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Carregando... The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee (2012)de Earl J. Hess
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"Hess's account of the understudied Knoxville Campaign sheds new light on the generalship of James Longstreet and Ambrose Burnside, as well as such lesser players as Micah Jenkins and Orlando Poe. Both scholars and general readers should welcome it. The scholarship is sound, the research, superb, the writing, excellent." -Steven E. Woodworth, author of Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the WestIn the fall and winter of 1863, Union General Ambrose Burnside and Confederate General James Longstreet vied for control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that link Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Google Books — Carregando... GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)973.7History and Geography North America United States Administration of Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 Civil WarClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia:
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For the Confederates, the control of the railroad linking Virginia and Chattanooga was only secondary after the twin defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. The victory at Chickamauga restored some of the Confederate initiative. Bragg unfortunately used it to get rid of James Longstreet who certainly had ambitious to replace Bragg as army commander. Longstreet's troops and Wheeler's cavalry would be sorely missing at the battle for Chattanooga.
Longstreet was unsuitable by nature for the bold strike necessary to knock out Ambrose Burnside's forces at Knoxville. Longstreet's similar venture against Suffolk earlier in 1863 failed to capture the place. A better choice would have been Patrick Cleburne, but he only commanded a division. The Confederacy lacked the logistical resources to strike quickly, anyway. So Longstreet more or less limped towards Knoxville.
His Federal adversary was no stranger to mud marches either. The siege of Knoxville would be a tiny re-match for the battle of Fredericksburg where Ambrose Burnside commanded his soldiers to attack Longstreet's secure heights. At Knoxville, it was Burnside's turn to await Longstreet's attack on his lines. Waiting and delaying was Burnside's core competency. Stricken by diarrhea, he asked Lincoln to relieve him of command, time and again. Grant made sure that Burnside at least would stay put in Knoxville and not retreat. In the end, Burnside locked down an important number of Confederate soldiers who couldn't assist Bragg in his final battle. The "siege" of Knoxville was a sorry affair in dreadful weather whose only notable event was the botched attack on Fort Sanders. The campaign and the war was decided elsewhere. Keeping Longstreet at bay restored some of Burnside's reputation which his soldiers were to pay for in the Overland campaign and at Petersburg.
Hess has written an excellent account of this small campaign. The only detriments are that he does not try to drill down the numbers of soldiers engaged in the different engagements, offering only approximate total numbers per side, and the lack of a scale on many maps, turning them into mere sketches. A comparison of Longstreet at Suffolk and Knoxville, as well as Burnside at Knoxville and the Crater, is unfortunately also left to the reader. Overall, this will be the standard account of the campaign for many years. ( )