Customer Reviews

The Camden Expedition of 1864 and the Opportunity Lost by the Confederacy to Change the Civil War

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This is an account of a largely neglected expedition during the Civil War which was part of the Red River Campaign.. The eastern theater of the civil war has garnered the historical scrutiny of many writers while treating the campaigns west of the Mississippi as a side show of little significance. Michael Forsyth's book provides a well researched treatise that refutes such a view and asserts that this expedition had significant implications to the northern war effort. The author provides insight into the characters and personalities of the commanders' involved as well as detailed descriptions of the events leading to and during the engagements between the opposing armies. His premise, that Steele's expedition saved Banks' army and thus contributed to the eventual success of the Union Army in the east has well documented merit. This book should be read in concert with Michael Forsyth's other book "Red River Campaign of 1864 and the Loss by the Confederacy of the Civil War", Ludwell H. Johnson's book "Red River Campaign. Politics & Cotton in the Civil War". Gary Dillard Joiner's book, "One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End. The Red River Campaign of 1864", and Mark Christ's book, "All Cut To Pieces and Gone To Hell." The Civil War, Race Relations and the Battle of Poison Spring. I highly recommend these books for those wanting a greater understanding of the Trans Mississippi conflict and its contribution to the greater picture of the American Civil War as well as a look at Civil War America's "heart of darkness".

My only complaint was the maps in the book are Diagrammatic and would benefit more if they had more scale and topographical detail.

To the memory of Josephus Utt, Co. K, 14th. Kansas Cavalry at Poison Spring Arkansas 1864.

This study of the Camden Expedition by Michael J. Forsyth goes a long way in filling the gap in the study of the war in Arkansas and the Trans-Mississippi Theatre and is much needed. The only other book-length treatment of this event is the one by Edwin C. Bearss, "Steele's Retreat from Camden and the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry" published in the 1960s, which itself is still a worthwhile read.

By way of comparison, one of the improvements of Forsyth's study of this expedition over the work by Bearss' is that Forsyth covers the entire expedition from the time Steele's army left Little Rock until their return, whereas Bearss begins his work with Steele's army already at Camden, thus skipping over nearly a third of the story. Forsyth also does a very good job of demonstrating the importance of the campaign in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre and how the commanders personalities and personal motives influenced the course of the campaign. Bearss' work, however, is much better than Forsyth's in area: the maps. The maps in Bearss' study are detailed and make following the course of the major battles and troop movements easy to follow. Forsyth's maps seem more crude and try to use modern military map symbols to reperents units and movements. I do not believe this works very well with Civil War battles.

The maps notwithstanding, I fully recommend this book as an excellent treatment on this event of the Civil War in Arkansas. It is nice to have a contemporary study avaiable on this event and I hope that the author will continue to produce more such works on the war in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre. I enjoyed reading it.

He covered the subject well and I learned a lot about this failed expedition. However, the author repeats himself over and over about how the Union Men who survived went on to join Sherman's march to the sea and ended the war. He may have a point, but it only needed to state it once or twice. It felt like he was padding the book or forcing his opinion on the reader. Otherwise, he handled the subject with decorum and balance.

this is a good book. My family is from Camden so having a book that deals directly with where we come from is great.