General Lee's army : from victory to collapse
(Book)

Free Press hardcover ed.: 2008. Free Press trade paperback ed.: 2009.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 543-581) and index.

General Robert E. Lee's army was a surprise to almost everyone: With daring early victories and an invasion into the North, they nearly managed to convince the North to give up the fight. Astonishingly, after 150 years of scholarship, there are still some major surprises about the Army of Northern Virginia. Historian Joseph T. Glatthaar draws on sources assembled over two decades--from letters and diaries, to official war records, to a new, definitive database of statistics--to rewrite the history of the Civil War's most important army and, indeed, of the war itself. The history of Lee's army is a powerful lens on the entire war. The fate of Lee's army explains why the South almost won--and why it lost. The story of his men--their reasons for fighting, their cohesion, mounting casualties, diseases, supply problems, and discipline problems--tells it all.--From publisher description.