aggressively, Southern forces may well have taken Corinth, he then abruptly dismisses the impact this result may have had on Grant and the overall Federal fortunes in the theater.
Cozzens contends that since Grant could rapidly concentrate,troops to retake Corinth, the,Confederates left to defend the town could have been easily overcome, However among other oversights, this conclusion ignores the morale impact such a loss would undoubtedly have had on the Federals, and it also assumes that each side's battle losses would have been the same as they were historically to arrive at,surviving Confederates.
While Van Dorn probably would have been better advised to move into Tennessee instead of assaulting Corinth, the loss of this vital railroad junction by the Federals would have been considered a major reversal, perhaps even ending the still somewhat shaky career of U.
S. Grant. A quick and successful Federal counterstroke to retake the town would not necessarily be a forgone conclusion,
These criticisms are minor for the most part however, and in view of the authors overall research, generally insignificant, Cozzens is to be congratulated for bringing the stories of the bloody fights at Iuka, Corinth and Hatchie Bridge, so long ignored by other historians, back to the forefront of Civil War literature.
This work is highly recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in the Civil Wars Western Theater, less.