Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War [Hardcover]

David Williams (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1595581081 | ISBN-13: 978-1595581082 | Publication Date: August 1, 2008 | Edition: 1

From the author of the celebrated A People's History of the Civil War, a new account of the Confederacy's collapse from within.

The American Confederacy, historian David Williams reveals, was in fact fighting two civil wars—an external one that we hear so much about and an internal one about which there is scant literature and virtually no public awareness.

From the Confederacy's very beginnings, Williams shows, white southerners were as likely to have opposed secession as supported it, and they undermined the Confederate war effort at nearly every turn. The draft law was nearly impossible to enforce, women defied Confederate authorities by staging food riots, and most of the time two-thirds of the Confederate army was absent with or without leave. In just one of many telling examples in this rich and eye-opening narrative history, Williams shows that, if the nearly half-million southerners who served in the Union military had been with the Confederates, the opposing forces would have been evenly matched.

Shattering the myth of wartime southern unity, this riveting new analysis takes on the enduring power of the Confederacy's image and reveals it to be, like the Confederacy itself, a hollow shell.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This fast-paced book will be a revelation even to professional historians. Pulling together the latest scholarship with his own research, Williams (A People's History of the Civil War), a professor of history at Valdosta State University, puts an end to any lingering claim that the Confederacy was united in favor of secession during the Civil War. His astonishing story details the deep, often murderous divisions in Southern society. Southerners took up arms against each other, engaged in massacres, guerrilla warfare, vigilante justice and lynchings, and deserted in droves from the Confederate army (300,000 men joined the Union forces). Unionist politicians never stopped battling secessionism. Some counties and regions even seceded from the secessionists. Poor whites resented the large slave owners, who had engineered the war but were exempt from the draft. Not surprisingly, slaves fought slaveholders for their freedom and aided the Union cause. So did women and Indians. Williams's long overdue work makes indelibly clear that Southerners themselves played a major role in doing in the secessionist South. With this book, the history of the Civil War will never be the same again. Illus. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Williams marshals abundant evidence to demonstrate that the Confederacy also lost an internal civil war during 1861–65. Slaveholding planters had pushed secession against the wishes of the nonslaveholding majority of white Southerners, who were profoundly skeptical of slavery. Most Southerners looked on the conflict with the North as “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,” especially because owners of 20 or more slaves and all planters and public officials were exempt from military service. The planters’ continued raising of cotton and tobacco rather than food for the army; a military draft from 1862 on; skyrocketing taxes; the confiscation of nonplanters’ goods for the army—all these and more reinforced the class-based perception of the war. From the outset, desertion from the army was constant, and because deserters were savagely hunted, a new underground railroad arose, bringing deserters north, often to join the ranks of the half-million Union soldiers from the South. The Confederacy lost, it seems, because it was precisely the kind of house divided against itself that Lincoln famously said could not stand. This firm repudiation of the myth of the solid Confederate South is absolutely essential Civil War reading. --Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: New Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595581081
• ISBN-13: 978-1595581082
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,048,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Williams has authored eight books, including two nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in history: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR and BITTERLY DIVIDED: THE SOUTH'S INNER CIVIL WAR. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Auburn University and is a professor of history at Valdosta State University, where for the past twenty-four years he has taught courses in the Civil War era, the Old South, and Georgia history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Eye-Opener, September 3, 2008

By 

C. P. Anderson (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War (Hardcover)

Another nail in the coffin of the Lost Cause, this books shows how little united the Confederacy actually was. Did you know, for example, that half a million Southerners fought for the Union? How about that half of Lee's army had deserted *before* Gettysburg?

Williams is particularly good at throwing light on why the South was so divided. He traces it all, basically, to class war - "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." He shows how planters led the South into secession (and kept the government in their hands to the very end), did their best to stay out of the fight (are you familiar with the 20-slave exemption?), used their muscle to get the poor into the fight (the draft and impressment), and helped starve the new nation (by planting cash crops instead of food and by scamming the government).

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that a lot of the evidence is very incidental - an editorial here, an incident there, a letter over there. I, personally, would have liked to have seen more numbers. For example, of the 300,000 white Southerners who fought for the Union, how many were from border states, how many from the mountains? I do realize that those numbers might be a little hard to come by. I also feel that the sheer number of incidents the author marshalls are probably more than enough. The cumulative effect really is quite overwhelming.

Another thing the incidental approach was good for (though I'm not sure this was the author's intent) was getting across how awful the war could be for the Unionists (actually, for all concerned). There was very little chivalry involved in the massacres, beating of women, forced marches of Indians, shooting of black prisoners, etc. Seems almost like a tune-up for the reign of terror that would be Reconstruction (check out The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox for that).

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Book on the Civil War..., August 29, 2008

By 

Michael Santomauro "What sort of Truth is it ... (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War (Hardcover)

Generations of students have been taught that the South lost the Civil War because of the North's superior industry and population. This book suggests another reason: Southerners were largely responsible for defeating the Confederacy.

Prof. David Williams lays out REVISIONIST-upsetting arguments. Because of this book the history of the Civil War will never be the same again.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This review was written by a Southern Unionist. :-), November 13, 2010

By 

The Seeker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War (Hardcover)

This is a great book that addresses the myth about how "united" the South was during the American Civil War. In all reality, a second war was going on among Southerners.

During the rebellion, many Southern's moved up North and some joined the United States Military. Others joined when Union armies entered their hometowns in the South. Nearly 300,000 Southern's served in the Federal Army during the War of the Rebellion, and every Southern state, except South Carolina, raised Unionist regiments. Southern Unionists were mostly used as anti-guerrilla forces and as occupation troops in areas of the rebellion occupied by the Union.

Many rebel deserters joined antiwar organizations that had been active in the South since the war's beginning. Others joined draft dodgers and other anti-Confederates to form gangs to fight off any rebs trying to arrest them.

The truth is, most Southern's didn't even want to leave the Union. Most of the men in gray were only fighting to protect their homes and didn't care which side won or lost, just as long as their loved ones were safe. And when the war ended, plenty of people in the South were just as happy as most of the people in the North.

On a personal note, I've been fascinated by American Civil War history for most of my life, and despite being born and raised in the deep South, and currently still living there, I have always been more sympathetic towards the Union cause, so this book was very inspirational to me and made me not feel so alone. :) It's comforting knowing that plenty of other Southern's felt the way I feel during the War Between the States, and I admire their bravery. I am from Texas and there was talk of Texas seceding from the Union a few years ago, so I felt about 1/10th of what loyal Southern's must have felt back in 1861 and I personally hope the Union lives forever.