Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer
A Confederate Headquarters Memoir of Longstreet, Lee, and the Army of Northern VirginiaBy Gilbert Moxley Sorrel
Length9h 5m
About this audiobook
Gilbert Moxley Sorrel's Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer is a lucid memoir of military administration, command, and combat during the American Civil War, written from the revealing vantage point of a senior staff officer. Rather than offering a purely chronological battlefield narrative, Sorrel examines the mechanisms of Confederate service: the transmission of orders, relations between commanders and subordinates, logistical pressures, and the practical uncertainties behind celebrated operations. His prose combines professional directness with anecdotal portraiture, placing personalities and decisions within the institutional culture of the Army of Northern Virginia. As a postwar military recollection, the book belongs to the literature of Confederate remembrance while also providing valuable evidence about how participants interpreted leadership, loyalty, and defeat. Sorrel entered Confederate service as a staff officer and became closely associated with General James Longstreet, eventually rising to brigadier general. His experience at headquarters exposed him to high-level strategy as well as the everyday frictions of wartime command, giving the memoir an unusual breadth. Written after decades of reflection, it also reveals the author's effort to preserve the reputations, motives, and professional standards of officers whose careers had been shaped by a lost cause. This volume will reward readers of Civil War history, military biography, and memoir who wish to look beyond conventional battle accounts. Its firsthand testimony, informed criticism, and vivid institutional detail make it especially useful for understanding Confederate command culture and the human realities concealed behind military decisions.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.3 (433)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreHistory
Length9 hrs 5 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 22, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The True Story of Black Battalions: 6 Civil War Memoirs
2Introduction
3Chapter I Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861
4Chapter II After Manassas at Centerville
5Chapter III Reminiscences and Horses
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6Chapter IV Sketches
7Chapter V Our National Hymn
8Chapter VI The Peninsula and Battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862
9Chapter VII Battle of Seven Pines, May 31, 1862
10Chapter VIII Battles of the Chickahominy, June 26 to July 2, 1862
11Chapter IX Rivalry and More Reminiscenses
12Chapter X Second Battle of Manassas, August 29 and 30, 1862
13Chapter XI Battles of South Mountain (Boonsboro Gap) and Sharpsburg (Antietam), Sept. 14th and 17th, 1862
14Chapter XII Battle of Sharpsburg, Continued
15Chapter XIII Battle of Sharpsburg, Concluded
16Chapter XIV Our Personnel—Visitors
17Chapter XV The Staff
18Chapter XVI Events Preceding Fredericksburg
19Chapter XVII Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
20Chapter XVIII After Fredericksburg—Reminiscences
21Chapter XIX To South Virginia for Supplies
22Chapter XX Preparing for Gettysburg
23Chapter XXI Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2, 3, 1863
24Chapter XXII Gettysburg Aftermath
25Chapter XXIII In Virginia Again
26Chapter XXIV Longstreet to Reinforce Bragg
27Chapter XXV Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863
28Chapter XXVI Chattanooga—Incidents
29Chapter XXVII The East Tennessee Campaign, November 1863, to April, 1864
30Chapter XXVIII The East Tennessee Campaign, Continued
31Chapter XXIX At Home in Savannah—Sketches
32Chapter XXX Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864.
33Chapter XXXI Coincidences—Longstreet's Successor
34Chapter XXXII Battles of Spottsylvania C. H., May 10 and 12, and Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864
35Chapter XXXIII The Siege of Petersburg, June, 1864, to March, 1865
36Chapter XXXIV Longstreet's Return—Farewell to Lee
37Appendix
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