Outwitting Forrest: The Tupelo Campaign in Mississippi, June 22-July 23, 1864. By Edwin C. Bearss, edited by David A. Powell. Maps, photographs, appendices, bibliography, footnotes, index. 192 pp., 2023. Savas Beatie, LLC. www.savasbeatie.com, hardback, $29.95.
In 1969 the National Park Service commissioned Ed Bearss to conduct a study of the Battle of Tupelo with the aim of improving interpretation at the battlefield site in the small Mississippi city. The campaign that led up to the battle, and the battle itself, had theretofore received little attention. Bearss’s efforts resulted in a superb account of the 1864 campaign and its effect on the course of the war. The study, entitled The Tupelo Campaign, was published by the U.S. Department of the Interior. However, as very few copies were printed, the work’s impact was small and the campaign remained largely unstudied for several more decades.
Bearss, as most readers know, was a long-time National Park Service historian and a legendary figure in Civil War circles. Editor David Powell is a prolific historian, best known for his voluminous series on the Chickamauga Campaign. Powell’s editing touch was rather light. As he noted in the Foreword, “there was not much by way of dissenting scholarship and little new of discovery” since Bearss tackled the project over 50 years earlier. Powell’s additions fill in some blanks and offer biographical information on the many officers who populate Bearss’s narrative.
Relying on the Official Records, unit histories, and other sources, Bearss did a deep dive, a very deep dive. The study gives us a superb account of U.S. Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith’s expedition from Memphis into northeast Mississippi to chase down the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The aim was to cripple Forrest, or at least keep him so occupied he could not head east and threaten the railroad supplying Sherman’s huge armies in Georgia. Bearss’s study chronicles the movements of the opposing armies as they marched from place to place and shifted about in response to each other’s movements. The reader gets a view of the broad battlescape and all the small particulars as well, down to the regimental and company level. The pages of Outwitting Forrest overflow with information about every aspect of the Tupelo Campaign and provide insights about the nature of the Civil War and war in general.
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In this campaign Forrest was not on his own, but was subordinate to Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. As the Confederate forces were stretched thin, Lee had to be ready to transfer troops to other areas threatened by the Federals. This need contributed to the decision to attack Smith on July 14, even though the Federals were superior in number and held a strong defensive position. Smith inflicted heavy losses on the troops under Lee and Forrest, but still was forced to retreat when their ammunition ran low and the hungry men found that the hard tack was spoiled and inedible.
Three chapters are devoted to Federal forces operating in other parts of Mississippi, pinning down Confederate units which otherwise could have moved north to bolster Forrest’s efforts, just as Smith’s movement was intended to keep Forrest away from the rail lines supplying Sherman. There were many moving parts.
This rich study is worthy of a close read, as the myriad details matter. The work, of course, does not overlook the forest for the trees. Bearss explains the big picture and concisely states the reasons the campaign was important. “Smith’s mission was to keep Forrest’s corps from wrecking the single-track over which General Sherman supplied his ‘Army Group’ in northwest Georgia,” Bearss wrote, “and to destroy Forrest’s command as an effective combat unit.” Smith’s mission was a success. Forrest’s losses at Tupelo took a terrible toll. Four of his brigades were “slaughtered,” Bearss stated, and afterwards would never “be capable of mounting an effective assault on a Union position;” the cars supplying Sherman’s armies kept rolling through middle Tennessee and north Georgia.
The Civil War and Pop Culture-Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Chris Mackowski and Jon Tracey, Editors. Footnotes, Photos, Illustrations, Index. 293 pages. Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com, $32.95.
This book, consisting of thirtyseven essays taken from the Emerging Civil War blog (www.emergingcivilwar.com), looks at how the Civil War has embraced, and at times, even influenced American popular culture. A wide range of subjects are presented dealing with films, television, art, music, literature, poetry, reenacting, and even video and college football games.
Despite the diverse topics discussed there are two consistent themes. The first is that many writers credit their interest in the American Civil War with having seen or done something in one of the categories.
The other is that the “golden age” of the Civil War as a pop culture phenomenon, which lasted throughout most of the 20th century is now gone.
All the essays are good and well-arranged. They are generally written in a conversational tone, as opposed to being strictly academic, and thus easy to read. The authors seem more interested in discussion and encouraging readers to think, rather than being confrontational. As in any book of this nature, the reader will find some essays more interesting than others.
For this reviewer, two essays stood out. John M. Coski’s The Confederate Flag in Popular Culture points out that in the late 1940s, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) called for an end to the “misuse” of Confederate flags. They were appalled by how the banner had become part of pop culture. South Carolina displayed a Confederate flag over its State House dome and later its grounds until 2015. The Palmetto State passed a resolution in 1958 condemning the sale and manufacturing of Confederate flag beach towels. That same year, urged by the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), the state’s General Assembly passed a series of laws making it illegal to manufacture or sell anything with a Confederate flag, except the flag itself.
The other is Sarah Kay Bierle’s What if There Were No Civil War Epics, in which the author asks what if the films Gone With the Wind, Glory, Gettysburg, Lincoln, and the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War had never been made. The author here asks if would there have been as much interest in the war as there is today had these films never been made. She also asks what type of impact the lack of these films would have on Civil War scholarship, the preservation of battlefields, and Americans’ perceptions of the war.
This an excellent book that will appeal not only to the casual Civil War buff but anyone with an interest in American pop culture.