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In the critically acclaimed Jefferson Davis and His Generals Steven Woodworth showed how the failures of Davis and his military leaders in the West paved the way for Confederate defeat. In Davis and Lee at War he concludes his study of Davis as rebel commander-in-chief and shows how the lack of a unified purpose and strategy in the East sealed the Confederacy's fate. Woodworth argues that Davis and Robert E. Lee, the South's greatest military leader, had sharply conflicting views over the show more proper conduct of the war. Davis was convinced that the South should fight a defensive war, to simply outlast the North's political and popular support for the war. By contrast, Lee and the other eastern generals - notably P.G.T. Beauregard, Gustavus Smith, and Stonewall Jackson - were eager for the offensive. They were convinced that only quick and decisive battlefield victories would prevent the North from eventually defeating them with its overwhelming advantage in men and materials. The result of this tense tug-of-war was Davis's misguided pursuit of a middle ground that gave neither strategy its best chance for success. show lessTags
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42+ Works 1,952 Members
Steven E. Woodworth was born on January 28, 1961. He received a B.A. in history from Southern Illinois University in 1982 and a Ph.D. from Rice University in 1987. He is a professor of history at Texas Christian University and an expert on the Civil War. He has written a number of books on the topic including Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The show more Failure of Confederate Command in the West, While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers, Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee 1861-1865, Manifest Destinies: Westward Expansion and the Civil War, and This Great Struggle: America's Civil War. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Davis and Lee at War
- People/Characters
- Jefferson Davis; Robert E. Lee
- Important places
- USA
- Important events
- American Civil War (1861 | 1865)
- Original language
- English
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Statistics
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- 76
- Popularity
- 416,799
- Rating
- (3.77)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
