Book Description
Struggle for the Heartland tells the story surrounding the military campaign that began in early 1862 with the advance to Fort Henry and culminated in late May with the capture of Corinth, Mississippi. The first significant Northern penetration into the Confederate west, this campaign saw the military coming-of-age of Ulysses S. Grant and offered a hint as to where the Federals might win the war. For the South, it dashed any hopes of avoiding a protracted conflict. Stephen D. Engle colors in the details that bring great clarity and new life to the scene of these battles as well as to the social and political context in which they occurred.
Customer Reviews:
Provides Balanced Military, Social, and Political Coverage.......2007-01-11
Stephen D. Engle's Struggle for the Heartland takes the latest scholarship on "the campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth" and ties the military, political, and social issues faced during the campaign into an efficient and readable discussion of these events. The book is an entry in the University of Nebraska Press' Great Campaigns of the Civil War series of books. The book covers the time frame of the military campaign from Fort Henry to Corinth, including the Battle of Shiloh. Rather than focusing solely on military events, however, Engle provides a large amount of coverage to social and political considerations as well. The result, then, is a balanced overview of a campaign in which there was a "struggle for the heartland" of the Confederacy.
Northern military planners saw the obvious routes of attack into the Confederate "heartland" region provided by the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. It was simply a matter of preparing the armies to move in this direction, at least according to timid, methodical minds such as Henry Halleck and Don Carlos Buell, the two department commanders in the west. Albert Sidney Johnston, the overall Confederate commander in the west, gave wide latitude to his subordinates. One of these, Bishop Polk, had become obsessed with defending Columbus, Kentucky along the Mississippi River and virtually ignored the forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland to the east, even though they were in his department. The Union preparation may have taken quite a long time if not for the aggressive nature of Halleck's then unknown subordinate Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was determined to take Forts Henry and Donelson, defenders of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. His movement south caught both Halleck and Buell somewhat by surprise. The end result was that Grant managed to take both forts and capture over 10,000 Southern prisoners while Halleck and Buell haggled over cooperating in the expedition. As Grant's Army of the Tennessee rested and refitted along the Tennessee River south of the now captured forts Buell was to march his army southwest to meet them. Continued arguments between Halleck and Buell coupled with Grant's complacency at his Pittsburg Landing camp almost ended in disaster at the Battle of Shiloh. While Buell slowly marched toward the Tennessee River, Johnston and his subordinates had been busy at Corinth trying to recover the large amount of territory lost to Grant at the forts. The Battle of Shiloh prematurely ended these hopes as Grant's army was able to recover from their shock at being attacked and hold on as Buell's Army of the Ohio reached the field of battle. Johnston was killed and Beauregard, his second in command, was forced to retreat to Corinth. At this point in the campaign, Henry Halleck managed to obtain sole command of the armies in the West, and he gathered the armies of Grant, Buell, and Pope (fresh off a victory at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi) for a laborious advance on Corinth, the most vital railroad crossing in the Confederacy. The ending to this large campaign was anticlimactic, as Beauregard was forced to retreat due to poor water and increasing sickness in his army. Halleck had taken Corinth and cleared the Confederate Heartland of Southern armies. These military campaigns had seen great change in the way the North would prosecute the war, with important consequences.
Engle focuses quite a lot of time and energy to explaining how the large increase in the amount of Confederate territory controlled by the Union led to changes in the initial "soft war" policy espoused by the Lincoln Administration. Before Grant sailed south on the Tennessee to assault Fort Henry, Union armies were typically restrained and respectful when it came to the treatment of Southern civilians. No one better personified this idea than the commanders currently in charge of Union affairs: George B. McClellan as General In Chief with Henry Halleck and Don Carlos Buell as department heads in the West. These men were all democrats, and they believed in a war that would not upset the status quo. In other words, they wanted to leave the slavery issue alone, instead trying to treat Southerners well and return their slaves in the hope that they would come quickly and quietly back into the Union. The campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth showed that this soft war policy was not practical. Southerners continued to resist even when treated well, and guerilla forces sprung up where Confederate armies were unable to hold territory in a conventional manner. Soldiers from privates to generals also began to see the difference between poor white subsistence farmers and wealthy slave owners, eventually blaming the institution of slavery as the primary cause of the war. These troops began to resent orders such as Buell's General Orders 13a, which prevented foraging, returned runaway slaves, and otherwise treated Southerners with kid gloves. Men such as division commander Ormsby Mitchel began to take matters into their own hands, and eventually the government agreed with this "hard war" course of action. Ironically, writes Engle, the Union push into Confederate leaning western and central Tennessee only hastened the Union policy change. If Buell had instead invaded Unionist eastern Tennessee, per Lincoln's wishes, this soft war policy may have continued long past June 1862.
The Union war effort in the west was plagued with bickering among its top commanders, writes Engle. Partly to blame was the unwieldy command structure. Don Carlos Buell's Department of the Ohio and Henry Halleck's Department of Missouri joined together at the Tennessee River, precisely where the easiest avenue of attack into the Confederate Heartland was located. This naturally enough caused great friction between the two men, both of whom always proceeded cautiously and believed their own opinions were correct on military matters. McClellan and Lincoln did not help matters in Washington, instead simply ordering the two men to cooperate. While they bickered over who should move first and along what lines, Grant seized the initiative and moved, catching both men by surprise. Buell still refused to send much help and almost literally warned Halleck not to fail. Grant's attacks succeeded, and the next logical move was to concentrate on the Tennessee for a move against Corinth. This time Buell did finally move, but he managed to take his time. Luckily for Grant, Army of the Ohio division commander "Bull" Nelson marched forward rapidly and was available late on the first day at Shiloh. The command friction between these two men only ended when Halleck managed to persuade Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton that the West needed one commander.
Halleck also had his problems with Grant. Grant's victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson made Halleck jealous, and he childishly reacted by removing Grant from command on trumped up charges of drunkenness and Grant's failure to be present with his army when the Confederates launched an attack at Fort Donelson. Lincoln and Halleck, impressed with the aggressive Grant, and especially when they considered the conservative Halleck and Buell, lost no time in forcing Halleck to reinstate Grant. After Shiloh, Halleck again removed Grant from command of the Army of the Tennessee, bumping him up to the meaningless and superfluous "second in command" position during the advance on Corinth. Despite these and other quarrels, the Northern armies were able to force the Confederates from a large portion of the territory they held at the beginning of 1862.
Much of the Southern failure to hold this territory has to do with Jefferson Davis' utter lack of concern for the West. The roots of this attitude can be traced to the appointment of Albert Sidney Johnston to command in the West. Johnston was Davis' friend, and Davis believed him to be the finest general the Confederacy had. Davis left Johnston with very little men and materiel to work with, and as a result he had far too few men with which to defend a far too long defense line running from the Appalachians to the Indian Territory. To make matters worse, says Engle, Johnston frequently gave his subordinates far too much latitude in defending their various districts. This came back to haunt Johnston when General Polk became obsessed with defending Columbus, Kentucky, spending very little time preparing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Grant's quick strike caught the Confederate generals by surprise as well, and Johnston decided not to fight for Fort Donelson, in effect abandoning middle Tennessee and the capital at Nashville. This loss of large amounts of territory shocked and angered many Southerners, and Davis finally consented to send Johnston reinforcements. Johnston and Beauregard attempted to regain the lost territory with a surprise attack at Shiloh and failed, costing Johnston his life in the process. Beauregard was subsequently unable to hold Corinth in the face of a large Union force, poor water, and increasing sickness in his command.
Despite these Union successes, the Northern Generals did not typically take the political concerns of the Lincoln Administration into account in their military planning. The main case in point for the time frame of this book, according to Engle, concerns Lincoln's desire to liberate Unionist leaning, mountainous eastern Tennessee from Confederate rule. Lincoln knew that this area centered on Knoxville, Tennessee would more readily come back into the Union than the other flatter, slave holding sections of the state. Buell repeatedly refused to advance in this direction (at the same time refusing to cooperate with Halleck), claiming bad roads and numerous other reasons for delay. Buell also clashed with the Lincoln appointed military Governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a Radical Republican, and he wanted southerners punished for their treason. He and Buell held violently opposite views on the prosecution of the war, and they would clash for as long as Buell held command of the Army of the Ohio.
Struggle for the Heartland is one volume of many in the Great Campaigns of the Civil War Series, published by the University of Nebraska Press. Series editors Anne J. Bailey and Brooks Simpson write that the series "offers readers concise syntheses of the major campaigns of the war, reflecting the findings of recent scholarship. The series points to new ways of viewing military campaigns by looking beyond the battlefield and the headquarters tent to the wider political and social context within which these campaigns unfolded..." In addition to exploring strictly military events from February to June 1862 along the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi Rivers, Struggle for the Heartland takes a deeper look at the political and social issues as well, weaving all of these together into a cogent whole.
The eight maps are functional, but the battle maps do not add considerably to the discussion. The notes are mostly secondary sources, but in this case it is acceptable since the book's primary purpose is to bring together a syntheses of the latest findings on this subject. I suspect that the other books in this series follow this mold as well. Rather than a bibliography, we instead get a "Bibliographical Essay" of several pages. While I typically favor a standard bibliography, the focus and goals of this series make this essay perfectly acceptable under the circumstances. The index is rather bare bones as well, but serves its purpose.
Struggle for the Heartland is a well written summary of the campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth, giving readers used to a military-only approach to the Civil War a look into the political and social aspects of of the war tie into and guide military thinking. Engle's book is a fine example of "New Military History", and one which should serve to enlighten quite a few students of the war used to standard military history approach to a campaign. I do not want to imply that this book supplants those focusing on specific battles, such Benjamin Franklin Cooling's work on Forts Henry and Donelson or Larry Daniel's and Wiley Sword's studies of Shiloh. Instead, Struggle for the Heartland supplements traditional campaign studies and ties together strategic, political, and social concerns across a large area and span of time. I would recommend this one to those readers less interested in the military tactics of the battles themselves who are instead looking to study other aspects of the war. The book also serves as a fine primer for those students of military history looking to decipher how political and social aspects of the conflict moved and shaped military campaigns.
For Civil War buff reading lists.......2002-05-07
Struggle For The Heartland: The Campaigns From Fort Henry To Corinth by Stephen D. Engle (Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University) relates the Civil War campaign that began in early 1862 with Union penetration under General Ulysses S. Grant into the Confederate held west that culminated with the Northern capture of the Southern defended town of Corinth, Mississippi. Historian Stephen Engle also examines how prewar economic relations formed in this region, how relationships between locality and loyalty were developed and expressed, the commanders on both sides of the conflict, as well as other civil and military authorities. Engle also describes the campaigns' significance within the larger theater of war and the post-war era of Reconstruction. The Struggle For The Heartland is an informed and informative contribution to Civil War Studies and an enthusiastically recommended contribution to academic reference collections, as well as Civil War buff reading lists.
A superb contribution to Civil War studies........2002-03-29
Struggle For The Heartland: The Campaigns From Fort Henry To Corinth by Stephen Engle (professor of history, Florida Atlantic University) is the exhaustively researched, in-depth story about the military campaign that was the first significant Northern advance into the Confederate west. This campaign crushed all hopes the South had for avoiding a protracted battle, and set the stage for a grim and bloody war of attrition. Highly recommended for Civil War studies reading lists and reference collections, Struggle For The Heartland is an alternately fascinating and disturbing portrayal of a pivotal aspect of American military history.
Customer Reviews:
Grant Moves South.......2005-06-25
As told by one who served under him.
Manning Force was an officer in the Union Army that moved south into Tennessee at the beginning of the Civil War. This army was involved in the fighting at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, the carnage at Shiloh, and finally entered Northern Mississippi at Corinth - which began the initial phase of the march on Vicksburg.
Force later went on to serve under Sherman at Atlanta, and during Hood's desperate counterattacks was gravely wounded. However he survived and later became a prominent judge and politician in his native Ohio.
Along with a number of other former Union Civil War officers, Force helped write the multi-volume "Campaigns of the Civil War" series in the early and mid-1880s. The series became extremely popular with that generation which was beginning to forget about the Civil War.
Even after over 20 years, General Force was able to provide his reads with a sense of the scope of Grant's plans in the spring of 1862. He also sheds light on the operations and generalship of John Pope, who was then a rising star in the Union Army by his successes at New Madrid, Island Number 10, and Corinth - only to fail fast when he went east to confront Bobby Lee later that year. Here Force shows that Pope was NOT the braggart or ne'er do well later Civil War histories made him out to be, as his campaigns along the Mississippi were just as successful as Grant's were, though he faced considerably less resistance.
Force honorably sheds light too, on Grant's opposite - the well-respected and reluctant Confederate Major General Albert Sidney Johnston, quoting much from the late General's son's biography. Forced south after the fall of Fort Donelson, Johnston turned around and surprised Grant at Shiloh Church (Pittsburg Landing) only to be mortally wounded in a description by Force that is pretty terse rather than the dramatic tales of how he could have lived had a tourniquet been applied. With Johnston's death, and the arrival of Union reinforcements, the Confederate surge collapsed - and the Union armies was able to clear western Tennessee and North Mississippi of their foe. With his military experience, General Force was able to illuminate much of the action and tactics involved during this major battle as well as the other campaigns mentioned in this work.
This reprint has the original tiny lettering and ink maps of the period, so it may be a bit difficult to read, as all of the books in this series are. Still, it is a major account of the Shiloh Campaign, and a wonderful addition by a former serving officer in the Civil War enthusiast's bookshelf.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 510 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
Author: John D. Fowler
Publication:
Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 69
Issue: 3
Page: 707(2)
Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 571 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth.(Book review)
Author: M. Philip Lucas
Publication:
The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68
Issue: 2
Page: 341(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
The combination of superb and thoughtfully arranged illustrations, definitive text, and up-to-date illustration maps, all in a single volume, has already established the pocket-sized version of this guide, also published by Princeton University Press, as the most essential reference to European bird identification. This sumptuous large-format edition with entirely redesigned text is intended to complement the field guide and permit greater appreciation of the extraordinarily beautiful artwork.
The Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe provides the information needed to identify all European bird species in their normal seasonal and age-related plumage variations. Over 3,500 of the most accurate and attractive illustrations ever painted are accompanied by innovative pointers and captions drawing immediate attention to the key field marks. Particular attention has been paid to the design and arrangement of every page in order to facilitate easy comparison of confusing plumages. Vignettes illustrate typical habitat and characteristic behavior. On each page opposite the illustrations, brilliantly conceived texts detail habitat preferences, status in Europe, important identification features and, of course, voice. No other guide provides as authoritative and comprehensive descriptions of the songs and calls of the continent's birds as The Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Ideal Reference.......2006-11-10
This is a superb book well laid out with gorgeous illustrations and full of useful information. It was difficult to find because the publisher saw fit to produce a pocket version of this sumptuous opus which, whilst being handy, unfortunatley replaced the larger version. Yet it is only in this larger version that the wonderful details in the illustrations really come out and come alive.
great as reference book.......2005-08-12
fabulous book but too large and heavy to use as a field guide. I thought I was buying a smaller book like a field guide, but will keep it as a reference book.
It's disingenous, that's why.......2004-04-13
There might very well be a valid reason to buy two versions of the same book. I completely agree. However, it's vital that the consumer *know* that before he or she makes that purchase. Amazon has one book listed with one title and author, the other listed with a different title and different author. To 'recommend' that the consumer buy both books (at a very minimal discount) without stating flat out that they're both the same book is false advertising and most likely illegal in the United States.
However, it appears Amazon figured it out finally and withdrew the offer, so I've edited out my earlier "review".
"THE" authority on European birds!.......2004-03-25
No need to panic...no need for warnings. Maybe it wasn't obvious to the last reviewer, but the reason why one may want to consider buying both books is obvious: this book is a magnificent reference edition, not to be carried out in the field, which is where the "Birds of Europe" paperback comes in. It is the same book and the authors are the same (it's not just Killian Mullarney in the paperback edition) but it is not an uncommon thing as they serve two different purposes. "The Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe" IS the U.S. version of the "Collins Bird Guide", the much praised U.K. version which, in my opinion, offers truly helpful reviews. As far as this book goes, being a Sibley fan, I consider it the European counterpart of the Sibley guide...and oh, the price is good too.
BE WARNED!.......2004-03-12
WARNING!! - "The Birds of Europe" by Killian Mullarney and "The Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe" by Lars Svensson are THE EXACT SAME BOOK! I don't know why Amazon is trying to entice you to buy both books together (it's probably a slip of the software) BUT BE WARNED!!!
Customer Reviews:
A disappointment.......2007-01-21
I was very much looking forward to the paperback Collins Bird Guide, but unfortunately the pages are crowded, the print tiny and cramped, and the binding does not allow the book to open completely. While the Guide may be exhaustive and accurate, it is neither satisfactory as a field guide nor enjoyable to read at home. Were the text less verbose and even conversational, perhaps a larger font could have been used. I had hoped for something analogous to Sibley, "Field Guide to Birds of Western North America", which has a clear layout and a binding that opens properly.
The best field guide to any avifauna.......2005-11-09
This book emerged onto a highly competitive market already burgeoning with numerous field guides covering the region, most by renowned authors and many having benefitted from improvement over several editions. Quite simply though, this book won instant recognition as the best field guide available for Europe - and perhaps a model for field guides everywhere. Its authors are well known experts in their field having spent many years studying and publishing on the birds of the region. However, the key to the guide's success is the fact that so much more useful information has been condensed into a guide which is much the same size as existing books. The book boasts excellent illustrations, succinct text and handy maps, all presented on a the same page. Small enough to fit into a pocket (about the same size as the National Geographic guide) and cheap, it is a must for anyone visiting Europe. As one reviewer has already pointed out, it is indispensable in Alaska too - not just for Palaearctic vagrants, but for regular shorebirds and some residents. Don't hesitate!
Standard reference for Western Europe (and lately Alaska!!).......2002-12-31
Excellent book with comprehensive coverage and high quality plates. Book production quality is also high. My edition is small enough in hardback to be a true "Field Guide" although I understand that a new larger edition has been recently published, if plate quality is maintained this edition will be an excellent reference. If you have questions about this text go to amazon.co.uk and read some of the reviews there. This book recieved the British Trust for Ornithology seal of approval so anything an amateur like me might add is probably superfluous. Excellent reference, nice plates and informative and accurate text
Very helpful during my first visit to Europe!.......2000-06-18
This book help me a lot during several bird trips on my first visit to Europe in 1999. I have travelled in several countries. Sometimes with very keen birders, other times alone. It would be impossible for me to be in the field in conditions to identify so many birds, without this valuable book. Excellent pictures. It's my new standard on international field guides.
Average customer rating:
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The Complete Guide to the Birdlife of Britain and Europe
Rob Hume
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Contains details on how to obtain sport, the guns and equipment required, and invaluable "hands-on" instruction.
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Shorebirds: A Complete Guide to their Behavior and Migration
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