Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating insight into Lyon's character, April 30, 1998
Christopher Phillips provides the reader with a fascinting insight into the character of Nathaniel Lyon. Rarely in reading a biography has the reader come away with such a clear and precise understanding as to what the central character's personality was really like.
By providing this insight into Lyon's character the reader can clearly understand what motivated Lyon to take the actions he took in the troubled 1860's in Missouri. Lyon was a not very likable individual, He brought a zealot's zeal to virtually everything he believed in or did regardless of the conseqences. In the end this zeal brought about his own death. A great read...two thumbs up.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read Between the Lines, August 18, 2007
This paperback* is useful as a cheap (book can be purchased at a deep discount) means to get an idea of what occurred in Missouri during the first part of the Civil War. Phillip's attempt to psychologically profile General Lyon with today's sensitivities provides the reader with comic relief in this account of some of the darkest days in our history.
*note: one needs to be able to read between the lines of Phillip's politically correct revisionist slant on history.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Startling portrait of a controversial, energetic figure, July 15, 2007
Damned Yankee provides a surprisingly detailed study of the life of U.S. Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon. Author Chistopher Phillips probes deeply into Lyon's background, family, and military career. The product is a fascinating portrait of a determined and disturbing figure.
Nathaniel Lyon seized the initiative in Missouri, never allowing the determined secessionist governor an opportunity to guide the state out of the Union. While Missourians overall desired neutrality and elected secession convention delegates who soundly rejected secession, the elected state government leaned far more Southern than strictly neutral. From the moment of his entry onto the scene in St. Louis, Lyon worked tirelessly to frustrate Southern ambitions on the Federal arsenal. He butted heads with his more passive superiors in St. Louis; and he successfully conspired with various political figures to usurp and replace these impediments to his perceived mission.
Lyon is a unique personage with an intensely individual interpretation of right and wrong. The author's central theme is that Lyon sought to punish those who strayed from what Lyon perceived to be the right path; and the author is effective in presenting his case. Lyon's disagreements with superiors and fellow officers were frequently intense, often to the point of insufferable insubordination. His punishment of subordinates for infractions was also extreme to the point he was successfully court-martialed for excessive punishment.
The events in Lyon's career I found most disturbing related to his sanctioned and authorized reprisal massacres of Native Americans in California. This certainly makes his declaration of war in Missouri far more threatening: "Better, sir, far better, that the blood of every man, woman and child within the limits of the State should flow, than that she should defy the federal government."
As a military commander and organizer, Lyon proved incredibly capable. Here was a commander with the bold aggressiveness of Grant, the self-assured intensity of Forrest, and the discipline of Stonewall Jackson. However, he also possessed huge flaws such as an inability to get along, political inflexibility, and subversive intrigue that likely would have undone him had he not perished at Wilson's Creek. His eccentric and caustic beliefs were likely to produce outrages.
The author does a fine job of presenting the various viewpoints and back and forth of central characters. When he does present his own conclusions though they are not always convincing. The argument that Lyon was the irritant that leading to much of the eventual conflict in Missouri falls particularly flat, as does the pronouncement that without strong Federal action Missouri's pro-Southern governor and government would still have been unsuccessful in their aims.
I'm also highly skeptical of the author's characterization of Lyon's reasoning for fighting at Wilson's Creek as being a punitive crusade. Lyon was right that he must use his force or lose it. He was also correct that if he retreated without a fight he would give the secessionists control of southwest Missouri. I can't fault the logic of forcing an engagement before determining whether or not to retire in such a circumstance.
There are a few errors in the descriptions of events in Lyon's Civil War campaign, but overall they are well presented. I will note that I was disappointed the author did not point out Lyon's quartermaster Justus McKinstry was later successfully court-martialed for his activities in disrupting Union supply. No doubt that would have detracted from the author's case against Lyon's circumventing of a clearly broken supply system in St. Louis.
Despite the above observations about the author overselling points of his case I agree with his central theme. This is a well-researched book and provides a complete profile of Nathaniel Lyon as a soldier and a man.
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