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"Meet the Civil War Generals of VMI"
Source: Virginia Military Institute
Notes: General George S. "Old Blood and Guts" Patton's grandfather and grand uncle both graduated from VMI; both held the rank
of colonel and fought for the Confederacy; and both died in battle during the Civil War. [Soon, I will be adding a biography
for each VMI general, so bookmark and please visit again.]
Advance to:
Recommended Reading:
Young Lions: Confederate Cadets at War. Description: "In making soldiers of them," said Confederate president Jefferson
Davis regarding the mobilization of his nation’s youths, "we are grinding the seed corn." Yet, the bloody millstones
of war ground them--and nowhere more noticeably than at the Confederacy’s de facto "West Points." The legend
of the Southern cadets is one of "untrained boys wastefully flung in the path of Yankee armies as the Confederacy came to
a turbulent end." The reality, however, is one of highly trained young men who rendered valuable service from the earliest
days of the war and, when confronting the enemy on the battlefield, acquitted themselves as well as veteran troops did. Continued
below.
The Young Lions: Confederate Cadets
at War is the story of the Southern cadets at four major military colleges during the Civil War—the Georgia
Military Institute, the South Carolina Military
Academy (Columbia’s Arsenal campus and the Citadel
in Charleston), the University
of Alabama, and the Virginia Military Institute. It is also the story
of the Confederate government’s lack of a cohesive policy toward military colleges and its failure to adequately support
the institutions that fostered its officer corps. This study is the first thorough examination of the interrelationships and
common challenges of the South’s major military colleges, giving a detailed history of these Southern institutions.
James Lee Conrad discusses the cadets’ day-to-day lives as well as the academic and military systems of the schools.
From the opening of the Virginia Military Institute in 1839, through the struggles of all the schools to remain open during
the war, the death of Stonewall Jackson, and the Pyrrhic victory of the Battle of New Market to the burning of the University of Alabama,
Conrad reveals the everyday heroism of cadets both on and off the battlefield.
Recommended Reading: Rebels from West Point: The 306 U.S. Military Academy Graduates Who Fought for the
Confederacy. Description: "Rebels from West Point" tells the story of the 306 officers who, after receiving
a West Point education and swearing to uphold the values of the Union, defected to serve the Confederacy. Continued below…
The author examines this fascinating
group of officers, describing the heart-wrenching choice they made and how, even after they "went South," they remained connected
to the brotherhood of their former West Point cadets. Among the more famous personalities included in this group are Gen. Robert E. Lee,
Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, Gen. A. P. Hill, Gen. James Longstreet, and Gen. John B. Hood.
Recommended Reading: Seed
Corn of the Confederacy: The Story of the Cadets of the Virginia Military Institute at the Battle of New Market (Hardcover).
Review: This is a fascinating account of the heroic and valiant VMI Cadets at the Battle at New Market. The author vividly
portrays the young soldiers' emotions, conditions, and actions. I could not put this book down because the story is completely
enthralling. Continued below.
Even if you are not a Civil
War buff, or into military history, this book is an execellent read. You experience, through the footsteps of these brave
young men, the hopes and the realities of war. I highly recommend this book to anyone!
Recommended Reading:
Generals in Gray Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Description: When Generals in Gray was published in
1959, scholars and critics immediately hailed it as one of the few indispensable books on the American Civil War. Historian
Stanley Horn, for example, wrote, "It is difficult for a reviewer to restrain his enthusiasm in recommending a monumental
book of this high quality and value." Here at last is the paperback edition of Ezra J. Warner’s magnum opus with its
concise, detailed biographical sketches and—in an amazing feat of research—photographs of all 425 Confederate generals. Continued below...
The only exhaustive guide to the South’s command,
Generals in Gray belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the Civil War. RATED 5 STARS!
Recommended
Reading:
A Brotherhood Of Valor: The Common Soldiers Of The Stonewall Brigade C.S.A. And The Iron Brigade U.S.A. Description: Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson was arguably the
greatest commander of the Civil War. Yet, "Stonewall" Jackson
owed much of his success to the troops who served under his command. He eagerly gave them their due: "You cannot praise these
men of my brigade too much; they have fought, marched, and endured more than I even thought they would." The Stonewall Brigade,
composed mainly of Virginians from the Shenandoah Valley, proved its mettle at First Manassas and never let up--even after
its esteemed leader was shot down at Chancellorsville. Their equally elite counterparts in
the Army of the Potomac were known as the Iron Brigade, hardy westerners drawn from Wisconsin,
Indiana, and Michigan.
By focusing on these two groups, historian Jeffry Wert retells the story of the Civil War's eastern theater as it was experienced
by these ordinary men from North and South. Continued below.
His
battle descriptions are riveting, especially when he covers Antietam:
Three
times the Georgians charged towards the guns, and three times they were repelled. Union infantry west of the battery ripped
apart the attacker's flank, and the artillerists unleashed more canister.... Finally, the Georgians could withstand the punishment
no longer, and as more Union infantry piled into the Cornfield, Hood's wrecked division retreated towards West Woods and Dunker Church. When
asked later where his command was, Hood replied, "Dead on the field."
But
the book is perhaps most notable for the way in which it describes the everyday hardships befalling each side. They often
lacked food, shoes, blankets, and other military necessities. When the war began, the men believed deeply in their conflicting
causes. Before it was over, writes Wert, "the war itself became their common enemy." Wert is slowly but surely gaining a reputation
as one of the finest popular historians writing about the Civil War; A Brotherhood of Valor will undoubtedly advance his claim.
Recommended Reading: Confederates
in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. Description: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from
years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War
had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact
the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having
some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly
term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways
in which it resonates today. Continued below.
In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a "murder that was
provoked by the display of the Confederate flag," and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors
who fought for the Confederacy. Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic
is a thoughtful and entertaining book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with
the Civil War.
Recommended
Reading: Leaders of the American Civil War: A Biographical and Historiographical Dictionary (Hardcover: 504 pages).
Description: Covering both the great military leaders and the critical civilian leaders, this book provides an overview
of their careers and a professional assessment of their accomplishments. Entries consider the leaders' character and
prewar experiences, their contributions to the war effort, and the war's impact on the rest of their lives. The entries then
look at how history has assessed these leaders, thus putting their longtime reputations on the line. Continued below...
The result is a thorough revision of some leaders' careers, a call for further study of others, and a reaffirmation
of the accomplishments of the greatest leaders. Analyzing the leaders historiographically, the work shows how the leaders
wanted to be remembered, how postwar memorists and biographers saw them, the verdict of early historians, and how the best
modern historians have assessed their contributions. By including a variety of leaders from both civilian and military roles,
the book provides a better understanding of the total war, and by relating their lives to their times, it provides a better
understanding of historical revisionism and of why history has been so interested in Civil War lives.
VMI List of American Civil War Generals Virginia Military Institute Soldiers Cadets Names, Photo,
Photos General Stonewall Jackson, The Generals of VMI History Picture, Pictures, Photograph Photographs
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