Re: General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse
 
From: palmcoastimaging@comcast.net
 
Dear Chuck;
 
I was surprised to see your excellent blog this morning kick off with a tribute to Glazer’s book about General Lee’s Army. Enclosed is a review I submitted to Amazon on this book. I read his book and it is full of statistical data that is difficult to speculate on because there is no way of knowing what his data sets were. I took a statistical masters class and can tell you it is possible to twist percentages and data sets in any fashion to arrive at your predetermined outcome.
 
I would not suggest this book for the modern Southern Confederate as it does not lend itself to the highest standard that the Confederate soldier should be held to. The slavery argument has been debunked ad nauseam by all of us Confederates in countless forums and to see Glazer hold it up as the cause of the war never sits well with a true Confederate.
 
Deo Vindice
 
Kevin Carroll
 
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Southern perspective void, September 6, 2012
By K. Carroll (Florida)   
 
This review is from: General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse (Paperback)
 
This book was a disappointment because the author takes a pro-Union stance in writing about the cause of the war being slavery. That is the typical glossed over revisionist history that is widely accepted in America but does not probe deep enough to understand the complex meaning of that war. The South fought to gain is independence and the North fought to prevent that. The author attempting to site slavery as the main reason misses the mark on that complex topic. The war determined which form of government the US would have going forward and the result was a centralized growing leviathan which feeds on liberty, independence and states’ rights to perpetuate its growth. The author also dives into a statistical narrative attempting to point out that the ANV had many members who once owned slaves or knew of someone who did. The actual soldiers who owned slaves was less than 10% of the ANV but the author desperately seeking a connection then goes on to state, more than half of the ANV knew someone who owned a slave. That is like me saying I know someone who is a Democrat although I am not one myself.