Bøger af Timothy B. Smith

"If there is debate on some of the finer points of Ulysses S. Grant's inland campaign, few dispute its brilliance and no one can argue with the results: Grant arrived victorious at the exact place he sought: the high ground east of Vicksburg where he had access to both the city and an open and unchallenged supply route via the Yazoo River to the north. It was the very ground Grant had wanted for months. He could finally begin the process of actually capturing Vicksburg. In the entire nine-month-long campaign, there was no more tension and drama than in these seventeen days when Grant's Army of the Tennessee marched through the wilds of Mississippi to victory after victory, tearing the heart out of the State of Mississippi and the Confederacy. This is the fifth and final of Tim's Vicksburg volumes to launch, but chronologically not the last in the five-volume series. It falls between Bayou Battles for Vicksburg (January 1 to April 30, 1863) and The Siege of Vicksburg (May 23 to July 4, 1863)"--

"In Bayou Battles for Vicksburg, the third in sequence but fourth-published volume in his five-volume history of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War, Tim Smith chronicles the third through seventh attempts by Ulysses S. Grant to capture the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi. The accepted strategy up to this point [in the] war was aligned with the principles of the Swiss theorist Antoine-Henri Jomini, whose work was taught at West Point, where commanders on both sides of the conflict had been educated. But Jomini didn't have anything to say about creeks, rivers, and bayous in a subtropical swamp environment. Moreover, Jomini emphasized secure supply lines and a slow, steady, unified approach to a target such as Vicksburg. Grant threw out the book with a bold, and ultimately successful, plan to divide his forces to accomplish multiple goals and to confuse the enemy by cutting levies, flooding whole sections of watersheds, and bypassing strongholds by digging canals far around them, thus avoiding a direct approach. Once Grant finally reached the high, dry ground on the east side of the Mississippi River on May 1, the next phase began: the inland overland campaign began, and it continued for the next seventeen days. This will be covered in the next, and last, in the series of Smith's Vicksburg volumes"--

In Early Struggles for Vicksburg, Tim Smith covers the first phase of the Vicksburg campaign (October 1862-July 1863), involving perhaps the most wide-ranging and complex series of efforts seen in the entire campaign. The operations that took place from late October to the end of December 1862 covered six states, consisted of four intertwined minicampaigns, and saw the involvement of everything from cavalry raids to naval operations in addition to pitched land battles in Ulysses S. Grants first attempts to reach Vicksburg.This fall-winter campaign that marked the first of the major efforts to reach Vicksburg was the epitome of the by-the-book concepts of military theory of the day. But the first major Union attempts to capture Vicksburg late in 1862 were also disjointed, unorganized, and spread out across a wide spectrum. The Confederates were thus able to parry each threat, although Grant, in his newly assumed position as commander of the Department of the Tennessee, learned from his mistakes and revised his methods in later operations, leading eventually to the fall of Vicksburg. It was war done the way academics would want it done, but Grant figured out quickly that the books did not always have the answers, and he adapted his approach thereafter. Smith comprehensively weaves the Mississippi Central, Chickasaw Bayou, Van Dorn Raid, and Forrest Raid operations into a chronological narrative while illustrating the combination of various branches and services such as army movements, naval operations, and cavalry raids. Early Struggles for Vicksburg is accordingly the first comprehensive academic book ever to examine the Mississippi Central/Chickasaw Bayou campaign and is built upon hundreds of soldier-level sources. Massive in research and scope, this book covers everything from the top politicians and generals down to the individual soldiers, as well as civilians and slaves making their way to freedom, while providing analysis of contemporary military theory to explain why the operations took the form they did.

In The Siege of Vicksburg: Climax of the Campaign to Open the Mississippi River, May 23July 4, 1863, noted Civil War scholar Timothy B. Smith offers the first comprehensive account of the siege that split the Confederacy in two. While the siege is often given a chapter or two in larger campaign studies and portrayed as a foregone conclusion, The Siege of Vicksburg offers a new perspective and thus a fuller understanding of the larger Vicksburg Campaign. Smith takes full advantage of all the resources, both Union and Confederatefrom official reports to soldiers diaries and letters to newspaper accountsto offer in vivid detail a compelling narrative of the operations. The siege was unlike anything Grants Army of the Tennessee had attempted to this point and Smith helps the reader understand the complexity of the strategy and tactics, the brilliance of the engineers work, the grueling nature of the day-by-day participation, and the effect on all involved, from townspeople to the soldiers manning the fortifications.The Siege of Vicksburg portrays a high-stakes moment in the course of the Civil War because both sides understood what was at stake: the fate of the Mississippi River, the trans-Mississippi region, and perhaps the Confederacy itself. Smiths detailed command-level analysis extends from army to corps, brigades, and regiments and offers fresh insights on where each side held an advantage. One key advantage was that the Federals had vast confidence in their commander while the Confederates showed no such assurance, whether it was Pemberton inside Vicksburg or Johnston outside. Smith offers an equally appealing and richly drawn look at the combat experiences of the soldiers in the trenches. He also tackles the many controversies surrounding the siege, including detailed accounts and analyses of Johnstons efforts to lift the siege, and answers the questions of why Vicksburg fell and what were the ultimate consequences of Grants victory.

It was the third week of May 1863, and after seven months and six attempts, Ulysses S. Grant was finally at the doorstep of Vicksburg. What followed was a series of attacks and maneuvers against the last major section of the Mississippi River controlled by the Confederacyand one of the most important operations of the Civil War. Grant intended to end the campaign quickly by assault, but the stalwart defense of Vicksburg's garrison changed his plans. The Union Assaults at Vicksburg is the first comprehensive account of this quick attempt to capture Vicksburg, which proved critical to the Union's ultimate success and Grants eventual solidification as one of the most significant military commanders in American history.Establishing a day-to-dayand occasionally minute-to-minutetimeline for this crucial week, military historian Timothy B. Smith invites readers to follow the Vicksburg assaults as they unfold. His finely detailed account reaches from the offices of statesmen and politicians to the field of battle, with exacting analysis and insight that ranges from the highest level of planning and command to the combat experience of the common soldier. As closely observed and vividly described as each assault is, Smith's book also puts the sum of these battles into the larger context of the Vicksburg campaign, as well as the entire war. His deeply informed, in-depth work thus provides the first full view of a key but little-studied turning point in the fortunes of the Union army in the West, Ulysses S. Grant, and the United States of America.

Examines Mississippi's Civil War defeat by both outside and inside forces. The first examination of the state's Civil War home front in seventy years, this book tells the story of all classes of Mississippians during the war, focusing new light on previously neglected groups such as women and African Americans.

Presents the first full treatment of any secession convention to date. Studying the Mississippi convention of 1861 offers insight into how and why southern states seceded and the effects of such a breech. Based largely on primary sources, this book provides a unique insight into the broader secession movement.

While James Z. George's prominence, along with his white supremacist views, have decreased through the decades, many modern historians still view him as a supremely important Mississippian. This volume seeks to rectify the lack of attention to George's life. In doing so, it utilizes numerous sources never before or only slightly used.

The most comprehensive and most readable account of the Battle of Shiloh.

A panoramic new look at the critical role of Corinth, Mississippi in the Civil War. Vividly details the nearly year-long campaign that opened the way to Vicksburg and presaged the Confederacy's defeat in the West.

The 1890s, argues Timothy B. Smith in his new book, represented the climax of battlefield preservation in America. But what makes this decade so important? This decade was the perfect time for the establishment of these national parks. Five Civil War battlegrounds--at Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Antietam, and Vicksburg--were commemorated as national sites during this time. Just past the bitterness and racial tensions of Reconstruction and prior to the explosive growth brought on by the Second Industrial Revolution, the time was right for the war's veterans from both sides to come together, in a spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood, to lead the efforts to open the parks. As yet unmarred by development, these battlefield sites were preserved mostly intact, just how the veterans would have remembered them. To date, they represent the country's finest preserved battlefields. Smith's book is the first to look at the process of battlefield reservation as a whole. He focuses on how each of these sites was established and the important individuals--the congressmen, the former soldiers, the veteran commissioners--who were the catalysts for the creation of these parks. The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is a watershed book about an essential period in the history of battlefield preservation and will be of interest to any reader who wishes to have a better understanding how such preservation efforts were initiated. Timothy B. Smith is the author of This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park and The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield. He is a former park ranger at the Shiloh National Military Park and now teaches at the University of Tennessee at Martin.