Amidst the vast literature of the Civil War; one of the most significant and enlightening documents remains largely unknown. A day-by-day; uninterrupted; four-year chronicle by a mature; keenly observant clerk in the War Department of the Confederacy; the wartime diary of John Beauchamp Jones was first published in two volumes of small type in 1866. Over the years; the diary was republished three more times—but never with an index or an editorial apparatus to guide a reader through the extraordinary mass of information it contained. Published here with an authoritative editorial framework; including an extensive introduction and endnotes; this unique record of the Civil War takes its rightful place as one of the best basic reference tools in Civil War history; absolutely critical to study the Confederacy.A Maryland journalist/novelist who went south at the outbreak of the war; Jones took a job as a senior clerk in the Confederate War Department; where he remained to the end; a constant observer of men and events in Richmond; the heart of the Confederacy and the principal target of Union military might. As a high-level clerk at the center of military planning; Jones had an extraordinary perspective on the Southern nation in action—and nothing escaped his attention. Confidential files; command-level conversations; official correspondence; revelations; rumors; statistics; weather reports; and personal opinions: all manner of material; found nowhere else in Civil War literature; made its meticulous way into the diary. Jones quotes scores of dispatches and reports by both military and civilian authorities; including letters from Robert E. Lee never printed elsewhere; providing an invaluable record of documents that would later find their way into print only in edited form. His notes on such ephemera as weather and prices create a backdrop for the military movements and political maneuverings he describes; all with the judicious eye of a seasoned writer and observer of southern life.James I. Robertson; Jr.; provides introductions to each volume; over 2;700 endnotes that identify; clarify; and expand on Jones’s material; and a first ever index which makes Jones's unique insights and observations accessible to interested readers; who will find in the pages of A Rebel War Clerk's Diary one of the most complete and richly textured accounts of the Civil War ever to be composed at the very heart of the Confederacy.
#434753 in Books 2009-11-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 6.50 x 2.50l; 3.32 #File Name: 0700616640920 pages
Review
93 of 95 people found the following review helpful. An exquisitely detailed and surprisingly readable history . . .By LittleTazzA note on the availability of the book . . . I pre-ordered my copy about four months ago. I expect those of you who have ordered this book recently will have to wait for a considerable length of time to get it as I expect it to be extremely popular. I suggest pre-ordering vol. 3.The readability of Armageddon in Stalingrad IMO is easier that Vol. 1 of this series. Glantz now mentions troupe movements and actions down to the company level. He also includes short vignettes on the major players on both the German and Soviet sides as they enter the picture.As a reader of military history since I was 14 years old; and I am now 61 years old and have read at least two dozen books on Stalingrad alone I know how mind numbing it can be to read page after page enumerating troop movements and orders of battle. This is to some extent unavoidable for reasons of completeness and scholarly vigour; IMO.As was the case in vol. 1; this is not a book about the personal combat experiences of the men who had boots on the ground on either the German or Russian side; but is a book about broad strategic thinking; troop movements company size and greater and political decisions at the highest levels on both sides. There is; IMO; a place for both types of books.Be that as it may; the way Glantz goes about describing the large troop movement and actions has a clarity about it that I have found uncommon in other books of this type and scope. For example; the extremely important actions around Orlovka; a suburb north of Stalingrad which had a major impact on the future course of the assault proper on the city; is extremely complex and both sides shuffled dozens of companies; battalions; brigades; and divisions and battle groups in and out of this area as the battle progressed; yet Glantz comes very close to making these extremely complex activities easy to understand and follow . . . a considerable accomplishment in itself.The maps . .. I consider it absolutely essential that a book which describes movements of military units have good maps. IMO; Glantz does not disappoint. Some of the maps are originals: reproductions of German and Russian situation maps. Some of them seem to have been constructed by the author. Some are more helpful than others. Some of the maps are extremely detailed with elevation markings and type so small that a magnifying glass is needed to read the place names. The maps; IMO; are 5 stars + and help a great deal in following the complicated movements of units.My perspective on maps in military history come from years of reading books on entire campaigns such as the Italian campaign which did not have a map in the whole book. Absolutely horrible. Others include maps of the area of conflicts but I'll be d*****ded if I could find one name place in the text on the map. From my perspective; the maps included in this book although not perfect are by far the best; the most numerous; and the most complete selection of maps I have ever seen in a military history book of this complexity. Situational maps are not easy to read; especially when they include temporal phase lines of an action. It becomes messy reading a map with temporal phase lines for actions that last for a week. These maps go a long way in clarifying such extended actions.I am not a big fan of pictures in military history books; however; in the case of this book I am impressed. There are a lot of them. Most or many are astonishing aerial shots of the city of great clarity which show in exceptional detail the layout of the city; and IMO; more importantly; the topography of the countryside through which the Germans had to attack and with which the Russians had to defend. Absolutely superb. Other pictures are of the major players of both sides; and of course there are the pictures of the devastation of the city proper and also of soldiers engaging in battle.I've seen many; many pictures of the battle for Stalingrad and I can say with considerable confidence that I have not seen any of the pictures in this book before this time.The information included in this book is exceptionally detailed and I emphasize exceptionally. This book is 722 pages long (not including notes to the text which are over 100 pages long) with fairly small print (although not too small to be easily read) and extensively documented.Being published in 2009; Glantz had all the benefits of recently opened archives in Russia. Because of this Glantz is often able to disabuse us of accepted accounts of the battle that have become established over time. For example; it has been generally accepted that the German army had a rather easy time of it in their approach to the city; and an overwhelming superiority of material and men. Glantz quickly disabuses us of this notion and documents the relative strengths of the contending sides in detail. In particular; Glantz documents the tremendous problems the German staff had in shuffling around units to the north and south flanks; particularly the north flank to fend off repeated persistent and extremely desperate Russian attacks orchestrated mainly by Zukov.Additionally; early Russian accounts of the battle were influenced by political considerations; which lead to over inflation of German strength and loses. Russian historians faced a choice of either complying with the political prejudices or not having their histories published. Now; Russian historians can come forth with confidence that they can present information that is accurate without the fear of retaliation.Glantz includes a "Conclusions" section at the end of each of the ten chapters to give a general overall assessment of the action in that chapter. This is helpful as the "forest is lost in the trees" to some extents because of the tremendous amount of information included in each chapter. Even so; it is rather difficult to gain the broad strokes of the battle as it progresses.Because of this I would suggest that the reader keep notes in the margins of this book as a help in keeping the actions organized temporally and with regards to the significances of actions to others. For example; although most all the actions initiated by Zukov on the extended northern flank of the German army were tactical failures; they did partially relieve the pressure on Stalingrad; according to Glantz.Also; IMO; it would aid the reader to have read or to read a book that is less detailed in content; less ambitious so to speak; and more oriented to presenting a more general explanation of the tactical and strategic elements of the battle of Stalingrad.I also suggest that to fully understand what is presented in this grand work; the reader may need to re-read this book several times and do some note taking.Finally; I must say I highly recommend this book to a serious student of the battle of Stalingrad; but certainly not to the casual reader.Pre-order vol. 3 early. I am.41 of 42 people found the following review helpful. Excellent; Definitive Work on Stalingrad from September to the Eve of Operation Uranus -- At Least from the Soviet SideBy David M. DoughertyI had previously stated that the 1st Volume by Glantz and House in their Stalingrad Trilogy covering April through August; 1942; was the best book on the Eastern Front I had read; but this one eclipsed that volume. It is very readable; thorough and scholarly with extensive end notes that should be read along with the text; particularly the summaries of commanders' biographies. Most importantly; this work provides a level of detail not available heretofore in books on Stalingrad from the Soviet side. Please read the excellent review by Mr. Schranck for a summary of the contents; and I will confine my remarks to areas I felt were most important to supplement his review. The only aspect of this book needing improvement is the maps which are better than Glantz's previous works; but still not as useful as they could be. For example in covering the actions for control of the Barrikady Factory; the two Soviet sketches confused the issue as I could not reconcile them with the other maps and photographs of the factory. By the way; the inclusion of aerial photographs of the factory helped immensely. This work also includes operations elsewhere on the Eastern Front; associated or not with the Stalingrad battle; evidently for completeness during the two and one-half months covered. Frankly; I felt Chapter 8 which covered those other actions could have been left out of this work with no loss to the main theme. I skipped the chapter in my initial read; then came back later to see if it contained anything I needed to know when analyzing Stalingrad. It didn't. That is not to disparage the chapter and its information; it just wasn't important to the main narrative of the book. In addition; there is nothing about the development of Uranus during the months covered which would have been required if the work was to be truly chronological during this time on the Eastern Front. No doubt that will be covered in the third volume of the trilogy. I also note that Glantz's very fine book "After Stalingrad"; included Soviet operations during November and December that were not associated with Stalingrad; so apparently the third volume will concentrate solely on operations affecting the Stalingrad battle. In all of these works it must be emphasized that the authors look at the battles primarily from the Soviet side using archival material only recently released or opened for access. As such; these volumes all break new ground; 67 years after the events took place; and are important to historians or specialists interested in World War II. The German side has been covered fairly comprehensively in other books; but the authors weave it into the narrative to explain the battle in its entirety. Even concerning the German side; Chapter 10; Conclusions; offers a somewhat new perspective on the battle. The 62nd and 64th armies were strictly delaying/holding forces to fix the German Sixth Army in place while Uranus; the encircling counterstroke; could be prepared. In the event; this defense of Stalingrad cost the Soviets over 1.2 million casualties during the months covered by this volume; in excess of a ratio of 5:1 versus the Germans. But Stalingrad forced the Germans to abandon their war of maneuver and into urban small unit actions that ground them up. Although the Germans made extensive use of specialists and combat engineers; the maintenance by the Soviets of close combat on a daily basis sapped German strength and morale to the point where Sixth Army could not make the decisive push to win the battle. Time and again German units would achieve their objectives; but with only a handful of men remaining; they could not hold their gains or consolidate their positions. And the Soviets remained within a stone's throw dooming the German units to further losses for the next few yards. The authors tell this story extremely well. All quantitative measures would lead the historian to say that the Germans were winning the battle handily; but the actuality was that the Germans could not afford the losses and absorption of their military strength. Even without Uranus; Stalingrad would have been eventually a defeat for the Germans. From this one wonders what would have happened if the Germans had broken into Leningrad or Moscow and faced equally determined resistance. Probably the same result. The Wehrmacht simply could not afford to be forced off its game (war by maneuver) and into a battle of attrition. The book is 713 pages long with 108 pages of notes. The specialist reader can also skip the first chapter of 25 pages which quickly sets the scene for this volume by reviewing previous actions and plans. For most readers; however; this chapter is essential to understanding the background to put this work into context. I recommend this book most highly and without reservations. It is difficult to imagine a battle of 2-1/2 months being covered better than this (with another 2-1/2 months to go in Volume III.) Buy and read this book if you are interested in World War II and the Eastern Front. It is a bargain at twice the price.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Verdun on the VolgaBy MagnitudeAs I argued in my review of the first volume; this series falls in a long line of military history that attempts to document a day-by-day account of a battle. Glantz and House attempt to do the same thing for this battle; which stretched over many days and a vast area. It's like an account of Cannae; Gettysburg; or Waterloo expanded to cover the area from Voronezh to Baku and forces comprised of millions of men.This volume focuses on battle for the factories. It also includes the several Soviet counterattacks on the flanks and a short section on the German attempts to capture the oil fields in the Caucasus. Three themes emerge.First; the Germans were drawn into a war of attrition in the fighting for Stalingrad proper. That may not seem surprising; except when you consider that the Germans inflicted casualties at a ratio of 5:1 in men and equipment (by the authors' reckoning). To keep up this attritional warfare; the Germans had to keep units tied down into Stalingrad and scrape reserves from other areas. It's also a reminder of what John Ellis pointed out: That much of World War II at the infantry level resembled World War I; and the fighting within Stalingrad certainly illustrates that most clearly. The Soviets expertly fed in a steady stream of men and units over the Volga to keep the Germans at bay -- barely.Second; the Germans were able to handily beat back the Soviet thrusts on the flanks. This led to overconfidence in the German army that the Soviets weren't going to be able to seriously threaten them with encirclement. In the time frame covered in this book; the Soviets are starting to prepare for Operation Uranus; which would lead to such an encirclement; but German intelligence was somewhat conflicted in its perceptions of whether the Soviets could really do so.Third; the authors argue that the campaign was over for the Germans when they failed to achieve the primary goal: capturing the oil fields in the Caucasus. This somewhat shifts the focus of the campaign away from Stalingrad; or the entrapment of the German Sixth Army; which has long been a focus of books on Stalingrad. Contrary to this; though; the authors themselves spend many; many pages documenting the fight within the city and on the flanks.To do so; the authors rely on a few key accounts; backed by what appears to be some original research. They rely heavily on Chuikov's memoirs and Jason Mark's books; some of which I recognized while reading. As usual with Glantz; he does something that other authors don't do; by weaving both German and Russian sources together to form a coherent picture of the fighting at this level; day by day; with positions of units. It's the first operational history that I'm aware of that achieves this. That said; the heavy reliance on Mark's English work raises questions about the level of primary research that these authors did on the German side. They similarly rely on Wilhelm Tieke's "The Caucasus and the Oil" in the small section the fighting around Ordzhonikidze. The best that can be said about this approach is that this work offers a bibliography for further exploration.All in all; I found that the book delivered what I expected; but I also have had a life-long fascination with these events and determination to understand what really happened. (I read every page and frequently checked footnotes while I read). If you're looking for that kind of experience; this book delivers; and based on this and the first volume; I want to continue the series. This book sets up the upcoming events for Operation Uranus well; and reminds us that the German offensive had essentially failed by the time that started.I found the maps and photographs helpful in following events most times; I'd rather have too many maps than too few in a combat account like this. The maps also illustrate a key point that's sometimes easy to forget in the ultimate German defeat here: The Germans captured most of the city by November.If you're a military history buff and have an interest in the 1942-1943 campaign; this series is a must read.
