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Damage Them All You Can: Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
by
George Walsh,
Walsh
“Damage them all you can,” the patrician Lee exhorts, and his Southern army, ragtag in uniform and elite in spirit, responds ferociously in one battle after another against their Northern enemies—from the Seven Days and the Valley Campaign through Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania to the final siege of Richmond and Petersburg. Lee knows t...more
Paperback, 624 pages
Published
August 1st 2004
by Forge Books
(first published November 1st 2002)
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Although Walsh provides an okay overview of the Southern side of the war using mostly secondary research, this book has problems. First, Walsh blindly accepts just about every myth that exists about the Army of Northern Virginia, and second, Robert E. Lee can do no wrong in Walsh’s eye.
Distressing as it may be to Lee fans, modern battle research makes it plain that Lee made his share of mistakes, but you won’t find out about these from Walsh. The only general who comes in for any real criticism...more
Distressing as it may be to Lee fans, modern battle research makes it plain that Lee made his share of mistakes, but you won’t find out about these from Walsh. The only general who comes in for any real criticism...more
ne of my books for the Back to History Challenge is Damage Them All They Can, a history of the Army of Northern Virginia by George Walsh. The book is centered on the leaders of the Army, with particular but by no means exclusive focus on the likes of Lee, Jackson, the Johnstons, the Hills, Longstreet, Ewell and Early. There is some discussion of life in the Army and the experience of the soldiery, but this is of decidedly secondary importance to the book overall.
The focus on the leaders makes th...more
The focus on the leaders makes th...more
Not necessarily an eye opening book that provides new revelations of Robert E. Lee's generalship in the Civil War. But it does provide nice detail of the battles engaged in by the Army of Northern Virginia under his leadership. The book begins by describing the fighting at the Eastern front before Lee took over command of the Army. We get thumbnail sketches of various Confederate generals. Then, the unfolding of battle after battle.
George Walsh, despite being an unapologetic Yankee, does an excellent job of objectively covering the strengths and weaknesses of the commanding officers in the Army of Northern Virginia. I enjoyed his perspective, which differs from the sometimes fawning adoration of Confederate generalship.
This book was okay. It was tedious to read and he didn't really make much of an argument either. He just rehashed the basic plots and subplots of the Civil War.
Ok so honestly I only got through Chancellorsville -- but let's be honest, it all goes down hill from there. I was pretty surprised about how readable this is. It's basically a narrative stitched together from primary source materials. Beware: if you aren't interested in whom commanded whom while they flanked so and so, this book probably isn't for you.
Sep 16, 2012
Shawn Snow
marked it as to-read
Sep 08, 2012
Jim
marked it as to-read
Nov 30, 2011
02EzraS
marked it as to-read
Aug 30, 2011
Kris Unger
is currently reading it
Jul 04, 2011
Nathan
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
nashville-library,
history
Aug 01, 2009
Mal Clough
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