Customer Reviews

Brother Against Brother (Civil War)

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I personally loved the book. I think it was very well written and contained many documented accounts of the war that I had not read before. I love statistics and the book contained a lot.

The book explains the battles in detail. The only way you would get a more complete accounting is to read a book devoted to a single battle.

I don't think you will make a mistake buying this book.

This first volume in the Time-Life series on The Civil War begins with at look at "The Two Americas" in a series of contemporary paintings of a nation about to tear itself apart. Chapter 1, "One Nation, Divisible," sets up the slavery issue, from the establishment of the Mason-Dixon line to the Compromise of 1850, ending with a gallery of the noted abolitionists of the day. Chapter 2, "The Avenging Angel," focuses on the life and legacy of John Brown. Chapter 3, "Lincoln of Illinois," explains how Lincoln came to be the nominee of the Republican Party and won the Presidential election of 1860. Chapter 4, "Storm over Sumter," details the first crisis of the Lincoln's new administration over the Federal fort in the middle of Charleston harbor. Chapter 5, "The Guns Have Spoken," relates the actual attack that started the Civil War. In many regards this first volume by William C. Davis and the Editors of Time-Life Books is the most disappointing one in the series, simply because it necessarily glosses over the events leading to Fort Sumter. Trying to deal with Lincoln in a single chapter seems quite inadequate to the task, but then it is probably safe to assume the Civil War buffs reading these books know plenty on that particular subject. However, this book does set the tone for the series, including dozens of contemporary drawings, etchings, pamphlets, maps, photographs and the like to illustrate the text. Warning: if you read these books a lot they tend to come loose from the binding.

In this Time/Life volume I found at the library, James McPherson, the Pulitzer prize winner for 'Battle Cry of Freedom' wrote the preface. He is an acknowledged historian, an expert on the Civil War. America's Civil War pitted brother against brother, family against family, and state against state in November of 1863. Before it ended unpeacefully at Appomattox, Virginia, the families were devastated by the multiple deaths on both sides.

Started on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumpter in the Charleston Harbor, by the end of four years more than a million Americans had killed each other on the battlefields. Antietam was the bloodiest, with Gettysburg and Shiloh close behind, in the number of fatalities. Entire cities lay in ruin, as we saw in the movie, "Gone With the Wind," and a way of life vanished forever. The gentility of the South was destroyed by the Northern intruders.

All they know in the Northeast was fighting anyway, first with Britain (Revolution War) and the continuous battles with the native inhabitants, tribes of Indians, as did the Easterners when they moved West (fighting, killing, scalping by the Indians as Americans moved in to take over their lands). Taking another's property is still going on today in Knoxville, Tennessee. Here in the Smoky Mountains, we lived peaceably with the Cherokees. And then they were forced to leave their lands behind for the carpetbaggers from the North to take over, but that's anothre story and another review (someday). The four years of the Civil War (1861-1865) was America's bloodiest war on its own soil. Casualties on both sides multiplied.

On February 8, 1861, secessionist delegates in Montgomery, Alabama, adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was chosen as President and took office ten days later. At that time, he was a noted U. S. Senator from Mississippi. He declared that "all Southerners wanted to be left alone but, if attacked, they would defend themselves" and appealed, "Let the erring sisters go in peace."

Two weeks later, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th President and said that his duty was to defend the Union (federalists). In only five weeks, the war (that little Southern rebellion which expanded) began. In March, Jefferson Davis had issued a call for one hundred thousand Southern volunteers to defend their own homes. Some towns like my own hometown were divided in loyalties and the sons fought on different sides. Some were recruited by the North who had more provisions, good uniforms, and promises. The Southerners, in comparison, dressed in ragtag gray outfits.

Lincoln used his position to issue an executive order summoning 75,000 volunteers for three months' service! About twelve years ago, when questioned by a native of Belize in South America, who said ,"Tell me about your Civil War." I flauntingly said, "Oh, it was just brother against brother," which was no big deal in the place where I was born. Most killings back then in my hometown were by family members with big tempers they did not try to control. My new-found friend from Belize told me that surely it was more than that. He set me on the road to discovery about how the South suffered at the hands of the North, and it was nothing personal when brothers or cousins were recruited to fight against each other. This was not a game and none knew what exactly they were agreeing to do or how serious this war was to become. It was a "helter-skelter rush to arms" to defend a matter of principle and the Southern way of life.

We lost, but the war isnot over even now. One thing about Southerners with the Scots-Irish heritage is that we don't ever forget a wrong. This war divided families and life was never the same. No forgiveness, oncly rancor, for what was done to our lands and our way of life. Now, they've infiltrated our territories again, not with guns yet, but those awful dialects (way of speaking) which make them feel superior, and their debauchery with liquor and drugs. Right on Gay Street! The pictures in this book are fabulous, better and in more detail than any history book I've seen so far. Maybe in the 1960s, some Southerners did not overcome, as in the 1860s, but the 21st century is different. We will not let it happen again on our own lands. "Yankee, go home" is alive and well as it was in 1863-65. The results will be reversed this time. Before the real ending of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth who was 29 years younger than the president, took it in his befuddled mind to rectify the wrong perpetrated on his beloved South and shot in close proximity, causing a whole different outcome than would have been had Lincoln lived.