Customer Reviews

Confederate General R.S. Ewell: Robert E. Lee's Hesitant Commander

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The amount of time and research that went into this book is hard to fathom as archives from many parts of the South have been scoured for material. Paul Casdorph would in fact be the perfect choice to teach graduate research seminars because he is so adept in this area. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the best researchers are not always the best writers. There is much information and insight into the life of General Richard Ewell to be found in this book but sometimes it is very hard to extract.

The author's thesis is that General Ewell just didn't have the personality to be an aggressive field commander and that may well have been the case but this often contradictory book falls far short of proving that point. The cases where Ewell was aggressive are hardly noted although they did exist and actually Ewell was sometimes more apt to attack than Stonewall Jackson. It is a comparison with Jackson that in fact makes up most of the author's argument. Again however incidents that contradict the author's theory are just brushed aside. For example, Jackson's extreme lethargy during the Seven Days battles is hardly dealt with at all.

Ewell's poor performance at Gettysburg seems to be the cornerstone of Casdorph's argument but alas it is also the weakest part of his argument. The reader is hit constantly with what Jackson might have done at Gettysburg, which is something we will never know. He might well have leaned up against a tree and took another nap. The author also brings up the old canard about Longstreet's late attack on July 2nd. I would be willing to bet that the author couldn't take a comparable number of men and make it from where Longstreet's men were at 11:00 PM on July 1st to where the attack is supposed to have come from in less than seven hours either. It would be especially unlikely with a guide that ended up costing Longstreet several hours.

Another problem rests with the writing style the author employs. There were places in this book that left me feeling as if I was trudging through knee deep mud. The writing does improve as the book goes along but there are places that are just mercilessly dull. He also misspells General Cleburne's name, which is a mistake that one shouldn't find in this type of scholarly work.

Still, Casdorph does make one very clear and astute point. Robert E. Lee had a blind spot for Virginia and Virginians and that seems to be the only real reason Ewell ever rose to corps command. Although there is no clear argument made in this text as to who might have been a better choice.

Overall the writing and thesis of this book are weak at best but there is still a lot of information to be found here. The author has presented several important facts and one can learn quite a bit about General Ewell and the Army of Northern Virginia in this book. If Mr. Casdorph was willing to do all of this research the least the reader can do is pick through the dull areas in order to access the information.