The Crisis Of The Confederacy

"The Americans still hold the world's record for hard fighting." Cecil Bettine was a Captain in the 15th The Kings Hussars in England. He observed the American Civil War with sincere appreciation of both the outnumbered Confederate Army and the powerful Union Army. Bettine focuses on two areas in particular- The Wilderness, and Gettysburg. He contends that a rapid counterattack after the Confederate victory in The Wilderness could have turned the tide against the North at this early juncture, and changed the outcome of the war. The detailed accounting of Gettysburg covers the days leading up to this final, bloody battle, and concludes with Lee's surrender. This in-depth review of each army gives the reader pause, how a single change of position, a more swift deployment, a refusal to delay a march, could still have given the Confederacy the upper hand. Presented as it was originally published in 1905, Crisis of the Confederacy offers the opinion that the audacity of the Confederacy could have won the war had it not been for "political and military incapacity in high places."