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Jefferson Davis was a lifelong friend of George Wallace Jones, one of Iowa’s first U.S. Senators (and father of two Confederates from Iowa).  Even more than that, Jefferson Davis read and commented on most or all letters from Iowans who sought Confederate commissions or offices.  Those intersecting lives gave me ample reason to read Embattled Rebel:  Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief.

James McPherson has written 14 other books about the Civil War.  In this book, McPherson tells the Civil War as a story, with Jefferson Davis as the main character.

McPherson artfully condenses strategies, battles, and entire theaters of war.  He uses the right number and types of quotations to introduce his points.

For example, McPherson describes the Confederate decision to fire upon Fort Sumter in April 1861.  I have seen this as a huge mistake because it stirred up a hornets’ nest of Northerners, buzzing with righteous indignation.  McPherson offers a perspective I hadn’t considered before:

Davis had reason to believe that an actual shooting war would bring more slave states into the Confederacy to stand with their Southern brethren against Yankee ‘coercion.’

Inter-personal relationships

The author gives a few examples where Jefferson Davis showed “favoritism toward incompetent friends.”  My study of early U.S. Senator from Iowa, George Wallace Jones, suggests another way to look at President Davis’s actions.

George Wallace Jones and Jefferson Davis were college friends who remained close the rest of their lives.  Their relationship suggests that Davis was routinely loyal toward his friends.

Recommendation

Jefferson Davis serves as a prism for looking at the Civil War.  Students of the war may glean insights in McPherson’s masterful book.

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