Civil War Blunders: Amusing Incidents From the War

by Clint Johnson

There was little funny about a war in which 620,000 humans died. But it was finding humor amid devastation that kept Civil War soldiers marching toward the enemy. Union or Confederate, those in command proved adept at making mistakes. Many leaders were drunkards, couldn't speak English, didn't know a cannon's breech from its muzzle. Among the galleries of heroes Colonel Edward Baker, who told his Federals to follow the plume of his hat if they wanted to find war―and sent them over a cliff in a panicked retreat; General Felix Zollicoffer, who wore a white raincoat so opposing Federals could see him―but not his eyeglasses so he could see them; Thomas Selfridge of the Union navy, who "found two torpedoes and removed them by placing his vessel over them"; Colonel Alfred Rhett, a captured Southern blue blood whose fancy boots proved too small for every Union officer who coveted them; rum-drinking James Ledlie and dance-instructing Edward Ferrero, generals who kept each other company in a Union bombproof while their men faced slaughter. From Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Civil War Blunders traces the war according to its amusing, often deadly miscues. Lurking behind every significant action, as readers will discover, was someone with a red face. Clint Johnson is a native of Fish Branch, Florida, who has written eight books about the Civil War, as well as biographies and newspaper and magazine articles. He received his journalism degree from the University of Florida, and now lives in North Carolina.

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

328 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

After writing about the American Civil War for 13 books, Clint chose another field of history: Naval History. He was inspired to write about naval destroyers after discovering the coincidences surrounding the sinking of USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) in WW I, and the USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) in WW II. DD-61 was the only U.S. warship sunk by enemy fire in WW I. DD-130 was the only U.S. warship lost in American territorial waters in WW II. TIN CANS & GREYHOUNDS: The Destroyers That Won Two World Wars covers the history of destroyers from 1874 through 1945 with a focus on U.S., Great Britain, Japan and Germany.

Clint lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Barb.

Reviews

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

My heavens this book took 8 MONTHS to read. That is a very long time when my average is 4 days.

The biggest problem was the length of the stories. While most had an interesting tidbit I lost interest after pages of detail surrounding the "haha" or "gasp" moment.

I'm not altogether upset I took the time to squeeze tiny bits of this in during other reading downtimes. But I certainly would not recommend sitting down reading it through start to finish. Unless, of course you're looking to be lulled into a deep sleep.


3*/3.34*

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published by John F. Blair in 1997.

There are several books like this one on the market. History books are full of interesting, odd stories that add a little spice to the narrative and there is a certain logic to having a book of just the spice.

This book is organized in a loose chronolgical order, rather than by theme. Sometimes the stories blend into each other, sometimes not.

There was nothing particularly good or bad about this collection. Some of the stories are more amusing than outright blunders and there is a bit of anti-Union and anti-Lincoln bias that can be detected, especially at the beginning. But, not enough to derail the book.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

[Kyle Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for the Casual Fan not a Historian

I first read Civil War blunders: Amusing Incidents from the War by Clint Johnson as a child when I picked up the book from a bookstore after visiting one of the major Civil War battlefield and rather enjoyed some of its funny stories.

Rereading the book as an adult and after getting my degree in American history I found several flaws I missed as a child. First is the bias against the North, but especially Lincoln. While it is undoubtedly true that some of Lincoln’s choices for generals were exceptionally bad and the war department often interfered in military matters for various political reason it was hardly a trait exclusive to the Union with the Confederacy and in particular Jefferson Davis suffering from political interference in military affairs as well yet the Confederates messes were scarcely mentioned.

At the same time many of the blunders mentioned in the book were less the result of incompetence but more the bad luck that can happen to anyone and do not deserve to be in a list of military blunders, and some are less amusing then tragic. Finally, the book reports many rumors and potential tall tales as confirmed blunders leaving us to question the author’s accuracy even on the better documented stories, something not helped by the fact that the book does not provide citations for its claims even though it includes a bibliography of secondary sources.

Still while it will never qualify as a serious historical work it is perfect as a popular history and is a quick read. Ultimately as long as you accept its limitations it’s a good book to spend a few days reading.

[Jacob Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick little jaunt through four years of war. The title is misleading as many of the supposed “blunders” are no more than unfortunate circumstances that routinely occur in war. A potentially interesting read for someone who might have a passing interest in history or the Civil War, but for anyone with a deeper knowledge on the conflict, many of these stories will either be well known or easily spotted as inflated or outright lies. While it would be easy to identify some of these myths as outdated history, some of the information contained in the book was known to be untrue at the time of publishing, thus drawing into scrutiny any other lesser known story.

Further, the author himself does contribute to the story in ways that are necessary for a book designed to be a humorous expansion of a major conflict. The style of the author is easy to read and does add a level of humor to the stories presented. Unfortunately, the author cannot set aside biases when comparing the stories. Often providing explanations for why the Confederate mistakes were justifiable or how we could understand them, while chalking up Union stories to incompetence, cowardice, or alcoholism.

Overall, the content combined with the bias left much to be desired, but if viewed as less of a work of history and more of a satirical view of the conflict the book could find an audience.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

As North Carolina journalist Clint Johnson (b. 1953) says at the beginning of this book, there’s nothing funny per se about a war in which more than six hundred thousand human beings died. But people being people, even the soldiers who fought in this terrible war had to see its humorous, or at least ironic, side. Johnson has here provided about seventy short vignettes of Civil War oddities, not all “blunders” by any means but wry takes on Civil War actions large and small, familiar and arcane.

Johnson writes with verve, and the book makes enjoyable leisure-time reading. I would only warn teachers hoping to enliven classroom presentations to check out the stories in another source first. Some of Johnson’s tales (such as the one featuring General Thomas Williams being beheaded by his own men with a cannon) include more than a soupçon of rumor.

[Amber Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was honestly expecting more humor from this book. There are moments of real humor sprinkled around and some really boneheaded decisions such as two Confederate generals who slipped out to a fish bake thinking they’d hear battle approaching and ended up missing the battle.
Some of the blunders though are bad luck, pure misfortune and in the case of Robert Smalls, he won by pure daring and amazing good fortune.
I agree with other reviewers that the moments of humor often get lost in the length of the stories.
It’s an interesting collection of war stories, though much alike at times. I put it aside a few times so it took me an unusual amount of time to read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

All about the fog of war - the confusion of who, what, when, and where of the battlefield. Unfortunately the presentation here was something of a fog of a book, a little too dense, a little too muddled. A shorter book highlighting the more interesting stories or maybe just even a more consistent definition of the blunder would have helped.

[Raving Redcoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a solidly readable account of some of the goofs and mixups that occurred during the American Civil War. Civil War buffs will find this reasonably entertaining and informative.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting review of some of the crazy things that happened during the war. Many were familiar but there were enough new items to maintain interest. This is light history for the novice.

[Robert Drumheller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many interesting short stories concerning the Civil War.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite...

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. Some of the stories were funny (it's supposed to be bringing humor/irony to the war as best it can in a wartime situation), but I think the reason I rated it lower was because it just got depressing. There were so many officers in the Civil War who were just made officers because of political/family connections, and they had no business being on a battlefield in charge of other men's lives. So usually, because of their incompetence, all they did was get men killed. A lot of them. That's where it got depressing, because it just seemed like such a huge waste of life. I think by the description of the book when I bought it, I felt a little misled that there was going to be more humor in the book. There were some humorous stories, just not enough to overcome the depressing realization that thousands of men were killed because of incompetency.

[Ccwilson22 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like this book better than I thought I would when I first started reading it. I cannot say that I found much amusing, but I learned some things I did not know so that's a positive. Easy to read with the short sections on different events, so you can read it, put it down for something else and easily pick it back up.

[Carolyn Tuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fun, and cleverly written, but there were no in-text citations, nor pictures. I'm used to reading non-fiction histories that are more academic, I suppose. The Bibliography helped some, but the references were not connected to the information in the text.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is some very interesting history in this book. Some of it left me scratching my head. Worth the read.

[Mckenzie Tuttle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people dont fins the Civil War funny...until they have had read this book. This bok proves that in any situation, no matter how deadly or serious, there is always a little humor.

[Carolyn Quenstedt · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun read...not much footnoting, but good bibliography...

[Eric Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was not engaged. Myth was confused with fact.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned things that I did not know about the war through sometimes amusing stories. There were stories that I didn't think apply to this book's title.

[Wawawai Yakawawa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the stories are familiar stories if you have done some reading about the Civil War. It is an easy, quick read.

[Bobsie67 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tells the story of Civil War blunders in chronological order. Chapters by year: 1861-1865. There were so many mistakes made by so many people, that 314 pages doesn't seem quite enough to really tell the story. Johnson tells the stories of his cherry-picked blunders in an absorbing and quick-paced manner. Perhaps a bit too tongue-in-cheek at times, but then it is difficult to read about all the miseries of this war without some gallows-humor, as so many needless deaths occurred through arrogance, carelessness,stupidity, ineptitude, stubbornness, or just plain passivity. For those of you who have read multiple books on the Civil War, these blunders will be very familiar, and so you might not learn much, if any, new information. But at least you'll have all the major blunders in one place.