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Offers a case study of a segment of American society that consumed itself by surrendering everything in pursuit of unattainable military victory With the surrender of Vicksburg in July 1863, the Confederacy's TransMississippi Department, which included Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, western Louisiana, and Indian Territory, was cut off from the remainder of the South. Robert Kerby's insightful volume, originally published in 1972, "has gone far toward filling one of the most conspicuous gaps in the literature on the Confederacy," according to The Journal of Southern History. Kerby investigates the many factors that led to the Department's disintegrating and offers a case study of a segment of American society that consumed itself by surrendering everything, including its principles and ideals, in pursuit of an unattainable military victory.
“This book is meaty, succinct, well organized, and attractively written. It is a praiseworthy contribution to American biography and to Confederate history.” —Bell I. Wiley Here is the first critical biography of the Confederate general who commanded the largest theater of the Civil War, the Trans-Mississippi Department, and who held the same important command post longer than any other officer on either side. Edmund Kirby Smith, one of only seven full generals commanding Confederate armies in the field, exercised civil as well as Military authority in the isolated Trans-Mississippi area to such an extent that this part of the Confederacy came to be known as “Kirbysmithdom.” A native of St. Augustine, Florida, Kirby Smith was twice breveted for the bravery in the Mexican War. He spent the 1850s at various frontier posts and at the outbreak of the Civil war hurried to Confederate headquarters to offer his services. Soon he was a brigadier with Joseph E. Johnston in northern Virginia, and he is credited with playing a key role in the rout of the Union forces at first Manassas. In the spring of 1863 he assumed command of the vast Trans-Mississippi Department. At the fall of the Confederacy, Kirby Smith was the last general to surrender. He spent the final twenty years of his life as a teacher and died in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1893, where he had been a professor at the University of the South. At the time of its origin publication in 1954, this book won the first Sydnor Memorial Award, given by the Southern Historical Association for the best book in southern history.
Excerpt from General Kirby-Smith IN april, 1865, when the news of the surrender of General Lee reached a small town in New Jersey, 3 boy of ten years, who participated in the rejoicing with which the news was received, was prompted to ask if all the Confederate Generals had surrendered, and if the war were actually ended. He was informed that there were several general officers who had not surrendered, and among them was mentioned General kirby-smith. This name fixed itself upon the mind of the boy. Listening attentively to the discussions he heard among his elders at the time, he learned something more about the Confederate General, the oddity of whose name had the effect of making him a hero in the boy's mind. He learned that this Con federate General had been, since early in 1863, in su preme command of What was known as the Trans Mississippi Department of the Confederate Army; that the Department included Texas, Louisiana, Ar kansas and the Indian Territory; that he had organized a government there and had made that government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Despite popular belief, the Civil War did not end when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865. The Confederacy still had tens of thousands of soldiers under arms, in three main field armies and countless smaller commands scattered throughout the South. Although pressed by Union forces at varying degrees, all of the remaining Confederate armies were capable of continuing the war if they chose to do so. But they did not, even when their political leaders ordered them to continue the fight. Convinced that most civilians no longer wanted to continue the war, the senior Confederate military leadership, over the course of several weeks, surrendered their armies under different circumstances. Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered his army in North Carolina only after contentious negotiations with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. Gen. Richard Taylor ended the fighting in Alabama in the face of two massive Union incursions into the state rather than try to consolidate with other Confederate armies. Personal rivalry also played a part in his practical considerations to surrender. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith had the decision to surrender taken out of his hands—disastrous economic conditions in his Trans-Mississippi Department had eroded morale to such an extent that his soldiers demobilized themselves, leaving Kirby Smith a general without an army. The end of the Confederacy was a messy and complicated affair, a far cry from the tidy closure associated with the events at Appomattox.
Although Robert E. Lee, surrendered at Appomattox Court House in April, 1865, some Confederates refused to abandon their cause. Fallen Guidon, originally published in 1962 by Jack Rittenhouse's Stagecoach Press, described the adventures of a Confederate brigade that, rather than surrender, decided to transplant its vision of Southern Empire in the troubled soils of Mexico. General Jo Shelby had led the Missouri Cavalry Division through numerous battles in the Trans-Mississippi theater. "We will stand together, we will keep our organization, our arms, our discipline, our hatred of oppression." He planned to march his brigade to Mexico and fight alongside the guerrillas against Emperor Maximilian's French army of occupation. They would come to Mexico's aid and, at the same time, save their honor and perhaps gain riches in a new land. Shelby and his men marched through Texas, burying their Confederated battle flag in the murky waters of the Rio Grande. But the men did not want to fight Maximilian's French soldiers. Identifying themselves as "imperialists," they instead fought the opposition Juaristas, spilling blood from Piedras Negras to Mexico City. This popularly written history, based on archival sources and the reminiscences of Shelby's adjunct, brings vividly to life a little-remembered episode of the Civil War period and of American incursions in Mexico -- Back cover.