Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander

General Alexander's "Military Memoirs" saw great commercial and critical success when it was published shortly after the turn of the century. His children were constantly asking him for more of a "what it was like" memoir, without all the scholarly overtones. To satisfy them, he drafted a 1200 page manuscript while away on a job in Nicaragua. It disappeared over the years, and was only rediscovered about 10 years ago. With some excellent editing to fill in the blanks in the author's memory, "Fighting for the Confederacy" should be required reading for every Civil War enthusiast.Compared to his other work, this book is much more personal and informal. He includes some great detail on what military service was like in Utah Territory and California immediately before the war. Like his other book though, he is neither a romantic about the Confederacy (or apologetic for that matter), nor sparing of his views of commanders North or South. If you have an interest in the Civil War, but not especially details of the campaigns, this is probably the better book by Alexander-praise indeed. However, the military historian would benefit from this book as well as "Military Memoirs". Highly Recommended.

A tremendous historical find, this book is the original manuscript for Alexander Porter's great Civil war cornerstone book "Military Memoirs of a Confederate". The original manuscript was edited into Military Memoirs so this book is essentially the uncut version of the original containing more personal views of the Confederate who was a great witness and participate Longstreet's First Corps and thus Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He was in charge of Longstreet's artillery barrage at Gettysburg's 3rd day and he had to make the judgment call when it was most advantageous to advance Picket's (actually Longstreet's) charge, he was in the west at Chattanoga, Chickamaugua and the relative disastrous Tennessee campaign, he was with Lee at Appomattox venturing the comment to Lee that they fight on as a guerilla force which was disdained by Lee and he made the accurate and most famous appraisal of the Seven Days battles where Lee struggled to get his divisions to cooperate by expressing that the Confederates knew as much about the lay of the land "as they did about Africa". Unusual post war Confederate autobiography in that Alexander is objective, relatively free of ego and offers his opinions on the whys and how comes without personal animosity. Plus, he was a major participant, close to Longstreet and in turn he had a great vantage point in observing Lee. The book belongs on every Civil War collector's shelf.

E. Porter Alexander gives us one of the finest memoirs of the Civil War. His prose is lean, lacking the ruffles and flourishes so beloved by the Victorians. He had none of the false modesty that makes such reading tiresome. His book was not intended for a general audience, as were his "Military Memoirs." Hence there is great frankness and frequent passion in his story. He gives honest accounts of his immediate superiors, Longstreet and Lee; and criticizes as well as praises.Gary Gallagher, a noted historian, is to be thanked for rescuing these papers from oblivion. Alexander was a well born 25-year old West Point graduate when the war began. His career was quickly advanced because of his mental agility and military astuteness. During the Peninsula campaign, he was in reconnaissance. He was one of the first to use hot-air balloons for surveillance of the enemy. This makes for exciting reading. It was relatively easy to get UP in the balloons of the time, but getting Down was a chancy business! He was transferred to Artillery where he remained throughout the war. It was Alexander who laid the artillery charges at Gettysburg on that fateful afternoon of July 3, 1863.Alexander's prose is never dry, often humorous, and sometimes luminous. Following is his impression of the burning of Richmond, Monday, April 3, 1865: "-It was after sunrise of a bright morning when from the Manchester high grounds we turned to take our last look at the old city for which we had fought so long & so hard. It was a sad, a terrible & a solemn sight. I don't know that any moment in the whole war impressed me more deeply with all its stern realities than this. The whole river front seemed to be in flames, amid which occasional heavy explosions were heard & the black smoke spreading & hanging over the city seemed to be full of dreadful portents. I rode on with a distinctly heavy heart & with a peculiar sort of feeling of orphanage." (pp 529, "Fighting for the Confederacy")

One of the most enjoyable memoirs I've ever read. I disagree with the reviewer who said Alexander tended to bragg about his accomplishments. If anything, I thought this book rather modest. However, Alexander is not shy about sharing his opinions, but this did not impress me as bragging. His vignettes of the leaders he had personnal dealings with are priceless and add a dimension to my impressions of men such as Lee and Longstreet. The book left me wanting to know about Alexander the man. No good biography of him exists to my knowledge. I read one account a number of years ago in 'Civil War Times Illustrated' that stated he had a rather nasty temper. I was unable to form a mental picture of the man from reading his book because the narrative is that of a good-natured fellow teling the openly honest story of his war service. I was left wanting to get to know this person a little better. This is a must read.

I think that as time goes by, Porter Alexander's personal memoirs, written for his family and thus very candid, will come to be seen as an outstanding work both of historical reminiscence and of 19th century writing. The Introduction, in which Alexander tells of some incidents from his boyhood, is worth the entire book. But, there is more. Alexander worked either as signals officer, ordnance officer or artillery commander for virtually everybody in the Army of Northern Virginia, including Beauregard, J.E. Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee. He participated in virtually every major battle. He has the rare ability to desribe events in a fresh and modern manner, so that the reader is there with him in the thick of things. I can only imagine the thrill that the editor must have had when he found these papers at UNC in 1989. Alexander apparently wrote a more formal history of the Civil War published in 1907 with which I am not familiar. Although the frontispiece shows an unremarkable face, the writing shows the glowing intelligence and enthusiasm that must have impressed his superiors and led to his being given one responsible assignment after another. By being present, but a generation younger than the ANV leaders, he is able to give both intimate, but also critical pictures of them. This book is indispensible to anyone with an interest in the Civil War in the Eastern Theater. A true classic.