An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate GovernmentIn February 1865, the end was clearly in sight for the Confederate government. An Honorable Defeat is the story of the four months that saw the surrender of the South and the assassination of Lincoln by Southern partisans. It is also the story of two men, antagonists yet political partners, who struggled to achieve their own differing visions for the South: Jefferson Davis, the autocratic president of the Confederate States, who vowed never to surrender whatever the cost; and the practical and warm General John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, who hoped pragmatism would save the shattered remnants of the land he loved so dearly. Noted historian William C. Davis traces the astounding flight of these men, and the entire Confederate cabinet, from Richmond. Using original research, he narrates the futile quarrels of Davis and Breckinridge as they try to evade Northern pursuers and describes their eventual--and separate--captures. The result is a rich canvas of a time of despair and defeat, a charged tale full of physical adventure and political battle that sweeps from the marble halls of Richmond to a dingy room in a Havana hotel. |
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AN HONORABLE DEFEAT: The Last Days of the Confederate Government
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusA skillfully rendered account of the closing hours of the Civil War.Long before Lee surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox, writes historian Davis (The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, p. 229 ... Read full review
An honorable defeat: the last days of the Confederate government
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictDavis's work opens during the last four months of the Civil War, which saw Lee's retreat from Petersburg, his stinging defeat at Sayler's Creek, his surrender at Appomattox, the fall of Richmond, and ... Read full review
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Bibliographic information
| Title | An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government |
| Author | William C. Davis |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Aug 16, 2010 |
| ISBN | 0156007487, 9780156007481 |
| Length | 496 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Military / United States History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877) |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |