Customer Reviews

Cavalry of the Heartland: The Mounted Forces of the Army of Tennessee

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A Longacre book is always a question. He is capable of outstanding work but often, seems willing to work below his talents. Many of his books lack original research and depend instead on secondary sources. Often they contain little analysis and are prone to errors. All of his books are very readable. He is an excellent author, able to be informative and entertaining at the same time. Often he seems to strive for quantity over quality making him one of our most prolific authors.

This book has all the good and bad that we expect from this author.

With over 30 pages of Bibliography, the primary reference source is the excellent work by Horn & Connelly. Almost every footnote I checked referenced one of their books. The author uses his own books as a source on Joseph Wheeler.

The impact of the raiding done by Morgan & Forrest seems overstated. While they were a major PR problem, snapping up small garrisons never stopped Grant or Sherman. They created a great deal of addition effort and expenses but the impact was never as major as the author implies. Van Dorn's Holly Spring raid, one of the most successful of the war, rates one paragraph. Wheeler's role in the Tullahoma Campaign, Fort Pillow and Spring Hill are reported but not analyzed or cover in any depth.

An early statement that I found upsetting is on page 84. The author states that the "Native American" units fighting for the CSA at Pea Ridge "were permitted to scalp their victims". CSA General Albert Pike lost his command over this. Pike and Van Dorn, the CSA commander, denied and disavowed any knowledge of the incident when question by Curtis. That something nasty occured concerning these units is not a question. Stating this was a sanctioned activity is incorrect.

What is right with the book? It is an enjoyable read and provides a view of the Civil War we have not seen. Like the provable dice game, even though the dice are loaded and if you win, they will beat you up and steal your money. If you want to play dice, this is the only game in town. Until something else is written this is the only book, I know of, on the subject. It will give the reader a foundation to work with in trying to understand cavalry operations between the two major western armies. Read in conjunction with Connelly's books this book will be of real value.

CAVALRY OF THE HEARTLAND: THE MOUNTED FORCES OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE
EDWARD G. LONGACRE
WESTHOLME PUBLISHING, 2009
HARDCOVER, $35.00, 431 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, MAPS, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Army of Tennessee was the Confederacy's military mainstay in the Southern heartland. That it ultimately failed to withstand an ever-increasing and resilient Union opponent reflected more the flaws of the army's leadership then it revealed any absence of resolution or valor on the part of its soldiers. Created in late November, 1862 by combining the Army of Kentucky and the Army of Mississippi, it would fight major engagements at Stones River and Chickamauga, unsuccessfully lay siege to occupied Chattanooga, and then execute a skillful retrograde through the mountains of North Georgia to fight a series of battles in defense of Atlanta. After that city's fall, the army moved north into Tennessee to fight at Franklin and Nashville. By then, it was a badly mauled shadow of its former self, stumbling as much as marching toward its surrender near Durham, North Carolina, an event that occurred two weeks after Lee's Army of Northern irginia had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

In this Western Theater, Confederate cavalry commanders like Forrest, John Hunt Morgan, Earl Van Dorn, and Joseph Wheeler launched cavalry raids that were often as destructive of Union supply lines as they were daring. They could be strategically effective as well. In December, 1862, Forrest and Van Dorn so thoroughly destroyed the rail lines in Western Tennessee and the forward Union depot at Holly Springs in northeastern Mississippi that their actions halted Grant's initial overland advance against Vicksburg. Confederate mounted forces functioned effectively in the Trans-Mississippi because they weren't strapped by the shortage of horses. Nevertheless, while the cavalry forces that surrendered at the end of the war, they were a mere shadow of themselves. The fact and the fiction of the exploits of the Army of Mississippi's mounted forces, (like their other Confederate mounted units) were just beginning to grow.

CAVALRY OF THE HEARTLAND: THE MOUNTED FORCES OF THE ARMY OF TENNESSEE covers a subject that hasn't been written about for a number of years. The level of research is fine as well as the coverage by the author on the Army of Tennessee's mounted forces. While not a model campaign study, students of cavalry operations should find it worthwhile.

Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

Cavalry of the Heartland by Edward G. Longacre, author of several Civil War books, is a 400 page tome on the cavalry operations in the Western Theatre of the Civil War. It is a specific look at the role of the Confederate Cavalry in the West from 1861 to the close of hostilities in 1865. The three most important leaders of the Rebel Cavalry in the West were:
1. Nathan Bedford Forrest-He is considered the greatest cavalryman of the Civil War. Born in poverty in Tennessee in 1821 he became a millionaire through his distasteful work as a slave trader in Memphis. Forrest was a killer showing no remorse to the enemy. He was famed for his raids in West Tennessee, Alabama and Mississipi. Forrest fought hard at Ft. Donelson, Fallen Timbers, Shiloh and was considered a devil by General Sherman on his drive to Atlanta. Forrest won a brilliant victory over General Samuel Sturgis at Brice's Crossroads in Mississipi on June 10, 1864. He probably ordered the murder of captured black POW's following the fall of Ft. Pillow. Forrest emerges as a cruel but brilliant tactician who would brook no fools. He hated General Braxton Bragg and had little use for Little Joe Wheeler.
2. John Hunt Morgan-The debonair Morgan was a lady's man and cavalier leading his cavalry forces out of Lexington, Ky to reek havoc in the Confederate West. Morgan was noted for his summer raid into Kentucky in 1862 followed by his Christmas Raid. His greatest exploit was launched from Alexandria Tennessee in the summer of 1863. In that famous raid Morgan invaded Indiana and Ohio on the longest Confederate raid into Union territority during the war.
He and his men were captured and placed in the Ohio State Prison. They escaped. Morgan was shot dead in Tennessee in 1864.
3. Joe Wheeler 'called War Child" was only 5'2'' tall but was a West Pointer raised in New England and New York. He was, nevertheless, a Georgia native fighting with the South during the Civil War. Wheeler is famous for his Wautachie Valley raid and fighting Sherman during the latter's Atlanta campaign.
Longacre deals with all the major battles fought in the West: Mill Springs; Fts. Henry and Donelson; Shiloh; Perryville; Chickamauga and the Atlanta Campaign. His focus, though, is always on cavalry operations.
The book is a military history which is well served by several maps; photos and an extensive bibliography of first and secondary books, articles and memoirs. If you like military history this is a good book to begin your research on the Western theatre of the Civil War.