Jubal Early : Robert E. Lee's "bad old man" / Benjamin Franklin Cooling III.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooling, Benjamin Franklin, III, 1938- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Early, Jubal Anderson, 1816-1894.

Early, Jubal Anderson.

Confederate States of America. Army.

Generals--Confederate States of America--Biography.

Generals.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Biography.

United States.

History.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns.

Confederate States of America. Army--Biography.

Confederate States of America.

Military campaigns.

United States--Confederate States of America.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 201 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2014]

Summary:

In Jubal Early: Robert E. Lee's "Bad Old Man," Civil War historian B. F. Cooling III takes a fresh look at Confederate lieutenant general Jubal Anderson Early, one of the most fascinating, idiosyncratic characters in the pantheon of Confederate heroes and "villains. Dubbed by Robert E. Lee "bad old man" because of his demeanor, Early was also Lee's chosen instrument to attack and capture Washington and defend the Shenandoah Valley granary in 1864. Neither cornered nor snared by Union opponents, Early came closest of any Confederate general to capturing Washington, ending Lincoln's presidency, and forever changing the fate of American history. His failure to emerge victorious bespeaks as much of his own foibles as the counter-efforts of the enemy, the effects of weather, and the shortcomings of his army. From the pinnacle of success, Early descended to the trough of defeat within three months, when opponent General Philip Sheridan resoundingly defeated his troops in the Valley Campaign of 1864. Early famously exhibited a less gallant personality as a leading Confederate practitioner of "hard" or destructive war, a tactic usually ascribed co Union generals Hunter, Sheridan, and Sherman. An extortionist of Yankee capital in northern towns in Pennsylvania and - in the form of - became forever associated with the wanton destruction of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, as well as Congressman Thaddeus Steven's private commercial ironworks and the private dwellings of Maryland governor Augustus Bradford and postmaster general Montgomery Blair. How war hardened a crabbed, arthritically hobbled yet brilliantly pragmatic soldier and lawyer is one of the most fascinating puzzles of personality in Civil War history. One of the most alluring yet repellent figures of Southern Confederate history, Early devolved from the prewar constitutional unionist to the postwar personification of the unreconstructed rebel and progenitor of the "lost cause" explanation for the demise of the Confederacy's experiment in rebellion and independence. This critical study explains how one of Virginia's loyal sons came through war and peace to garner a unique position in the Confederacy's hall of fame and the Union's cabinet of military villains. Book jacket.

Contents:

Molding a Piedmont soldier, lawyer/reluctant secessionist

Proving himself: First Manassas to Second Fredericksburg

Searching for Stonewall's successor

Jubal's moment of truth: the Washington Campaign

Lee's forlorn hope: the Shenandoah nadir

Unrepentant apostle of the lost cause

Old Jube and American memory: explaining Jubal Early.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810889132

0810889137

OCLC:

878023987