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978-0-89587-163-3
0-89587-163-7
$13.95 paperback
6" x 8 1/2"
328 pages bibliography, index
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There was little funny about
a war in which 620,000 humans died. But it was finding humor amid
devastation that kept Civil War soldiers marching toward the enemy.
Union or Confederate, those
in command proved adept at making mistakes. Many leaders were drunkards,
couldn't speak English, didn't know a cannon's breech from its muzzle.
Among the galleries of heroes were:
-- Colonel Edward Baker, who
told his Federals to follow the plume of his hat if they wanted to find
war--and sent them over a cliff in a panicked retreat
-- General Felix Zollicoffer,
who wore a white raincoat so opposing Federals could see him--but not
his eyeglasses so he could see them
-- Lieutenant Commander
Thomas Selfridge of the Union navy, who "found two torpedoes and
removed them by placing his vessel over them"
-- Colonel Alfred Rhett, a
captured Southern blue blood whose fancy boots proved too small for
every Union officer who coveted them
-- Rum-drinking James Ledlie
and dance-instructing Edward Ferrero, generals who kept each other
company in a Union bombproof while their men faced slaughter
From Fort Sumter to
Appomattox, Civil War Blunders traces the war according to its
amusing, often deadly miscues. Lurking behind every significant action,
as readers will discover, was someone with a red face.
about the author
Clint Johnson is the author of Touring
the Carolinas' Civil War Sites, Touring
Virginia's and West Virginia's Civil War Sites, In
the Footsteps of Robert E. Lee, and In
the Footsteps of Stonewall Jackson. A longtime Civil War
reenactor, he is descended from a Confederate described as
"addle-brained by the war" on his pension application. He
lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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