Customer Reviews

Morgan's Raiders (Civil War Library)

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I live in Greeneville, Tn and enjoy learning more about the civil war. General Morgan visited Greeneville often during the war and enjoyed staying at one of the nicest homes in the area known as the Williams/Dixon mansion which today has been restored to resemble the original splendor of the days when Gen. Morgan visited. Unfortunatley, Greeneville is also the town were General Morgan was killed by Federal troops that had surrounded the town after learning from an informant that Morgan was visiting. This book is much more interesting than I thought it would be. I purchased the book in Sacramento, CA on a sale rack. I lived in Greeneville in the early 80's and didn't think I would ever live here again, but I had a chance to move back about 2 yrs. ago so I am just now reading the book. This book is a good blend of technical details and human interest stories and features many short poems and songs written by the men that were under General Morgan's leadership. I highly recommend this book to all Civil War enthusiats but I feel it would be interesting reading to others as well. People involved with horses would also find this book interesting.

Brown's narrative account of John Hunt Morgan's cavalry exploits during the Civil War is thorough and entertaining, with many interesting details of the individuals involved. Unfortunately, it is also flawed by a heavy Southern bias and lack of perspective, so read with a grain of salt. Brown gives the impression that Kentucky was heavily pro-Southern, and fails to explain that that it remained in the Union because Confederate general Polk was the first to breach its short-lived "neutrality." He also fails to explain that Bragg decided to retreat from his 1862 invasion of Kentucky largely because the male population did not rally to join him in rebellion, as expected. Perhaps his biggest lapse was his description of Antietum as "Lee's glorious victory over McLellan." I was also disappointed by the lack of a balanced analysis of Morgan's effectiveness as a cavalry raider, and the lack of comparison with contemporaries such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and Union counterpart Frank Wolford. Morgan becomes "legendary" after the first small skirmishes, and remains a perfect hero throughout, despite many opinons to the contrary, such as Bragg, Jefferson Davis, and most of the senior command! Even his disasterous raid into Indiana and Ohio is treated as a great victory.