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Summary: The Original Manuscript For Military Memiors: Excellent
Review: A tremendous historical find, this book is the original manuscript for Alexander Porter's great Civil war cornerstone book "Military Memoirs of a Confederate". The original manuscript was edited into Military Memoirs so this book is essentially the uncut version of the original containing more personal views of the Confederate who was a great witness and participate Longstreet's First Corps and thus Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He was in charge of Longstreet's artillery barrage at Gettysburg's 3rd day and he had to make the judgment call when it was most advantageous to advance Picket's (actually Longstreet's) charge, he was in the west at Chattanoga, Chickamaugua and the relative disastrous Tennessee campaign, he was with Lee at Appomattox venturing the comment to Lee that they fight on as a guerilla force which was disdained by Lee and he made the accurate and most famous appraisal of the Seven Days battles where Lee struggled to get his divisions to cooperate by expressing that the Confederates knew as much about the lay of the land "as they did about Africa". Unusual post war Confederate autobiography in that Alexander is objective, relatively free of ego and offers his opinions on the whys and how comes without personal animosity. Plus, he was a major participant, close to Longstreet and in turn he had a great vantage point in observing Lee. The book belongs on every Civil War collector's shelf.
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Summary: Tells it like it was
Review: E. Porter Alexander gives us one of the finest memoirs of the Civil War. His prose is lean, lacking the ruffles and flourishes so beloved by the Victorians. He had none of the false modesty that makes such reading tiresome. His book was not intended for a general audience, as were his "Military Memoirs." Hence there is great frankness and frequent passion in his story. He gives honest accounts of his immediate superiors, Longstreet and Lee; and criticizes as well as praises.Gary Gallagher, a noted historian, is to be thanked for rescuing these papers from oblivion. Alexander was a well born 25-year old West Point graduate when the war began. His career was quickly advanced because of his mental agility and military astuteness. During the Peninsula campaign, he was in reconnaissance. He was one of the first to use hot-air balloons for surveillance of the enemy. This makes for exciting reading. It was relatively easy to get UP in the balloons of the time, but getting Down was a chancy business! He was transferred to Artillery where he remained throughout the war. It was Alexander who laid the artillery charges at Gettysburg on that fateful afternoon of July 3, 1863. Alexander's prose is never dry, often humorous, and sometimes luminous. Following is his impression of the burning of Richmond, Monday, April 3, 1865: "-It was after sunrise of a bright morning when from the Manchester high grounds we turned to take our last look at the old city for which we had fought so long & so hard. It was a sad, a terrible & a solemn sight. I don't know that any moment in the whole war impressed me more deeply with all its stern realities than this. The whole river front seemed to be in flames, amid which occasional heavy explosions were heard & the black smoke spreading & hanging over the city seemed to be full of dreadful portents. I rode on with a distinctly heavy heart & with a peculiar sort of feeling of orphanage." (pp 529, "Fighting for the Confederacy")
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Summary: This Is One Fantastic Book!
Review: E.P. Alexander, Longstreet and Lee's Chief of Artillery, wrote two books. This book, his first, was written while Alexander was in Central America, without access tothe Official Records, etc. Thus, he wrote primarilyfrom memory. Alexander started the work at the urgingsof his children and did not intend the work to be published.It was meant for his family only. As a result, it is a very personal account of his life during the CivilWar. He does go into detail regarding battles in whichhe participated and freely offers his opinionsabout various strategies, tactics and leaders. (If no one but his family was to read it, then therewas no one to offend.) In his opinions Alexandercomes across as scrupulously honest andstraight-forward, not to mention intelligent. Later Alexanderdecided to write a 2nd book; and at first he usedthese recollections as the basis for that book (whose titleI forget). He then gave up this tactic and wrote his 2nd bookfrom "scratch". So now, Gary Gallagher has once again cometo the rescue and pieced together Alexander's firstwritings - which is this particular book......Overall, I found this tobe one of the most interesting and enjoyablebooks I have read. It is very funny at times; then often sad.It contains much information about battles; and alsoinsights into the leaders of those battles. But while his2nd book is a strict military tract about the Civil War, this 1stbook also gives the reader a "feel" for the people involved.It was a joy to read - one great book!
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Summary: Insights into Life during the Civil War
Review: Edward Alexander wrote his recollections as a gift to his family well after the fact while serving in a government post in Central America. Of particular interest to me were his stories of life in the Confederate capitol and the day-to-day life experiences of a soldier of the Confederacy during the war. For much of the war he was a colonel/general of artillery. He comments on the battles in which he fought from this limited perspective. Happily, such "technical" commentary is also limited in his work. The book is well written, easy to read; and, for the most part entertaining and informative while at the same time historically accurate.
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Summary: A Must-Read for anyone interested in the Civil War
Review: General Alexander's "Military Memoirs" saw great commercial and critical success when it was published shortly after the turn of the century. His children were constantly asking him for more of a "what it was like" memoir, without all the scholarly overtones. To satisfy them, he drafted a 1200 page manuscript while away on a job in Nicaragua. It disappeared over the years, and was only rediscovered about 10 years ago. With some excellent editing to fill in the blanks in the author's memory, "Fighting for the Confederacy" should be required reading for every Civil War enthusiast.
Compared to his other work, this book is much more personal and informal. He includes some great detail on what military service was like in Utah Territory and California immediately before the war. Like his other book though, he is neither a romantic about the Confederacy (or apologetic for that matter), nor sparing of his views of commanders North or South. If you have an interest in the Civil War, but not especially details of the campaigns, this is probably the better book by Alexander-praise indeed. However, the military historian would benefit from this book as well as "Military Memoirs". Highly Recommended.
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Summary: A Must-Read for anyone interested in the Civil War
Review: General Alexander's "Military Memoirs" saw great commercial and critical success when it was published shortly after the turn of the century. His children were constantly asking him for more of a "what it was like" memoir, without all the scholarly overtones. To satisfy them, he drafted a 1200 page manuscript while away on a job in Nicaragua. It disappeared over the years, and was only rediscovered about 10 years ago. With some excellent editing to fill in the blanks in the author's memory, "Fighting for the Confederacy" should be required reading for every Civil War enthusiast.
Compared to his other work, this book is much more personal and informal. He includes some great detail on what military service was like in Utah Territory and California immediately before the war. Like his other book though, he is neither a romantic about the Confederacy (or apologetic for that matter), nor sparing of his views of commanders North or South. If you have an interest in the Civil War, but not especially details of the campaigns, this is probably the better book by Alexander-praise indeed. However, the military historian would benefit from this book as well as "Military Memoirs". Highly Recommended.
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Summary: Finest personal memoir of the Civil War I have read
Review: I think that as time goes by, Porter Alexander's personal memoirs, written for his family and thus very candid, will come to be seen as an outstanding work both of historical reminiscence and of 19th century writing. The Introduction, in which Alexander tells of some incidents from his boyhood, is worth the entire book. But, there is more. Alexander worked either as signals officer, ordnance officer or artillery commander for virtually everybody in the Army of Northern Virginia, including Beauregard, J.E. Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee. He participated in virtually every major battle. He has the rare ability to desribe events in a fresh and modern manner, so that the reader is there with him in the thick of things. I can only imagine the thrill that the editor must have had when he found these papers at UNC in 1989. Alexander apparently wrote a more formal history of the Civil War published in 1907 with which I am not familiar. Although the frontispiece shows an unremarkable face, the writing shows the glowing intelligence and enthusiasm that must have impressed his superiors and led to his being given one responsible assignment after another. By being present, but a generation younger than the ANV leaders, he is able to give both intimate, but also critical pictures of them. This book is indispensible to anyone with an interest in the Civil War in the Eastern Theater. A true classic.
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Summary: A civil war must read!
Review: If you only read one civil war memoir, this is the one to read. There are so many positives to be found in this book that I don't think I can list them all. On the other hand I didn't find anything at all that I would consider a negative. General Alexander wrote this book for his family at his daughter's request. She wanted to be sure that they had a clear record of the General's role in the war. Since Alexander never intended for this to be published, it is not written in the deep, dry, and dull formal Victorian style. Instead it is written almost as a long letter to his family and is therefore easy to read and understand. I spent several long nights, well past my bedtime, engrossed in the General's story. That seldom happens with a dull book. Alexander's having written this for his family is also a plus in that he is entirely honest. He has no ax to grind, no score to settle, and no point to make. Many civil war leaders, both military and civilian wrote memoirs after the war. Unfortunately, most were written with the idea of aggrandizing themselves or proving they weren't at fault for a particular failure. Longstreet for example, wrote an excellent book but he spends all too much time trying to defend himself from the vicious attacks that were being launched on him. There is none of that here. Alexander calls things as he sees them. For example he heaps praise on General Lee for the most part, but where he finds fault, he says so. There is also a great deal of praise for General Grant to be found in these pages. Finally, in various capacities Alexander was in close contact with the Confederate high command throughout the war. From First Bull Run to Appomattox Alexander was there. He was with the Virginia Army in all of its major efforts and was with Longstreet on his trip to Tennessee. Seldom can one find this kind of insight into both of the Confederacy's major armies. There are amusing tales, stories of the hardships faced by the common solider, and touching reflections on Alexander's last meeting with some of his comrades who were killed in battle. Do not pass this opportunity up. This book is an enjoyable read and is full of insight. If any book belongs in a well-stocked civil war library, this one does. Alexander probably did as much service to his native south with this book as he did during four years of war.
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Summary: Doesnt get better than this
Review: Outstanding recount and introspective of the motivation and character of the Confederate officer. Alexander does not preach politics but provides a treasury of the chronology and mindset of those serving for the Army of Northern Virginia in the eastern campaigns. Possibly the best book of its kind since Lee, Jackson, A.P. Hill, JEB Stuart never wrote their own memoirs.
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Summary: Huge content, remarkable events and commentary!
Review: Porter Alexander put off writing a book about his life in the US Military and also the Confederate Army for many years until he finally listened to his families pleas to put together a book. After 40 years Alexander started to re-trace his steps back in time to discuss his life and also many others. Alexander is careful and considerate to all of those he came into contact with and also very descriptive and helps historians of modern times to understand questionable events such as those like the battles of Gettysburg, Seven Days, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga and the siege of Petersburg. As much as I liked reading about Alexander's situations, I discovered that he sometimes gets off the subject matter at hand to discuss a certain individual or event that had little to do about what he was writing about. He will sometimes change the flavor of the chapter with this and then say, "I will write more when I come to that later.." Such a strange format could have been eliminated by the editor to correspond to the correct chapter of events in the book. His 'conversationalist' style of writing is almost a dictation of recorded words from the man himself without editing which can zig-zag his chapters with a multitude of information. As his writing style isn't the best, it is overshadowed by quite a lot of useful information and his thoughts are shared which brings about much needed character to his battlefield reporting. Sometimes a bit winded, Alexander tends to write about events or individuals in which he wasn't apart of. He would get into issues such as the Atlanta campaign in which he didn't take part of but wanted to share his opinion. At times I found his opinion important for events he was involved in which were especially crucial while reading about Gettysburg. Alexander does a find job discussing the events surrounding the Petersburg area that made it obvious the supply shortened Confederacy had little chance of survival. He points out very interesting ideas as he thought that surrender should have happened much earlier in 1863 or 1864 than in 1865 when everything was decimated. Alexander's book may be a very long book as it has 552 pages of content from him. It is a must read for anyone trying to understand events from a personal account standpoint. This book almost wasn't published and lingered for years before it was found and put together. Gary Gallagher has assembled quite a book here and deserves many honors for it! This book will probably always rank with the few as being the best ever and should be in anyone's Civil War library!
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