Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

David J. Eicher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2006

In DIXIE BETRAYED, David Eicher reveals for the first time the story of the political conspiracy, discord and dysfunction in Richmond that cost the South the Civil War. Drawing on a wide variety of previously unexploited sources, Eicher shows how President Jefferson Davis fought not only with the Confederate House and Senate and with State Governers but also with his own vice-president and secretary of state. He interfered with his generals in the field, micro-managing their campaigns and playing favourites, ignoring the chain of command. He trusted a number of men who were utterly incompetent. Secession didn't end with the breakaway of the Confederacy and Davis' election as president; some states, led by their governors, debated setting themselves up as separate nations, further undermining efforts to conduct a unified war effort. Sure to be one of the most provocative and controversial books about the Civil War to be published in decades, DIXIE BETRAYED blasts away previous theories with the force of a cannonball and the grace of a gentleman.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eicher follows up his impressive Civil War military history, 2002's The Longest Night, with this dynamic, if frustrating, history that begs the question of whether the Confederacy would have remained a unified nation if the South had won. As Eicher notes, the South was undermined by its paradoxical efforts to fight a war and retain state rights. Derision began immediately, as governors from Georgia and Texas wanted to control their own militias, and politicians from Virginia resented president Jefferson Davis's plan to construct a railroad within their state. Arguments erupted over conscription acts, military assignments and the limits of presidential power. Although Davis was a victim of a subversive Congress, he brought on much of the enmity by micromanaging the war effort, appointing an inexperienced war secretary, placing friends in positions of authority and doggedly guarding his power. By the end of the war, frustration over the constant arguing manifested itself in cunning acts of betrayal: vice president Alexander Stephens and a newspaper editor bought a newspaper to use as a conduit for airing their discontent. Another nemesis was arrested while on his way to Washington on an unauthorized peace mission. If Eicher's narrative chases its tail, it's because the South's leaders quarreled repeatedly over the same issues, though Eicher keeps the repetitive story lively through his nimble storytelling.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Much ink has been spilled debating the question of why the South lost the Civil War. Eicher offers his own significant analysis of what he views as the central issue: how the Confederacy shot itself in the foot because its leaders "together . . . founded an imperfect union, and together they destroyed it." How was a nation built primarily on the concept of states' rights ever going to create for itself sufficient unity of effort to win a war the very purpose of which, from the Union perspective, was to ensure the preservation of the Union those states had pulled out of? With great difficulty, of course, and this author sees that the problem for the South was never solved. President Jefferson Davis bickered with the Confederate Congress, the state governors bickered with him, the military also bickered with Congress, and Davis attempted to micromanage the whole enterprise; thus, Eicher considers the project doomed to failure from the moment of its inception. "The Confederacy," he insists, and building a strong case for his position, "was born sick." Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (March 22, 2006)
• ISBN-10: 0316739057
• ASIN: B001KZHGP6
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,163,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding and worth the effort, April 13, 2006

By 

James W. Durney (Tampa Bay area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War (Hardcover)

David Eicher has a difficult premise to prove but makes a good logical case for it. The short form is that the Southern mentality contained the seeds of the South's defeat. In saying this, he upsets all the Lost cause Mythology types, the new crop of Political Correctness types, in addition to all those that will disagree with his premise. This is a very heavy load for one book to bear and with all the naysayer's, I'm not sure a fair review is possible. One problem is the to lurid title, promising more than the premise can possibly deliver. However, with 120+ books on the American Civil War being released in 2006, I can understand wanting a "grabber" tile.
What this book contains is an intelligent description of CSA politics during the war. Detailing the waste of time, petty feuds and nastiness that the President, Congress and the state governors engaged in opens a window into a world that most histories ignore. Jefferson Davis often bears this alone. The book shows how much help he had from Stephens, Wigfall, Cobb, Brown and a legion of others. Their preference for obstructing, debating and endless obsession with "State's Rights" ended whatever small chance the South had for victory.
The war plays out in the background as Richmond and the states fight it out on center stage. The "CSA government" often is the President vs. the Vice-president with congress back stabbing both. The other option is the CSA congress unable to produce anything but endless debate. The sovereign state governors, see little reason for a central government and bicker with it over everything, until a Union Army appears on their borders. This leads to endless agreement over state regiments, where they are stationed and who commands them.
At the heart of the problem is the life experience of these men. They are the "opposition", a role that they can not abandon when they become the nation. All of them had spent their political life fighting the United States of America, if their party was in power or not. Proud to a fault, ready to argue the smallest point of order and used to obstructing legislation they carry these traits to Richmond, damaging their cause and reducing any chance of winning the war.
The chapter "Peace Proposals" and the Epilogue are worth the price of the book. The Epilogue contains as good a short history of the development of and Northern response to the "Lost Cause" as I've found. "Peace Proposals", shows how the years of silliness finally cause an almost total breakdown of the Confederacy. David Eicher is a very good writer but this is not an easy nor quick read. If you stay with it, you will gain a valuable insight into why the CSA government didn't work and the impact this has on the war effort.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting attempt...with a good Epilogue, April 10, 2006

By 

Colonel Moran - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War (Hardcover)

Eicher presents his view of the downfall of the Confederacy, based on internal political dissent and the failure of Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress to resolve their many differences. He raises good points, although William Davis addresses many of these issues, in Look Away, in a somewhat more cohesive book. Eicher is strong on character sketches of key Confederate politicians, some of whom are not well known. The book drags at times, with long, somewhat tedious, quotations filling up more page space than is needed. However, the final chapter, his Epilogue, does an excellent job of explaining why the South lost the military aspects of the war but won the subsequent intellectual history of the conflict.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit one-sided view of events, but not as bad as some have said., March 20, 2006

By 

Tony C (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War (Hardcover)

Dixie Betrayed (How the South Really Lost the Civil War) is a fascinating look at the government of the Confederate States of America. David J. Eicher explains why the Confederate States were doomed from the start, despite so many early victories on the battlefields. His revealing look at how the Confederate Congress functioned, and the battles that it fought contains all the intrigue associated with modern politics.

Eicher claims that the Confederacy was `born sick'. His thesis is that the states that succeeded from the Union were too strongly in favor of state's rights to form a new government strong enough to rule. He goes to great length to find first source historical records to prove this. He pieces together private correspondence from Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, Congressional leaders, and state governors to show a government in complete disarray. But he never probes into any other aspect of the Civil War.

He could have just as easily made a very similar case against the United States government. Like Davis, Abraham Lincoln had few friends in his Congress. Lincoln also suspended the writ of habeas corpus, declared martial law in major cities, jailed citizens for months for flimsy reasons allowing them no legal recourse. Lincoln was just as guilty as Davis of micromanaging the military, putting incompetent men in positions of power, and playing favorites through out the government. Both Presidents were also stubborn and refused to listen to anyone that disagreed with them.

The book is one of the few times that a major historian has looked beyond the battles to the inner workings of the Confederacy to find a reason for their loss. In doing so Eicher reveals the power struggles and back biting that prevented the Confederate government from being able to capitalize on the South's military victories. He illustrates the difficulty in waging a war when the central government does not have clear power to assert itself over the individual state governments. As the war progressed, he argues, the states became more focused on themselves and less willing to contribute troops, materials, and monies to the war effort; all the time expecting more and more from the Confederate Congress.

At times it seems as if Eicher is repeating himself when he writes about the dealings of President Davis and his Congress. This is because so often they covered the same ground, never coming to a real conclusion. While that was indeed the case many times, it does cause the book to drag towards the end. Readers that are not historians may well wish Eicher had used few (or at least shorter) quotes to make his points, and that he would have kept the plot moving a bit faster.

This is not a comprehensive look at the Civil War. Eicher has chosen not discuss any battle or skirmish in detail, except to point out a particular failing of the Confederate Congress or President. He also mentions none of the problems the war created in the North, or the difficulties Lincoln faced in his own Congress.

It is a compelling thesis written in clear, easy text making it accessible to today's readers. Southern Traditionalists are going to be bothered that there is none of the romanticisms of the South in Dixie Betrayed, and military buffs are going to be let down by the lack of attention paid to the battles. But readers looking for something new on a very well documented topic are going to be pleased with this book, even if it seems a bit slanted at times.