Reviews for Lincoln's Supreme Court

The average rating for Lincoln's Supreme Court based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-01-13 00:00:00 Kevin Jackson Johnny Reb's War is a curious collection of two historical articles by David Williams, the contents of which were later encompassed by his impressively depressing People's History of the American Civil War as well as Bitterly Divided: The South's Inner Civil War. The two articles review the miserable conditions of the Confederate army (starving, barely clothed, and shoeless by 1862) on the eve of Antietam, as well as the prolonged plight of the southern poor in Georgia at home. The two intersect nicely, because the wretched conditions at the front, combined with the fact that their wives and children were starving, sick, and being plundered by their own government, led to crippling desertion; Jefferson Davis estimated in 1864 that as much as two thirds of the entire army had simply given up. Those who have never explored this part of the Civil War before, of course, are in for surprises -- they will learn, from a source who is by no means sympathetic to the southern cause, that most southern combatants were poor yeomen who rallied to the Confederate banner only when Lincoln announced an invasion; that the wealthy planters who voted for secession not only exempted themselves from fighting in the war, but drastically weakened the army by focusing on cash crops they could only sell to the 'enemy', rather than food to supply their countrymen; and that the Confederate government bankrupted its moral support fairly quickly by imposing subscription, suspending habeaus corpus, and not checking corruption. Williams provides a long train of stories and scathing comments pulled from contemporary newspapers and letters, but -- as with Williams' previous works -- I find myself wishing I could find similar information from different sources to get better perspective.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-01-25 00:00:00 Michael Davison I read Hoehling's book on Vicksburg in order to help prepare for a talk I have to give on the Siege of Vicksburg to a local Civil War group. It provided a lot of valuable information on the impact of the siege upon the civilians in the town and their sufferings and sacrifices as well as their lives in the caves many of them inhabited for safety from the constant shelling. He also gives a real insight into the life of the Rebel soldiers manning the long line of fortifications . Well worth reading!!!