Review

William C. Davis is the Stephen King of history writing. He somehow manages to produce more than one book a year. He also seeks to find that fine balance between scholarship and popular narrative history. In An Honorable Defeat, Davis retells the familiar story of the disintegration of a Confederate government forced to abandon Richmond following Lee's surrender. While most popular narrative histories of the Civil War tend to focus on Lee's surrender as the end of the war, Davis's Honorable Defeat seeks to tell the story from within the Confederate government as its authority disintegrated and eventually ceased to exist altogether. The center could not hold as general after general surrendered and as cabinet officers either set out to return home or to leave the Union. Davis's story is written as a tragedy. The hero of his epic is John C. Breckinridge, who was appointed Confederate Secretary of War during the last weeks of the war. The level headed and pragmatic Breckinridge was the only man within the cabinet who possessed the courage and sensitivity to begin to penetrate Jefferson Davis's somewhat delusional resolve to continue the war effort without Lee, Joseph Johnston, and eventually, without any major field commander except Kirby Smith who commanded the Confederate Army of the West. President Jefferson Davis is presented as stubbornly hopeful until he is captured near Irwinville, Georgia.	1
Davis's book is written to capture the disintegration of the Confederate government in three general phases. The book begins with an analysis of Jefferson Davis as a leader that is all too familiar. The autocratic and overly sensitive Davis trusts few and refuses to acknowledge how impossible the Confederate cause has become by March of 1865 even after the trusted Breckinridge and Lee collect and present reports in an effort to negotiate a peace from a position of relative strength before the inevitable fall of Petersburg. The second part of the book is a description of the flight of the Confederate government from Richmond to points south. Along the retreat, Davis and his entourage witness defeated, dispirited, and, in some cases, paroled, or deserted Confederate soldiers attempting to return home. In North Carolina, Davis and his government-on-the-run are treated rudely by citizens who are angry that the hopeless war is continuing after Lee's surrender. After favorable terms negotiated between Sherman and Johnston without Davis's approval are rejected by Washington, Johnston surrenders on the same terms that Lee was given at Appomattox. President Davis was finally confronted by five brigade commanders and Breckinridge in Abbeville, South Carolina. All told him that the situation was hopeless and that continuing the war would result in useless bloodshed and Union recriminations. Refusing to give in, Davis insisted that the fight continue. In response, the commanders would commit only to his protection. After a long silence, Davis lashed out at his remaining officers for lacking resolve. According to the author, Davis' realization that the cause was lost "all but enfeebled him." (231) The third and most readable part of the book is about the efforts to escape by Davis, Breckinridge, and the colorful Secretary of State, Judah P. Benjamin. Davis, burdened by his entourage and what is left of the Confederate Treasury is captured and put in prison. Breckinridge and Benjamin manage to get to Florida and, in epic fashion, swim, sail, and shipwreck their way to Cuba and the Bahamas.	2
An Honorable Defeat is a good story. The author is very good at drawing compelling portraits of the main characters. He seems to know them like members of his own family. This is the third time that he has told parts of this story, having written a biography of Jefferson Davis and a history of the Confederate government. However, he goes overboard in his attempt to rescue the honor of Jefferson Davis. Somehow, President Davis could not see or hear anything beyond his own love for the cause in the final weeks of the war. The President's admirable commitment to the Confederate cause should in no way excuse his irresponsible attempt to continue a war that would have resulted in more senseless deaths. The author succeeds in demonstrating that Breckinridge proved to be the voice of reason in March and April of 1865, but his attempt to portray President Davis's actions as honorable falls flat. Davis's pure motivation for the Confederate cause put too many sons, brothers, and fathers at risk. Ultimately, the best Southerners chose to honor their families over Davis's delusions. Gary Gallager's The Confederate War and Jay Winik's April 1865 both do a much better job of analyzing the guerilla war option that was abandoned by Breckinridge and his general staff. An Honorable Defeat is good popular history, but historians and teachers should look elsewhere to examine Confederate roads not taken.	3
Holy Innocents' Episcopal School, Atlanta Paul Horton

Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.