Lee Takes Command

by Clifford Dowdey

With no personal stake in slavery and no belief in secession as a political remedy, Robert E. Lee nonetheless rose to become the very symbol of the maverick Confederacy. He was one of the last products of colonial Virginia's "golden age,'' a generation of post-Revolutionary Southerners trained for leadership and raised in an atmosphere of noblesse oblige. And as a professional soldier and a Southern aristocrat, he accepted the end of the 71-year-old Union with deep regret but no real choice. He did not want his region of the Old America to exist in a Union which, as he said, had to be held together by bayonets. Originally published in 1964 as The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee, this definitive account of Lee's emergence as a leader shows how he gained the trust of his men by an ego-free inner confidence that did not need constant bolstering. The author demonstrates conclusively how the great leader's aggressive military strategy ("the best defense is a good offense'') made the Seven Days Battle the single most significant military engagement of the Civil War.

Genres: Civil War

380 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Clifford Dowdey was born in Richmond, Virginia January 23, 1904 and died there May 30, 1979. The Richmond Newspapers, the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Richmond News Leader eulogized him as The Last Confederate. His father was descended from immigrants surnamed O'Dowda of County Galway, Ireland, and his mother from an English settler of Jamestown. His father worked for Western Union and his mother was a housewife. Four of his grandmother’s brothers were Confederate soldiers. His grandmother lived with his family until she died when Dowdey was age 19. Her reminiscences spurred his lifelong interest in the American Civil War and the history of Virginia.[1]

He attended Columbia University from 1921-1925. He worked for about a year as a newspaper reporter and book reviewer for the Richmond News Leader. He returned to New York City and worked as an editor for various pulp magazines (Munsey’s, Argosy and Dell) from 1926 to around 1935. About 1933 he started writing seriously on what eventually would become his first novel "Bugles Blow No More.” Leaving the magazines, he and his wife moved to Florida for a season and then to Richmond, Virginia where he finished the novel. For the rest of his life, he lived in Richmond and worked as a writer of historical fiction and history. He reviewed others' historical works in academic journals, such as "The Journal of Southern History" and " The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography." Even though he had no formal training as an historian several of his works received critical acclaim by noted historians. His historical novels were popular as evidenced by their being reviewed in "The New York Times."[2]

The circumstance of his first marriage is unknown. In an interview published in The New York Times July 13, 1941, he made reference to a wife as early as 1934 or 1935. On July 13, 1944, he married Frances Wilson, a clinical psychologist; she died July 1970.[3] He was the father of two daughters, Frances and Sarah.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was all of four pages into this book when I thought to myself, "I wonder which southern state the author is from?" (Virginia, and if you read about him you will learn that he was called "The Last Confederate" in his obituary) But as I read on I found that the bias was less towards the Confederacy and more towards the military personnel.

Dowdey clearly did not like Lincoln. He basically portrays the President and his Secretary of War, Stanton, as authoritarian tyrants. Dowdey implies that were it not for Lincoln's bent towards punishing the seceding states, there would have been no war. Of course, I think Dowdey would have also been in favor of the Confederacy becoming it's own nation.

But the more I read, the more I realized that Dowdey really had it in for elected and appointed officials on both sides who had no military training making military decisions. Dowdey clearly believed that non-military men being involved in military matters would only serve to screw things up and make them more difficult for the soldiers.

Dowdey is the first author I've read who basically absolves George McClellan of his lack of urgency in fighting the war and lays the blame at the feet of Lincoln and Stanton for giving confusing orders without understanding the situation. I think Dowdey is the outlier here.

But Dowdey also dismisses many of the politically appointed officers in both armies who did not "earn" their stripes. He clearly does not believe they had anything to add to the proceedings and hurt the work of the real soldiers.

With all of that, this book is also really in the weeds describing the battles. It covers the time when Lee took over command of the army from Joe Johnston, and the battles that went for a week after Johnston was wounded in the Battle of Seven Pines. While the biggest message I took away is what Lee did and did not do well when he first took over, and how he learned from his mistakes, that is obscured by pages and pages on troop movements. When several brigades were brought into a battle, they each received their own section about how they got to the field of action, the timing, and what they found when they got there. This is super interesting if you're into that sort of thing, but probably way too much detail for those who want a more casual reading.

I'd recommend this of Civil War buffs who want a more complete picture of the person Robert E. Lee was when he took over the Army of Northern Virginia.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to a good read if you want to know more on how the switch from Johnston to Lee went. Dowdey from this book seems that he didn’t like the politicians getting involved in military matters that they had no proper training in. I usually do not read reviews but I found one that really does a good job of explaining that same take away that I got from this book it was from 2/3 years ago. Definitely read that one. Overall I liked and enjoyed reading this book and definitely recommend anyone who has interest in the civil war to read this book. I would imagine that there are civil war buffs who have already read this book.

[David Elkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was published back in 1964. I have a 1992 Barnes and Noble republication. What a difference 60 years makes in interpenetration. Dowdey is very critical of the Stanton/Lincoln team and the radical republicans for hindering McClellan in his grand design. He does not spare the Union General in his criticism but nor does he praise Robert E. Lee as much as some did in the 70's and 80's. He feels the Longstreet was at fault at times, and Jackson was suffering from extreme stress and fatigue.

A very different look and well worth the read. I found his statement near the end of the book that this was the only time during the war that Lee was not over-managed by Davis thought provoking and I did disagree that Antietam was the high water mark of the CSA.

Dowdey had done his homework and it is a fun read.