Fort Donelson's Legacy: War and Society in Kentucky and Tennessee, 1862–1863 - Softcover

Cooling, Benjamin Franklin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1572336277 ISBN 13: 9781572336278

Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press, 2010

Synopsis

Fort Donelson's Legacy portrays the tapestry of war and society in the upper southern heartland of Tennessee and Kentucky after the key Union victories at Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. Those victories, notes Benjamin Franklin Cooling, could have delivered the decisive blow to the Confederacy in the West and ended the war in that theater. Instead, what followed was terrible devastation and bloodshed that embroiled soldier and civilian alike.

Cooling compellingly describes a struggle that was marked not only by the movement of armies and the strategies of generals but also by the rise of guerrilla bands and civil resistance. It was, in part, a war fought for geography—for rivers and railroads and for strategic cities such as Nashville, Louisville, and Chattanooga. But it was also a war for the hearts and minds of the populace. "Stubborn civilian opposition to Union invaders," Cooling writes, "prompted oppressive military occupation, subversion of civil liberties, and confiscation of personal property in the name of allegiance to the United States—or to the Confederacy, for that matter, since some Unionist southerners resented Confederate intrusion fully as much as their secessionist neighbors opposed Yankee government."

In exploring the complex terrain of "total war" that steadily engulfed Tennessee and Kentucky, Cooling draws on a huge array of sources, including official military records and countless diaries and memoirs. He makes considerable use of the words of participants to capture the attitudes and concerns of those on both sides. The result is a masterful addition to Civil War literature that integrates the military, social, political, and economic aspects of the conflict into a large and endlessly fascinating picture.

About this title

About the Author:

The Author: Benjamin Franklin Cooling, a research director for the United States Department of Energy, is also professor of history at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University. His published works include Forts Henry and Donelson: Key to the Confederate Heartland and Jubal Early's Raid on Washington.

From Booklist:

The second volume of a projected trilogy on the Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee begins with the February 1862 Union capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, which opened the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers to the Union and permitted advances into the two border states even when Confederate cavalry prevented use of the railroads. Military operations divided the Kentuckians and Tennesseeans still further into Unionist and secessionist camps, however, and Confederate raiders and Union retaliations became a vicious cycle distinguished by increasingly destructive repression and confiscation. By the time an official Union policy of freeing (and in some cases arming) slaves emerged, both states were largely wrecked economically, and countless local feuds were taking a steady toll, even in areas in which the armies were not operating. To cover military operations, economic and social consequences, and the political background alike, Cooling has written a long, dense book, daunting to neophyte buffs but a treasure trove for serious Civil War students. Roland Green

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1572336277
• ISBN 13: 9781572336278
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408