Anonymous
Posted January 10, 2001
Steven Newton, in his Lost for the Cause: The Confederate Army of 1864, has given Civil War writers, researchers, and buffs a unique tool of great value. Here, within its two covers, is found a detailed look at the Confederate Army's manpower in all its component armies, departments and commands. A descriptive narrative and new order of battle, based on the latest information and research, is provided for each organizaton. His review of troop recruiting and movements within and between commands provides valuable background for perspective writers on Confederate grand strategy. Newton's theme is that the claim that the Confederate Army lost in the battles of 1864 due to serious manpower attrition is totally false. He proceeds to show, army by army, department by department that the Confederates largely made good their losses in the great battles of 1863 and started the 1864 Campaigns with roughly the same manpower levels that they enjoyed at their high water mark the previous year. He goes on to contend that the South lost, at least in large part, due to the poor use and allocation of its troops rather than lacking men. Newton's case is, in considerable measure, persuasive. His orders of battle, narratives and statistics show where the troops could be found which, when added together, gave Southern commanders approximately the same number of men that they had in 1863. However, I am concerned that he sometimes reached his totals by including assorted collections of backwater troops that would have been of doubtful value in major operations. He fails to properly acknowledge that his 1864 troop counts for the first line armies were often achieved only through the replacement of the high quality veterans lost in 1863 with green recruits and home guard type troops from the Confederacy's interior. I believe that in this sense, the Confederacy did suffer from attrition. Notwithstanding these criticisms, reluctantly made, Newton has provided Confederate military scholars with a wonderful resource. Don't expect dramatic accounts of battles here. But within its specialty it is packed with valuable and interesting information about troop strengths in the various areas and commands of the South. The highly detailed order of battle section, about 175 pages long, alone justifies the price of this book. Readers wanting to learn more about the state of Confederate manpower in the latter part of the war should not pass this book by.
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Overview