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William C. Oates is best remembered as the Confederate officer defeated at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, losing a golden opportunity to turn the Union's flank and win the battle—and perhaps the war. Now, Glenn W. LaFantasie—bestselling author of Twilight at Little Round Top—has written a gripping biography of Oates, a narrative that reads like a novel and that reveals, for the first time, the compelling and sometimes astonishing dimensions of this remarkable individual.
Oates was no moonlight-and-magnolias Southerner, as LaFantasie shows. Raised in the hard-scrabble Wiregrass Country of Alabama, he ran away from home as a teenager, roamed through Louisiana and Texas—where he took up card sharking—and finally returned to Alabama, to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a respected attorney. During the war, he rose to the rank of colonel, served under Stonewall Jackson and Lee, was wounded six times and lost an arm. Returning home, he became wealthy investing in land and cotton, married a woman half his age, and launched a successful political career, becoming a seven-term congressman and ultimately governor. LaFantasie shows how, for Oates and many others of his generation, the war never really ended—he remained devoted to the Lost Cause, and spent the rest of his life waging the political battles of Reconstruction. Yet in one of the final acts of his political career, Oates championed the cause of suffrage for black Americans, delivering an impassioned speech at his state's constitutional convention.
Here then is a richly evocative story of Southern life before, Fduring, and after the Civil War, based on first-time and exclusive access to family papers and never-before-seen archives.
Finalist, Jefferson Davis Award, Museum of the Confederacy
Ch. 1: Rough and Tumble Days
Anonymous
Posted December 9, 2006
Glenn W. LaFantasie may have done lots of reasearch on his subject, Col Williams C. Oates, CSA, but from such a distance he could not possibly delve so deeply into the recesses of Oates' mind. Oates' very best friend, even his wife, could not give us such insights into his thinking and motivation. Far too many pages of rambling psychoanalysis, which this reader often found to be questionable.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 24, 2006
One of the few publishers still brave enough to issue regimental histories is Savas Beatie. What sets them apart are two things. The books themselves are always wonderfully designed and constructed. When you buy one of their books you get the real deal, top quality bindings and paper, bright illustrations, crisp text. But they also take care to make certain their readers get a good story. They do not give you the collated reprints of the Official Records that sometimes passes for a unit history. Terry Winschel¿s Chicago Battery Boys is a shining example of why their books, on so seemingly parochial subjects, are so deserving of the time and money of student¿s of the Civil War. The book itself will catch your eye. The text will keep your attention. The Chicago Mercantile Battery was raised in the Windy City in 1862, in answer to the second great call for troops that went out that summer. Sent to Grant, they made their fame at Vicksburg where six of their number earned Congressional medals of honor when they carried one of their gun tubes by hand up to the rebel works and began firing at point-blank range through an undefended break in the wall. Their heaviest battle came a year later, at Sabine Crossroads, where they were the only gunners able to get their carriages off the field, only to have to spike them when the route of retreat became irretrievably snarled. The book is packed with maps, illustrations, and pictures of the men who made this battery a great and memorable unit. The author freely reprints their letters in those instances where the participants themselves can tell the story best. When they can¿t, he steps in to clearly set out the course of events. If you have an interest in Grant and the western theater of the war, this book will be a welcome addition to your collection.
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Overview
William C. Oates is best remembered as the Confederate officer defeated at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, losing a golden opportunity to turn the Union's flank and win the battle—and perhaps the war. Now, Glenn W. LaFantasie—bestselling author of Twilight at Little Round Top—has written a gripping biography of Oates, a narrative that reads like a novel and that reveals, for the first time, the compelling and sometimes astonishing dimensions of this remarkable individual.
Oates ...