Steven Woodworth discusses his US Civil War military history book “Vicksburg Beseiged” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2020)

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/36d5SQe

Steven Woodworth has been studying, writing about, and teaching US Civil War history for years. He co-edits the Southern Illinois University Press series on the US Civil War Western Campaigns series and we spoke about the latest volume in the series about the Siege of Vicksburg.

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(Note: The sound recording in the first ten minutes is a little [muffled] flat but it clears up after that.)

0:39 – Steven talks about why he helped create a book on the Vicksburg campaign of the US Civil War.

4:14 – Steven talks about how he got into studying the US Civil War.

7:11 – Steven talks about the eight essays in the book including essays on the US Colored Troops, Grant, sharpshooters, night actions, Vicksburg mines, civilians, Louisianans, and attitudes about the fall of Vicksburg.

11:42 – Steven talks about the Army of the Tennessee and the deficiencies it had.

18:27 – Steven talks about the importance of West Point in the course of US history and the US Civil War. He also discusses the nature of the Seige of Vicksburg.

22:40 – Steven talks about the goals of the Vicksburg siege operations.

26:17 – Steven talks about Vicksburg and foreign powers intervening in the US Civil War.

29:30 – Steven discusses whether the South protected Vicksburg as well as they should have.

35:26 – Steven talks about the United States Colored Troops essay.

40:52 – Steven talks about freed slaves running captured plantations.

42:09 – Steven talks about how they put the book together.

46:13 – Steven discusses General Johnston.

47:14 – Steven talks the importance of a book like this in regards to Vicksburg.

49:24 – Steven talks about the demoralizing effect of the fall of Vicksburg for the Confederates.

54:39 – Steven talks about attempts to convince Southerners to stop fighting the war.

58:50 – Steven’s books and the series can be found on the Southern Illinois University Press.

 

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/36d5SQe

http://www.siupress.com/books/978-0-8093-3783-5

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar and on Instagram @crisalvarezwarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.

Guests: Steven Woodworth

Host: Cris Alvarez

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/36d5SQe

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US Civil War – Rebels in the Making (Oxford University Press, 2020) – William Barney interview

American Civil War – An interview with William Barney about his new book Rebels in the Making, published by Oxford University Press, on Southern secession in 1860 to 1861. Check out the book here   https://amzn.to/30aBXVl

How did you become interested in studying and writing on the subject of your book?

I first became interested in the American Civil War after reading Bruce Catton during high school. I latched on to secession as a research topic in my years of professional training at Columbia University in the 1960s and always wanted to write a major work on the topic.

What is the book about and what major themes do you focus on?

Rebels in the Making focuses on the years of 1860-1861 when the secession movement climaxed and triggered the Civil War. I found that any persuasive explanation of the politics of secession necessitated placing the drive for secession in the social, economic, and cultural context of the slave South as it matured in the 1850s and constricted opportunities for common whites in acquiring slaves and good land. The need to protect slavery where it existed and leave open the possibility of its future expansion was the main motivating force behind secession. This was the core argument used to attract the support of younger slaveholders aspiring to attain planter status. In presenting my findings, I examined secession, and its success or failure, in all of the fifteen slave states and traced how the vision of the secessionists for the South was embodied in the crafting the constitution and government for the Confederate States of America.

What resource materials or archives did you primarily use for your research?

I cast as wide a net as possible in locating resource material – letters, diaries and journals; slave narratives; court records; contemporary periodicals and newspapers; and legislative proceedings and debates.

What did you discover in your research that most surprised you?

What most surprised me was the extent and depth of the economic depression that gripped the South once credit lines from the North were largely shut down in the financial freeze that accompanied Lincoln’s election. Most economic activity ground to a halt and the ensuing sense of desperation added fuel to the argument of the secessionists that the South had to liberate itself from the financial shackles of the North.

Why did the North shut down the credit lines for the South and what about Lincoln’s election prompted this action? Were there Southern states that were hit particularly harder by this credit crunch than others?

Capital abhors uncertainty and everyone foresaw a major political crisis in the event of Lincoln’s election. Consequently, Northern banks and mercantile houses sought to preserve capital and prevent bankruptcies by tightening or refusing to extend the credit (technically discounting the notes of indebtedness) to Southern factors and planters that was necessary to move cotton to market. The economic crisis was a national one because of uncertainty over whether Southern markets would remain open to Northern merchants and farmers. All states were affected, though the shutdown was probably the deepest in the cash-starved Cotton South.

Was there a particularly difficult issue to research because of lack of information or access to information?

The hardest part of the story to tell was the role played by the slaves, over forty percent of the population in the seven original states that seceded. Slaves, unsurprisingly, left very few first-hand accounts of their feelings or actions and their reaction to the crisis in large measure had to be inferred by what whites wrote of what they thought the slaves were up to. I argue that the slaves were well aware that their day of deliverance was about to come and that they exploited the unrest and excitement in the South in 1860 by setting a rash of fires that further unnerved whites into believing that only a clean break from the North could save them from what they convinced themselves were hordes of abolitionist incendiaries descending on the South and stirring up the slaves.

When you say that Southern slaves started a rash of fires, can you explain that in a little more detail?

Southern newspapers reported an outbreak of fires that began in the spring of 1860 and peaked in the late summer and fall. The fires were attributed to abolitionist emissaries and slaves. The fires destroyed many businesses and some private homes. Most of them, and those almost certainly set by plantation slaves, torched highly combustible cotton gins and the cotton stored therein. The fires were set at night in isolated areas where it was extremely difficult to identify the perpetrators.

Did you have any difficulties in finishing or publishing and how did you overcome those?

Fortunately, the only hurdle in the writing of Rebels was carving out the time for framing and detailing the argument. As in the past, Oxford University Press was an understanding and helpful publisher. The comments and advice of Editor Susan Ferber were all I could have hoped for.

What is your current or next writing project?

I’m currently plunging into a new topic, the nature and extent of Confederate nationalism and the interpretive folly of conflating it with the Confederate state.

Where can people find you online?

I can be found at the website for the Department of History, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My email is: wbarney@email.unc.edu.

Links of interest

Check out the book here   https://amzn.to/30aBXVl

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rebels-in-the-making-9780190076085

https://history.unc.edu/faculty-members/william-l-barney/

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WWII military history book – “Parleying with the Devil” (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) – Gaj Trifkovic interview

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/2A73z3E

Gaj Trifkovic has had a lifelong interest in WWII especially as it relates to Yugoslavia. He earned his history degree in the subject and wrote his first book – a history of prisoner exchange in Yugoslavia during WWII. We spoke about the war in Yugoslavia, the book, and the process of getting published.

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0:51 – Gaj talks about how he got into studying Yugoslavia in WWII.

4:10 – Gaj talks about the five main sections of the book starting with Serbia.

6:25 – Gaj talk about the military activities and situation in Yugoslavia during WWI.

8:31 – Gaj talks about the controversial March 1943 negotiations.

12:06 – Gaj talks about the Yugoslav neutral zone.

13:08 – Gaj talks about how much the German high command knew about this prisoner exchange.

14:11 – Gaj talks about how partisans dealt with prisoner exchanges.

16:33 – Gaj talks about what prisoners the Germans took.

17:52 – Gaj talks about how prisoners chosen for exchange were sometimes treated harshly.

19:46 – Gaj talks about local prisoner exchanges by units in the field.

21:00 – Gaj talks about non-German Axis prisoners.

22:20 – Gaj talks about prisoner exchanges in other historical contexts.

24:46 – Gaj talks about how Hitler was convinced to accept these exchanges.

26:06 – Gaj talks about whether the Germans exchanged “undesirables.”

27:04 – Gaj talks about the unwritten rules of prisoner exchange.

29:20 – Gaj talks about prisoner exchange closer to the end of the war.

32:35 – Gaj talks about large-scale execution of prisoners at the end of the war.

34:26 – Gaj talks about German and Axis prisoners in Yugoslavia at the end of the war.

38:58 – Gaj talks about post-war release of prisoners.

40:45 – Gaj talks about the archives and books he used for this research.

42:27 – Gaj talks about the self-censorship on both sides about prisoner exchange.

45:55 – Gaj goes into more detail about the neutral zone.

47:11 – We discuss what might be in the current location of the neutral zone.

51:32 – Gaj talks about how well the two sides got along in the neutral zone.

55:14 – Gaj talks about why he wrote the book in English rather than German.

57:38 – Gaj talks about how he tried to emulate “The Longest Day” in the writing of this book.

1:04:59 – Gaj can be found on researchgate.net and academia.edu.

 

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2A73z3E

https://www.kentuckypress.com/9781949668087/parleying-with-the-devil/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gaj_Trifkovic

https://independent.academia.edu/GajTrifkovic

 

For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me at www.warscholar.org, on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar. Or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify

 

Guests: Gaj Trifkovic

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, world war 2, Yugoslavia, Communist, Nazi, Fascism, Italy, Germany, Serbia, insurgency, Croatia, Wehrmacht, Montenegro, Tito, Sarajevo, Hitler, Macedonia, fascists, American Revolution, US Civil War, Slovenia, Luftwaffe, partisan, Austrians, secret police, British, The Longest Day, Global War Studies, world war two

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/2A73z3E

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.