Chuck, after you read it, I would be interested in your take on Larry Daniel's Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee, particularly his assessment of the cause of the morale problem in the Army of Tennessee.

Mr. Daniel bases his assessment, in part, on the writings of the late Grady McWhiney, who, as you know, was somewhat of a maverick in the field of Civil War history. In my estimation, in his later years McWhiney squandered his previously good credentials by embracing some rather radical theses on the nature of the Southern population and soldiers. I am inclined to view McWhiney's writings with great skepticism.

I disagree with some of the arguments in the book regarding the morale of the army and the influence therein of General Bragg. Many of the points were also applicable to the Trans-Mississippi Army, and, to a lesser extent, to the Army of Northern Virginia, so I feel that a litany of those problems cannot be used to entirely excuse Bragg.

I don't know of any reputable historian who maintains that General Bragg was universally despised by his soldiers, but where there's smoke there's usually fire, and the preponderance of the writings (letters, diaries and postwar accounts) of the men who served under him are critical of him.

I'm not saying that Bragg was a bad person. Many of the problems that beset his army were not of his making. He was a professional soldier, a genuine hero of the Mexican War, and loyal to the Cause. He faced some of the North's best generals and regiments, he endured political back-biting from the Confederacy's president and War Department, and he was placed in command of a geographical department that was nearly impossible to defend, given the South's chronic shortage of men, supplies and transportation.

All that being said, however, the man who makes the big bucks also takes the heat when things go wrong. Bragg's personal quirkiness, distrust of staff officers, and outdated tactical sense contributed greatly to his lack of success and the poor state of morale in the army.

Don't get me wrong -- Bragg was not the devil incarnate. While there were Confederate generals who were much better, there were also those who were far worse. Bragg, I believe, was a man who was in over his head when he was given command of the Army of Tennessee. And his soldiers knew it.

Apart from this criticism, I consider Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee to be a good book. I learned a lot from it, and I recommend it.