The Confederate Resurgence of 1864

by William Marvel

William Marvel’s The Confederate Resurgence of 1864 examines a dozen Confederate and Union military operations carried out during the winter and spring of 1864 that, taken cumulatively, greatly revived white southerners’ hopes for independence. Among the pivotal moments during this period were the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the CSS Hunley; Nathan Bedford Forrest’s defeat of William Sooy Smith’s cavalry raid; and the Confederate army’s victory at Olustee, Florida. The repulse of Union advances on Dalton, Georgia; botched Union raids on Richmond; and the capture of the Union garrison in Plymouth, North Carolina, likewise suggested that the tide of fighting had turned toward the Confederate cause. These events boosted the morale of southern troops and citizens, and caused grave concerns about the war effort in the North and in the mind of Abraham Lincoln.

The Confederacy’s battlefield successes during the early months of 1864 remained almost unnoticed by Civil War scholars until recently and have never been studied collectively for their impact on Confederate morale. The victories invigorated southern combatants, demonstrating how abruptly the most dismal military prospects could be reversed. Without that experience, Marvel argues, the Confederates who faced Sherman and Grant in the spring of that year would certainly have displayed less ferocity and likely would have succumbed more quickly to the demoralization that ultimately led to the collapse of Confederate resistance.

Genres: Civil War

344 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2024

About the author

William Marvel grew up on Davis Hill in South Conway, New Hampshire where he still lives. He has been writing about nineteenth-century American history for more than three decades.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, while known as a revisionist historian, still makes a valid argument about Confederate morale in the year 1864. He posits that until the twin Union victories of Atlanta and the Shenandoah Valley campaign, rebel fortunes were at an all time high. With the election of 1864 going in favor of the Republicans, the tide had finally turned. But in the months of May to August 1864, the outcome was much in doubt. A fascinating look at a much overlooked period of the war.

[Charles H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling reading, you don't want to put it down. Not usually one for military histories, but as far as they go this was well written, researched, and detailed, but not in a way that unnecessarily clutters the narrative, which is clear and cleanly written. Not entirely convinced there was a "resurgence," but I think the key argument is the newspapers and Confederate leaders acted in ways to create one ideologically, intentionally and unintentionally, in how they framed or what they didn't publicly reveal or know about the realities of the ear by 1863-64.

Informative account of Confederate war time ideology, the hell unleashed by Sherman, and full of interesting details about the role of Black soldiers and print media at the turning point of the war and after. Also a crazy story about the a doomed but 'successful' submarine attack I had never heard of.

Not my genre or specialty, but enhanced my understanding of the war. 5/5