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Blue Tide Rising: A memoir of the Union Army in North Carolina
Major General Joseph Dolson Cox had plenty to do as a Union Army commander engaged in fighting along the Mississippi River, but when Ulysses S. Grant needed him and his men in North Carolina, he immediately headed east By train and by ship, Cox and his command made an amazingly fast movement to the Cape Fear, where just weeks before Union and Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines had fought a desperate battle for Fort Fisher, guarding the last open port of the Confederacy at Wilmington. Now the fort was in Yankee hands, but Fort Anderson still remained upriver as one final obstacle to the fall of the port Robert E. Lee depended on. It fell to Jacob D. Cox and Adelbert Ames to eliminate Fort Anderson as they led the western element of a two-pronged assault on Wilmington. From there, Cox witnessed virtually every remaining battle in North Carolina during the Civil War. Goldsborough, Wise Forks, Kinston, Bentonville, Averasborough and Bennett Place - Cox either fought in or was close by every major clash of arms fought in North Carolina in 1865. Cox died before his memoir was published in 1900. When it was, his account of his Civil War service made for an important addition to the story of the war from someone who played a pivotal role in it. In this book, editor Jack E. Fryar, Jr. has excerpted from Cox s memoir the portions that deal with his extensive service in North Carolina in the closing months of the war. Cox tells about more than just the battles fought. He also tells of the men on both sides who made history in one one of the the most important dramas ever acted out in this country. With letters and personal insight into the issues and complexities of the war, Jacob Cox paints a vivid portrait of the struggles not just to win the fights, but to usher in a peace that would see the country whole again. This well illustrated volume will be a welcome addition to any student of the Civil War and the role North Carolina played in our fiercest crucible by fire.
Paperback
Published June 25, 2007
About the author
Jacob Dolson Cox
70 books4 followersCox was born in Montreal, Canada, to American parents, Jacob Dolson Cox and Thedia Redelia Kenyon Cox. Cox married Helen Clarissa Finney, whom he met at Oberlin College in Ohio.
He became superintendent of the Warren, Ohio, school system as he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853. As a strong abolitionist, in 1855 he helped to organize the Republican Party in Ohio and stumped for its candidates in counties surrounding Warren. He entered the Ohio State Senate in 1860 and formed a political alliance with Senator and future President James A. Garfield, and with Governor Salmon P. Chase. While in the legislature, he accepted a commission with the Ohio Militia as a brigadier general and spent much of the winter of 1860–61 studying military science.
After Cox fought in the Civil War he became the Governor of Ohio from 1866-1867. He was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Ulysses S. Grant upon his inauguration in March 1869, serving until November 1870.
During his later years, Cox was a prolific author. His works include Atlanta (published in 1882); The March to the Sea: Franklin and Nashville (1882); The Second Battle of Bull Run (1882); The Battle of Franklin, Tennessee (1897); and Military Reminiscences of the Civil War (1900).
Cox died on summer vacation at Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.
He became superintendent of the Warren, Ohio, school system as he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853. As a strong abolitionist, in 1855 he helped to organize the Republican Party in Ohio and stumped for its candidates in counties surrounding Warren. He entered the Ohio State Senate in 1860 and formed a political alliance with Senator and future President James A. Garfield, and with Governor Salmon P. Chase. While in the legislature, he accepted a commission with the Ohio Militia as a brigadier general and spent much of the winter of 1860–61 studying military science.
After Cox fought in the Civil War he became the Governor of Ohio from 1866-1867. He was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Ulysses S. Grant upon his inauguration in March 1869, serving until November 1870.
During his later years, Cox was a prolific author. His works include Atlanta (published in 1882); The March to the Sea: Franklin and Nashville (1882); The Second Battle of Bull Run (1882); The Battle of Franklin, Tennessee (1897); and Military Reminiscences of the Civil War (1900).
Cox died on summer vacation at Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati.
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October 10, 2015
General Jacob Cox was a soldier and a scholar (and subsequently Governor of Ohio and Secretary of the Interior). This book presents his description of his final five months of military service in the Civil War, from the time he was assigned to capture Wilmington, North Carolina, through his role in the surrender of the Confederate army led by CSA Gen. Joe Johnston. (Johnston had continued to fight after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox).
The description of the military campaigns in North Carolina are moderately interesting, but what really shines are Cox's thoughtful discourses on much broader topics topics such as the characters of the Union and Confederate officers he met, and doubts of some North Carolinians about the Confederate cause, the class divisions in the Confederate forces. He had especially thoughtful analyses of the harsh (and to his mind undeserved) treatment of General Sherman by politicians in DC, and the enormous difficulties in returning the defeated Confederate troops to civilian life.
I would not have read this had I not visited the Fort Fisher battlefield site on a kayaking trip, but I am glad I did. (For what its worth, the battle at Fort Fisher was a key to the Union victory in the Civil War. Wilmington was the last major Confederate port to be blockaded; through 1864 blockade runners going into Wilmington delivered the ammunition and other manufactured goods the Confederate Army in Virginia desperately needed to keep fighting. To capture Fort Fisher and Wilmington from the sea, the Union Navy deployed the largest amount of naval artillery seen in any one battle in the 19th Century, and large numbers of Union infantry moved from other fronts)
The description of the military campaigns in North Carolina are moderately interesting, but what really shines are Cox's thoughtful discourses on much broader topics topics such as the characters of the Union and Confederate officers he met, and doubts of some North Carolinians about the Confederate cause, the class divisions in the Confederate forces. He had especially thoughtful analyses of the harsh (and to his mind undeserved) treatment of General Sherman by politicians in DC, and the enormous difficulties in returning the defeated Confederate troops to civilian life.
I would not have read this had I not visited the Fort Fisher battlefield site on a kayaking trip, but I am glad I did. (For what its worth, the battle at Fort Fisher was a key to the Union victory in the Civil War. Wilmington was the last major Confederate port to be blockaded; through 1864 blockade runners going into Wilmington delivered the ammunition and other manufactured goods the Confederate Army in Virginia desperately needed to keep fighting. To capture Fort Fisher and Wilmington from the sea, the Union Navy deployed the largest amount of naval artillery seen in any one battle in the 19th Century, and large numbers of Union infantry moved from other fronts)
Displaying 1 of 1 review