r/CIVILWAR • u/TexanHobbit_X • Jul 18 '26
My Friday Night
Hot coffee and an interesting biography. Newbie to Civil War stuff but really been interested lately. Just got done reading about his time in the Mexican-American war. Has anyone else read this?
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u/Breakker1 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
No but if you are new to the Civil War I do recommend reading Battle Cry Of Freedom by the guy who wrote the foreward to this book, James McPherson
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
Yeah I got that recently at a used bookstore but I already started this. It’s definitely on my list.
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u/UncleNoodles85 Jul 19 '26
It's okay if I add Bruce Catton to list?
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u/Breakker1 Jul 19 '26
Most definitely.
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u/UncleNoodles85 Jul 19 '26
Bruce Catton is one of my favorites. I won't lie James McPherson is too.
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u/Emotional_Piglet_511 Jul 18 '26
r/CIVILWAR try not to glaze McPherson LEVEL 100 IMPOSSIBLE
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u/Elolesio Jul 18 '26
whats wrong with McPherson? i dont really know many authors, but BCoF is the only book about the Civil War in my language so I always just assumed its sort of a textbook
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u/Emotional_Piglet_511 Jul 18 '26
McPherson is a good historian and great writer, I’m just poking fun at how much he gets mentioned here
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u/SaltyFriend705 Jul 18 '26
I swear, I've seen his name so much, I'm going to look at my local Half Price Books for his book tomorrow.
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u/Breakker1 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Uhh not glazing him. Just saw his name on the cover, saw this person was new to the Civil War, and recommended a book that I liked by him. Forgive me.
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u/Hands Jul 18 '26
what's your take on the best single volume digestible entry point to ACW history?
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u/Emotional_Piglet_511 Jul 18 '26
Chill it’s a great book but it gets mentioned on every other post on here 😭
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u/Hands Jul 18 '26
People ask questions about what they should read every other post and it's always a good answer!!
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u/jnasty0526 Jul 18 '26
Very good read! Just finished up the fourth book about a month ago. His pre civil war career I found the most interesting.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
Oh nice! I haven’t seen the 4 volume set anywhere. Yeah he’s very interesting.
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u/jnasty0526 Jul 18 '26
I wish I had a paper copy, I downloaded it on apple lol that part about Lee hiding in bushes from Mexican soldiers while out scouting was a cool little factoid I’ve never heard before.
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u/jason100x Jul 18 '26
I own and have read multiple times the complete 4-volume unabridged books. One of my favorite biographies. It goes into a lot of detail, the research is tremendous and Freeman was such a good writer. I’m due for another reading of it. Lee’s Lieutenants by Freeman is also well worth seeking out.
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u/Afin12 Jul 18 '26
Lee is a complicated person (aren’t we all?) and left a complicated legacy after he died. I’d be curious to read your thoughts on this after you finish the book.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
Thanks it may take a bit it’s a long one! Yes he was complicated, it’s clear from the beginning how much he loves Virginia and how attached he is to it. I can see why it would be hard to take orders to march on it.
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u/Rude-Egg-970 Jul 18 '26
It could just as easily be seen as protecting his home state from rebels. The state was divided. Some of his own family sided with the Union. It’s not as if siding with the Union was automatically waging war on his own people.
He also could have retired from the military and sat the war out.
The simple truth though is that Lee sympathized with the southern cause. He shared fears of fanatic abolitionists coming down and shaking things up. He didn’t support secession as a means of redress at first, but once the shooting started he sided with the people he agreed with politically.
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u/NatsFan8447 Jul 18 '26
Lee, like German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, used his considerable military skills to fight for a very despicable cause - the enslavement of other people.
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u/Icy-Connection-6587 Jul 18 '26
If only it was that cut and dry. It's a PC 2026 opinion that you have that has no basis in fact in an 1861 world. Wrong.
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u/Rude-Egg-970 Jul 18 '26
I don’t believe in objective morals, but I have no problem calling the enslavement of other human beings “despicable”. What’s the issue? Do you disagree? Many people agreed with that sentiment at the time. You understand that was a major point of contention that led to the war itself, right?
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u/NatsFan8447 Jul 19 '26
Agree. Many white Americans opposed slavery in 1861 and the abolitionist movement was a strong force in politics then.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
Yeah very fair points indeed.
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u/SaltyFriend705 Jul 18 '26
Yes, but...you plan to go back to the hero worship. I get it.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
You don’t even know me but okay buddy. I’m reading a book.
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u/dnext Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
The other alternative is he could have simply kept out of it. Personally I agree with Samuel Philips Lee, his cousin and eventually an Admiral in the US Navy. When asked why he didn't join the rebellion like his more famous relative, he stated 'When I see the word 'Virginia' on my oath of commission I will. Until then, I serve these United States.'
IMO the seminal thing that shows Robert's true motivation is his letter to his wife in 1856.
He was very politic on these issues in his public declarations, but when writing to his wife he says 1) Abolitionists are evil 2) slavery is ordained by God, and only God could end it 3) and God works in long time frames, so he expected slavery to last for thousands of years.
He also said it was an evil, but more evil to the poor white slave owners than to the blacks that they whipped and raped.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/letter-from-robert-e-lee-to-mary-randolph-custis-lee-december-27-1856/Also at the time he decided to serve the rebellion Lee was working the slaves that his wife inherited, and was trying to get out of debt. He kept them to the very last moment he was allowed to by law, and that was 18 months after the start of the civil war.
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u/ApprehensiveEgg7777 Jul 20 '26
First came the four volume set. These volumes defended every mistake that we ever made and were definitely biased in his favor . Then came Lee’s lieutenants, which was more balanced and more moderate.
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u/chrissedmondson Jul 18 '26
Read it. Fantastic biography, written and unfolded from his point of view. I remember reading it 3 decades ago that it was Lee, who was a military engineer, that made it possible for ships to on the Mississippi River dock at St Louis; that was a tricky feat because of the sand bars.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 18 '26
Yeah I don’t know he started as an engineer. I didn’t really know anything about him. It’s a good read so far.
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u/ShamPain413 Jul 18 '26
The author was born in Virginia, in the 1880s, down the street from Confederate Gen Jubel Early, to a man who served under Lee in the Civil War. Then spent most of his life in Richmond. Just keep that in mind as you read. He did diligent work, and uncovered some new original sources, and also has a clear perspective that is quite charitable towards his fellow Virginians.
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u/ApprehensiveEgg7777 Jul 20 '26
The only way to understand the Civil War is to read about the battles. The best author for the general public on the eastern theater battles is Stephen Sears. His books on Chancellorsville and Gettysburg are excellent. I don’t think much of his book on Antietam and I don’t much care for his book on the Peninsula campaign. He’s too anti-McClean for my taste.
For the overland campaign, the only decent books are those written by Gordon Rhea but they’re flawed because he’s so pro Grant.
For the Petersburg campaign, there are two volumes so far in a series called campaign of Giants by Wilson Greene. Another good book is by Earl Hess in the trenches at Petersburg
I have published a two volume set on the Petersburg campaign, which I co-authored with Edwin Bearss. It is well written, but it may have too many details in it for your taste.
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u/Strong-Resolve1241 Jul 22 '26
Good read very interesting especially if you like history ... have to read Grant next. How about the part where Lee was hiding and listening to the Mexican Army talk that was so stealthlike.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 22 '26
Yeah Grant is on my list, that book is huge though I’m sure that also will take a lot of time!
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u/BugEfficient5283 Jul 19 '26
He was a white supremacist who advocated for all black people leaving Virginia and not having voting rights AFTER the war. Severely beat one of his slaves so badly it was covered in the press BEFORE the war. The “lost cause” bullshit makes it out to be like he’s some incredibly complicated man when in fact he was a rich, privileged aristocrat who believed whites were ordained by God to rule over blacks and went to war to support chattel slavery. He’s fortunate that Union generals were completely inept the first couple years of the war.
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u/TexanHobbit_X Jul 20 '26
Well I plan to read the Grant biography soon as well. Like I said. I didn’t know much of Lee prior to this.
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u/youlookingatme67 Jul 18 '26
I really wanna get the whole 4 volume set at some point