Customer Reviews

Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861-1865

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Thanks to Mr. Daniel and LSU Press we finally have a modern history of the too often neglected Army of the Cumberland (AoC). Where this book excells is in its characterization of the the high level command structure. While I was familar with much of this material I found this book helped me gain a far deeper understanding of the growth and transformation of the Army of Ohio into the Army of the Cumberland. Mr. Daniel also does a good job of weaving in plenty of first person detail to give this book the compelling human touch essential to any book's readability. Where this book falls short is in its operational details. The maps, what few there are don't really help the reader. The author also makes the case early on that he is not the big fan of George Thomas that previous AoC writers and biographers such as McKinney, Buell and Castel were. Yet Thomas comes off looking very good in Daniels' book. His only real dig against Thomas is that he was only the overseer of victory at Stones River and not the savior of that battle as other authors have claimed. Here is where the lack of operational detail bites Daniel. Thomas' key positioning of the Regular Brigade, his unbreakable reserve unit, followed by its nearly suicidal commitment at the key moment at Stones River, was the real turning point of that battle. The author provides a good description of the Regular Brigade's first engagement of Dec 31, 1862, at Stones River, but then omits their far more critical second action, ordered by Thomas, then attributes the Regulars total casualty figures for both actions to the less signifcant first action. John King is protrayed as the CO of the 18th US Infantry's three battalions when he was actually the CO the 15th US Infantry's one battalion. A better understand of the brigade level operational details might have led Mr. Daniel to some different conclusions. Still I am very happy with this book and consider it a neccessary reference for anyone seriously studying the Civil War's Western Theater.

Daniel has written the definitive history of the Army of the Cumberland which compares favorably with Connelly's two volumes that deal with the Confederate Army of Tennessee. In the first section Daniel excuses General Buell for failure to take Chattanooga because the Confederate cavalary destroyed all of his supply depots. However Daniel is very critical of Buell in the Battle of Perryville for not coming to defend his left and for allowing Bragg to invade Kentucky. Daniel is also critcal of Rosecrans for leaving his right flank vulnerabale during the Battle of Stones River and for failing to destroy the Confederate army of Tennessee in the spring of 1863. Finally Rosecrans failed miserabely in overexending his forces during the Battle of Chickamauga which left them vulnerabe for a Confederate attack. Daniel believes that the final general of the Army of the Cumberland, General Thomas, had flaws in that he was too slow like Buell, but gradually improved over time. This is a crtical and very readable history of the Army of the Cumberland, but Daniel leaves out how regimental dynamics such as those mentioned in Gerald Prokopowicz's book impeded the Army's military effectiveness. Overall, I would reccomend this book for anyone who is interested in the Western theater of the Civil War.

Ask any American to name a Civil War battle and the answer you will usually get is "Gettysburg". The average person knows little about the Western theatre of the conflict which was

crucial in leading to ultimate union victory (not that the Eastern theatre wasn't also key!).

The Rev. Larry Daniel's books on Shiloh and Soldiering in the Army of Tennesse are well done. In his latest work he chronicles the history of the Army of the Cumberland largest of the three

major union armies in the Western Theatre (the other two being the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio).

Instead of strictly battlefield accounts of such important battles as Shiloh, Stones River, Perryville, Chickamauga,

Chattanooga and the Atlanta Campaign the author focuses more

on the personalities and conflicts among the commanders.

Daniel draws detailed accounts of the five commanders of the Army of the Cumberland: Robert Anderson, William Sherman, Don

Carlos Buell, William Starke Rosecrans and George Thomas.

All of these men had major faults, enemies within the ranks and made mistakes. Nevertheless, the Army of the Cumberland fought well in several tough campaigns of the war.

Daniel writes clearly and his prose is easy to follow. The book took years to write, is well researched though it does need more and better maps.

This is a good book for a Civil War reader tired of the endless tomes on Virginia battles and longing to learn more

about the western campaigns of the Civil War.

A book by Larry J. Daniel is an event in the ACW community. He has an established reputation for scholarship and readability that some authors can only envy. A book on the Union Army of the Cumberland by him is a milestone. No real history of this army is in print. Except for some battle histories, the majority by Peter Cozens, the AOC might not exist in print. This book is a good start to correct a deficiency in ACW history.

First, this is a readable book populated with very well drawn characters. Second, the battles and campaigns occur within the life of the army. All to often, an army seems to spring from battle to battle without an idea of how or why. We understand how the campaigns come about and why the battles occur where they do. Most of all, we come to understand the relationships between the generals. Thomas' reasons for refusing to replace Buell and the effect it had on him is an interesting and on going story. How this action and Rosecrans' habits echo through the army's history is one of the best subplots in the book. This is not the reason for the book but these two men have a major impact on this army.

Objections, the maps could be better and more of them would have helped. The post Chattanooga history seems rushed; another 100 pages would have made this a better book. I would have liked to follow Thomas and the major elements of the AOC back to Nashville and seen them face Hood. These are "nits" and do not detract from this excellent book.

Mr. Daniel, a minister, not professional historian has undertaken an admirable task in this book. He chronicles well the activities and history of the high command of the least known of the major Union armies in the Civil War. His work however gives the reader little insight and analysis such as that a professional historian can provide. In essence he has taken the time to place in one volume all the material available on his subject but has added little to these facts in good historical analysis. Unfortunately in some key places even his facts are wrong. His narrative on the "Fatal Gap" at Chickamauga is outright incorrect and must have William Starke Rosecrans and Thomas J Wood spinning in their graves! He gives weight to the clearly fictional accounts of Rosecrans verbal tirade to Wood in the Fatal Gap episode on 20 September from EV Westrate that were added to Tucker's Chickamauga as if they were fact. More modern research has clearly shown this episode to be false and Daniel has performed a disservice to the history of the Army of the Cumberland by blowing his chance to set the record straight on this key episode at Chickamauga. Finally, Daniel describes the model for his book as that of Thomas Connelly's Army of Tennessee classic which probably suffers from over analysis. In Daniel's case, his work suffers from too little analysis and it shows.

A quite interesting topic, the Army of the Cumberland generally gets only passing attention in most works as its major battles, Stones River and Chickamauga, are covered. Here Larry Daniel provides an in-depth coverage, from its inception as the Army of the Ohio until its final battles at Franklin and Nashville. Generally speaking, like the Army of the Potomac, it was a poorly led army until after the ascension of Grant. Once Grant takes overall command, placing Sherman in charge, this Army performs well under George Thomas.

After Sherman's victory at Atlanta, the Army of the Cumberland is detached to address John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee as it seeks to redirect the Federal advance into Georgia by itself advancing into Tennessee, but Hood's army is destroyed by Thomas at Franklin and annihilated at Nashville. The second largest Union Army when it was under Don Carlos Buell, this army served in all the actions in middle Tennessee and participated in Shiloh as well. The Cumberland army engaged the Confederates across five times the territory as the Army of the Potomac with one half to one third fewer men, yet its achievements in the Central Theater rivaled those of its eastern counterpart.

This is a good work by Mr. Daniel, well written and well researched. He is not shy about delving into the politics, discord and poor leadership that prevented this army from achieving its full potential.

This volume focuses on the origins, development, and maturation of the Army of the Cumberland. The author, Larry Daniel, notes that the maturing of the Army and its best commander, General George Thomas, went together. He observes (page xi): ". . .George Thomas emerges as the catalyst that gave the army its lethal edge, but he is a flawed character who does not mature until late 1863."

The roots of the Army came with General Robert Anderson (after his surrender of Fort Sumter) and General William T. Sherman. Neither did well.

Then, Don Carlos Buell arrived as head of this fighting force. He was typical of many generals of the era--slow and loath to be aggressive. His tour of duty came to an end after the battle at Perrysville.

Then came William Rosecrans, quite capable in many ways, but also excitable and eccentric. He was also not terribly aggressive, although when he moved, he could be brilliant (e.g., the Tullahoma Campaign and his flanking poor Braxton Bragg out of Chattanooga). He delivered a flawed victory (but a victory nonetheless) at Murfreesboro (or Stones River), at a time when the Union forces were doing poorly alsewhere. In the process, he earned Abraham Lincoln's gratitude.

After the debacle at Chickamauga and Rosecrans' dithering while under siege in Chattanooga, George Thomas took over. With Grant and his favorite lieutenant, Sherman, on the scene, Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland played a critical role, with their storming of Missionary Ridge.

Later, with Sherman commanding the forces in the West, Thomas continued to lead "his" army and was an important contributor in the movement of Union forces toward Atlanta. After Atlanta, of course, Sherman divided his forces and the Army of the Cumberland, in essence, no longer existed as an independent force.

This is a competently written and fairly thorough record of this Union fighting force. A good addition to one's Civil War library.

I was very excited to start reading this book when I first got it. I knew very little about the war in the west and was looking forward to expanding my knoledge. The book started off with mass amounts of detail on the formation of the army, which although was a challenge to read I found interesting. The amount of reasearch and detail that he follows with about the high command of the army is amazing. With that being said, there were some problems. There were not nearly enough maps. Only 6 in a 400 odd page book, and not on troop positions became very confusing when he would elaboratly describe troop movements. I found it ironic that throughout the first half of the book he spends a great deal of time talking about the flawed character of Buell and how he was more of a mover than a fighter, when that's really how the book was. Daniels would spend pages and pages on how the armies got to a certain place, and then spend 3 or 4 pages on random scenes of battle, not giving a very good idea of how the battle unfolded at all. Having been to Shiloh, Perryville, and Stones river this book still left me confused on the battles. Although this book does help expand your ideas of the war in the west it leaves a lot of gaps that I'll have to fill with other books, and I don't really want to read the same stuff over again just to fill in the battles. I would recomend reading a different book on the western war before this one.

Larry Daniel performs a helpful service for students of the Civil War with this comprehensive history of the Union's Army of the Cumberland, from its initial formation and incarnation as the Army of the Ohio to its final dismemberment after the Battle for Atlanta. Perhaps one of its stongest features is its thorough coverage of the army's early days through the sacking of General Buell. It's a big canvas, and the story seems a bit rushed after the Battle of Chickamauga. Nevertheless, this study of the "warhorse" army of the West helps fill a big hole in Civil War literature!