How to Lose the Civil War: Military Mistakes of the War Between the States

by Bill Fawcett

“Fawcett rivals Jim Dunnigan as a general-audience military analyst.”
—Publishers Weekly

An expert on historical military incompetence, Bill Fawcett now offers an engrossing, fact-filled collection that sheds light on the biggest, dumbest screw ups of the America’s bloodiest conflict. How to Lose the Civil War is a fascinating compendium of battlefield blunders and strategic mistakes on both sides of the line. History and military buffs, trivia lovers, and students of the War Between the States will all be mesmerized by this amazing collection of gaffes and bungles perpetrated by idiot officers and short-sighted politicians, Union and Confederate alike— published on the 150th anniversary of the brutal conflict that changed America forever.

Genres: History, Civil War, American History, Nonfiction, War

303 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 2011

About the author

Bill Fawcett has been a professor, teacher, corporate executive, and college dean. His entire life has been spent in the creative fields and managing other creative individuals. He is one of the founders of Mayfair Games, a board and role-play gaming company. As an author, Fawcett has written or coauthored over a dozen books and dozens of articles and short stories. As a book packager, a person who prepares series of books from concept to production for major publishers, his company, Bill Fawcett & Associates, has packaged more than 250 titles for virtually every major publisher. He founded, and later sold, what is now the largest hobby shop in Northern Illinois.

Fawcett’s first commercial writing appeared as articles in the Dragon magazine and include some of the earliest appearances of classes and monster types for Dungeons & Dragons. With Mayfair Games he created, wrote, and edited many of the Role Aides role-playing game modules and supplements released in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, he also designed almost a dozen board games, including several Charles Roberts Award (gaming's Emmy) winners, such as Empire Builder and Sanctuary.

Reviews

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of short essays about various flashpoints in the Civil War where had things gone slightly differently, may have altered the course of history. While certainly interesting, this book is not geared toward those with prior knowledge of Civil War personalities and battles. It definitely left me wanting more depth but that is perhaps beyond the scope of what this book looks to accomplish. For someone looking for a nice, brief overview however, one could certainly do worse than this.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp through some lowlights of Civil War battles. There were a lot of goods in places I hadn't realized...

[Ming Terk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, but too specialised. It's about the American civil war. Too much details. I guess my interest is not in that. I'm giving a review about how it is written and about its writing style.

[Bishwaksen Bandyopadhyay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book; provides an insight into how the smallest of decisions can change the tides of war; also brings into focus how stupid those in power can be

[Tom Darrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is, at best, repetitive, and at worst amateurish. A collection of "essays" about significant blunders in the Civil War. There isn't really anything new here for people who have done anything beyond taking a high school level US History class. Although I did pick up a few minor facts (which is why I gave it 2 instead of 1 star), many of the essays repeat the same information, even though they are supposed to be focused on different topics. Also, a full third of this book is devoted to the battle of Gettysburg. Yes, that battle is well researched and was full of plenty of mistakes on both sides, but they could have told the same story with half the space.

I'm not sure if the individual authors of these chapters are professional historians or not. If they are, they should be ashamed of the dribble they produced. There are multiple factual errors (ex. unit commanders with the wrong names, incorrect dates, etc) which can be blamed on both the author and the editor. Furthermore, even though this book is clearly aimed at the general public and not experts in history, some of the articles are written in an almost insulting tone and including many hokey metaphors. They could very easily have made their writing sound a bit more intelligent without sacrificing their goal of reaching non-experts.

If you want a basic Civil War read, this is OK, but there are many other books that are similar to this that have fewer errors and are less amateurish.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays by various authors on their view of distinct critical errors that determined the course of the war. Some of the articles were coherent and well written, others not so much. But taken together, the book was informative, and even exciting when describing the frenetic action of various battles.
The recurring critiques of various officers form a clear indictment of the generalship on both sides. On the other hand, the criticism of political actors is severe toward Jefferson Davis and his brow-beaten political underlings, while relatively benign to Lincoln and the team rivals in his cabinet.

Definitely worth reading.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book was very informative on the battles (how they were fought, who made mistakes and how many soldiers from both sides were killed, wounded and deserted for each battle) I thought it would be short stories but instead were essays from historians. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Civil War.

[Justin Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief chapters by various authors draw attention to inferior decisions made by commanders of both North and South. You'll probably need a good working knowledge of the Civil War prior to reading. Sadly, there is no documentation.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over thirty essays outlining the blunders,on both sides,that caused our Civil War to go the way it did. Interesting reading those interested in American history.

[Mike Mcpeters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reading

I was looking for something different to read about the Civil war. This was a good and different read. I enjoyed it very much.

[Clockwork Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a refershing look at all the lovely, and insane, blunders in one messy war.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gimmicky and poorly written. I see two uses for this book. One, it might appeal to snarky middle or high schoolers (or have been written by them) and earn a place in a school library. And two, by focusing on the command and political errors of the Civil War, it highlights just how many there were. That is, a focus on bad decisions doesn't deviate much from a standard telling of the American Civil War.