Book Review

Russell F. Weigley, whose distinguished career began with a biography of a Union general, has returned to the Civil War to portray a conflict "of peculiarly intense destructiveness, of peculiarly unrestrained military means deployed in pursuit of notably absolute objectives." As described by Weigley, the war witnessed massive mobilization (especially in the Confederacy), Union war aims that eventually sought to destroy not only Confederate pretensions to nationhood but also a southern social and economic structure built on slavery, and slaughter on a scale that mid- and late-twentieth-century Americans would not have countenanced.

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Weigley sketches opposing governments unable to plan effectively or to exert close control over their war efforts. "The Civil War may have been devastatingly violent," he concludes, "largely because Americans lacked the political and social means of discipline to rein in its sprawling, shambling destructiveness." Improved weaponry and the sheer size of the war conspired to produce horrific casualties. Although central power in both Washington and Richmond increased during the war, the number of men in uniform, the amount of matériel necessary to wage the conflict, and simultaneous campaigning in numerous geographic areas often overwhelmed military and political leaders.

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