Death of a Nation Essay Example for Free

Death of a Nation Essay Clifford Dowdey’s Death of a Nation: The Story of Lee and His Men at Gettysburg is a military history examining the Confederate loss at this epic battle, particularly the decision-making process and the Southern commanders’ failure to perform up to their potential. Partly a fawning defense of Robert E. Lee and partly an insightful study of why the South even dared invade the North, it demonstrates the author’s Southern bias without trying to justify slavery, as well as Dowdey’s fusion of history and storytelling. The book looks almost exclusively at the Civil War’s largest battle, in which Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invaded the North in hopes of scaring Lincoln into halting the war and recognizing the Confederacy. Instead, as Dowdey’s title implies, it proved the Confederacy’s apex as a military power, beginning its two-year decline and ultimate collapse. Dowdey, a native of Richmond, Virginia, who produced numerous histories and novels about the Civil War, takes a decided pro-Southern stance and offers a rather generous view both of the Confederacy, never approaching its defense of slavery, and of Lee, the inventive, chance-taking commander who proved the South’s greatest leader. The first chapter, â€Å"Rendezvous with Disaster,† conveys in its title how Dowdey sees the battle, yet he is loath to blame Lee for the loss. He opens with an account of Confederate troops invading Pennsylvania, depicting them not as a menacing enemy but as a somewhat merry band: â€Å"[The] Confederate soldiers had not committed acts of vandalism or abused the inhabitants. On the contrary, the troops had been highly good-humored in the face of taunts and insults† (3). The author then introduces the general as a striking, almost godlike figure, quoting an officer who deemed him â€Å"a kingly man whom all men who came into his presence expected to obey† (5); this description recurs throughout the book. Subsequent chapters describe the buildup and the battle itself. In chapter two, â€Å"The Opening Phase,† Dowdey portrays the decision-making process that led to Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania as a Jefferson Davis-engineered travesty, â€Å"a necessary expedient in the policy of static, scattered defensiveness† (27). The author considers Lee almost a victim of Davis’ vanity, rigidity, and inability to admit his own lack of military expertise, and he absolves the man he believes â€Å"embodied the image of the patriarchal planter who, as military leader, assumed benevolent responsibility for his domain† (33). Throughout the battle, which dominates much of the book, Dowdey introduces Lee’s subordinates as characters in a novel or drama, describing their personalities in lively, even somewhat chatty detail. Jeb Stuart, whose cavalry failed in its reconnaissance duties before the fighting began, appears as a capable soldier who refused to believe he erred; Richard Ewell is a crusty but soft-hearted eccentric whose marriage softened his fighting skills; and John B. Hood is â€Å"a fighter, not a thinker† (174). He reserves his harshest criticisms for James Longstreet, deeming the lone general to openly question Lee’s decision to wage the unwise assault best known as Pickett’s Charge, a lying defeatist. Dowdey claims that â€Å"objective historians and Longstreet partisans have tried to re-evaluate him outside the text of controversy. This is almost impossible. . . . Many other men performed below their potential at Gettysburg, but only James Longstreet absolved himself by blaming Lee† (340). By the end of the book, one realizes that Dowdey will not concede that the figure he admires may have simply made fatal errors at Gettysburg. Dowdey’s descriptions of the battle cover the three days in a generally accurate but not original manner. He alternates between broad, sweeping pictures of dramatic combat and close-up accounts of individual Confederate units and soldiers. (He gives little mention to Union action throughout the book, making clear that his sole interest is depicting Lee’s army and not providing a holistic history of the battle. ) Though his approach provides reliable but not groundbreaking information, Dowdey makes clear that he considers Lee’s defeat not the venerable commander’s fault (despite his own tendency to take long chances against the larger and better-armed Union Army), but rather his subordinates’ inability to perform as competently as they had in previous battles. In this account, Stuart’s ego kept him from realizing he failed in his scouting duties, A. P. Hill lost his usually strong will, Richard Anderson staged a poor excuse for an assault on Cemetery Ridge with undisciplined, poorly-led Carolinian troops (rather than the Virginians that Dowdey, the Virginian, favors), and Ewell did not adequately prepare his troops for their attack. While Dowdey concedes that Lee, â€Å"alone in the center of the vacuum, could not have been less aware of the total collapse of co-ordination† (240). However, he implies, Lee’s unawareness was not his fault, but that of usually-reliable subordinates who curiously failed all at once. The work ends somewhat abruptly, with Lee’s broken army withdrawing from Pennsylvania after Pickett’s failed charge (in which the general whose name it bears appears as a minor figure) and returning to Virginia; the author offers no broad conclusion or explanation of the battle’s meaning within a larger context. Dowdey, primarily a fiction writer and college instructor who also produced numerous histories of the Army of Northern Virginia, approaches the work with a storyteller’s vigor and flair, writing this history with a novelist’s attention to visual details and his characters’ personalities and quirks. Frequently, he aims to stir the reader’s attention by adding what his characters may have said or thought in rich, occasionally overstated terms. For example, he deems Ewell â€Å"this quaint and lovable character† (121); Jubal Early becomes â€Å"the bitter man [who] became as passionate in his hate for the Union as he had formerly been in its defense† (123); and Union general Daniel Sickles (one of the few figures for whom he shows genuine scorn) is â€Å"an unsavory, showy, and pugnacious character from New York who went further on brassy self-confidence and politicking . . . than many a better man went on ability† (203). In trying give his characters personality, Dowdey writes often picturesque and lively prose but also offers a somewhat distorted picture that more detached academic historians may find objectionable. For example, while Lee can do no wrong, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy’s much-reviled president, appears as nearly as much a villain as Longstreet. Of Davis, Dowdey writes: â€Å"The crisis [in the South’s military fortunes] was caused largely by the defense policies of the president. . . . Among the limitations of this self-aware gentleman was an inability to acknowledge himself in the wrong† (14). As a Lee apologist, Dowdey implicitly blames David for the South’s collapse, though he wavers on this by adding: â€Å"Lincoln had at his disposal unlimited wealth, the organized machinery of government, a navy, the war potential of heavy industry, and a four-to-one manpower superiority. Davis led a disorganized movement in self-determinism composed of proud and fiercely individualistic provincials (15-16). Dowdey comments little about the South in general and does not directly glorify the Southern cause, though he also refrains from any mention of slavery or racism. He seems to simply accept the South as it was, writing his works to illustrate a particularly regionalist sense of pride, if not in its plantation past, then certainly in Lee, its most shining example of military leadership and manhood. He reveals, perhaps unintentionally, his own sense of romance about the South when he writes: â€Å"In a land where the age of chivalry was perpetuated, the military leader embodied the gallantry, the glamour, and the privilege of the aristocrat in a feudal society† (15). Characters like Lee, he implies, gave the South respectability and nobility, while lesser individuals, like the supposedly duplicitous, disloyal Longstreet and the rigid, arrogant Davis, somehow stained it and failed to match its ideals. Despite Dowdey’s biases, he cannot be faulted for failing to do research. He includes a short bibliographic essay at the end, explaining his sources’ strengths and limitations. In addition to using many secondary sources, he relies heavily on participants’ personal documents, such as letters and memoirs, though he concedes that â€Å"the eyewitness accounts are subject to the fallibility of memory, and many of the articles suffer the distortion of advocacy or indictment† (353). This last comment is telling, because Dowdey himself neither advocates nor indicts the Old South, but rather aims to depict the military aspects. The result is a work that shows clear fondness for the South’s self-image as an embattled land of chivalry, but to his credit, Dowdey does not excoriate the North or its leaders. Lincoln scarcely appears in this volume, but the author pays some compliments to Union generals whom historians have seen less favorably, such as Joseph Hooker (whom Lee soundly defeated at Chancellorsville) or George Meade (who won at Gettysburg but failed to pursue and destroy the remains of Lee’s army as it withdrew). Death of a Nation is not a comprehensive history of the battle of Gettysburg, but neither does it claim to be. Instead, it is an often-entertaining, well-researched account of the Southern side’s participation, including its ill-starred behind-the-scenes planning and the personal dynamics among the commanders who underperformed at this key point in the war. Though Dowdey’s conclusion is so brief as to be unsatisfactory, one can draw one’s own conclusion from this volume’s title and the battle it describes: that defeat at Gettysburg meant the Confederacy’s failure to win its nationhood. Dowdey does not openly lament this fact, but instead shows the process that made this failure a reality. Dowdey, C. (1958). Death of a Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Eulogy for Friend :: Eulogies Eulogy

Eulogy for Friend I'd like to say a few words of tribute to this special man, from me and on behalf of other close friends of his. When he heard the news of Alan's death, a mutual friend and colleague noted poignantly that Alan was a man that was non-judgmental. Alan accepted people largely for what they were and for who they were. Alan was a man without prejudice. His many friendships crossed the barriers of social position and educational background. And his spirit, his generosity, his warmth also reached through barriers of race and cultural background. They reached through the barriers of age and generation. Because everyone was welcomed into Alan's circle of friends and what a multi-coloured, multi-cultural, multi-national, and multi-generational circle of friends it is indeed. What's more, Alan worked eagerly to bring these people from different backgrounds together. To me, he seemed happiest when he'd organised a gathering of the most diverse people one could imagine. If Alan couldn't remake the world outside to his liking, he would make it so in his backyard. He was a man without prejudice. This was not just a matter of principle for Alan, not something he merely theorised in his academic work and teaching. It was his instinct, his very nature. This was not simply tolerance, it was his personal culture. Because when we stop to think about it, Alan's preoccupation in life was people. He was always introducing people to other people. Always saying: you must meet so and so; and with his extraordinary sense of social occasion, by and large you did get to meet them. How many people have we met and got to know through Alan Smith? Dr Alan Smith was among the most intelligent people I have ever known. A sociologist by original training, he completed his Bachelor degree with Honours at the University of Wales in 1978 and was awarded his Doctorate by that University in 1990. His doctoral thesis, titled 'A Cartography of Resistance: The British State and Derry Republicanism' was a learned study of the Irish republican struggle. The freedom of the Irish people and Gaelic people generally was a cause very close to his heart throughout his adult life. His experiences in Londonderry in the 1980s exposed him to the brutal realities of war and I think shaped his political outlook in particular ways. One of these I believe was to deepen his affinity with people from oppressed nationalities and cultures wherever they were and whenever he came across them in his many travels around the world. Eulogy for Friend :: Eulogies Eulogy Eulogy for Friend I'd like to say a few words of tribute to this special man, from me and on behalf of other close friends of his. When he heard the news of Alan's death, a mutual friend and colleague noted poignantly that Alan was a man that was non-judgmental. Alan accepted people largely for what they were and for who they were. Alan was a man without prejudice. His many friendships crossed the barriers of social position and educational background. And his spirit, his generosity, his warmth also reached through barriers of race and cultural background. They reached through the barriers of age and generation. Because everyone was welcomed into Alan's circle of friends and what a multi-coloured, multi-cultural, multi-national, and multi-generational circle of friends it is indeed. What's more, Alan worked eagerly to bring these people from different backgrounds together. To me, he seemed happiest when he'd organised a gathering of the most diverse people one could imagine. If Alan couldn't remake the world outside to his liking, he would make it so in his backyard. He was a man without prejudice. This was not just a matter of principle for Alan, not something he merely theorised in his academic work and teaching. It was his instinct, his very nature. This was not simply tolerance, it was his personal culture. Because when we stop to think about it, Alan's preoccupation in life was people. He was always introducing people to other people. Always saying: you must meet so and so; and with his extraordinary sense of social occasion, by and large you did get to meet them. How many people have we met and got to know through Alan Smith? Dr Alan Smith was among the most intelligent people I have ever known. A sociologist by original training, he completed his Bachelor degree with Honours at the University of Wales in 1978 and was awarded his Doctorate by that University in 1990. His doctoral thesis, titled 'A Cartography of Resistance: The British State and Derry Republicanism' was a learned study of the Irish republican struggle. The freedom of the Irish people and Gaelic people generally was a cause very close to his heart throughout his adult life. His experiences in Londonderry in the 1980s exposed him to the brutal realities of war and I think shaped his political outlook in particular ways. One of these I believe was to deepen his affinity with people from oppressed nationalities and cultures wherever they were and whenever he came across them in his many travels around the world.

US Intelligence Community: From Past to Present Essay

The US Intelligence Community can be traced back to the yearss of the 1776 Revolution. The nation’s foremost spyhead. General George Washington used undercover agents to accurately nail the motions of the British Army during the Revolutionary War. The British Army besides employed undercover agents to place possible dissenters in the largely loyalist South. The Revolution besides produced the country’s foremost cryptographer. Dr. Benjamin Church. Dr. Church posed as a member of the Boston ‘school’ while supplying indispensable intelligence about Rebel activities to General Gage. the British commanding officer of Boston. After his assignment as head sawbones of the Continental Army. he continued to supply necessary information to the British. Dr. Church place was compromised after Samuel West deciphered a missive the former sent to the British. Dr. Church was sent into expatriate. What by and large struck me was the engagement of Benjamin Franklin in spy games. Franklin became the head of the country’s foremost formal intelligence-gathering bureau – the alleged ‘Committee of Secret Correspondence. ’ This bureau was formed in 1775 with the primary end of garnering information about sentiments towards the Revolutionary War in Europe. However. the bureau extended its authorization. It authorized its ‘employees’ to utilize necessary methods in ‘influencing support for the Revolution in Europe. ’ Franklin. through a secret dialogue. asked France to supply Gallic military personnels. France offered both its ground forces and naval forces to back up the American revolutionists. After the Revolution. the American Intelligence Community adopted an isolationist stance. The bureau became one of the primary organisations tasked to the edifice of a state. Espionage was viewed as a tool for defence – ne'er a public-service corporation for increasing colonial influence. As a consequence. the Gallic. Spanish. and British had small problem larning American activities. During the War of 1812. US governments were able to nail British motions in the continent ( and the purpose of firing Washington ) . However. no one knew how to utilize the procured information. American intelligence was awkward and supra-inefficient. The first major spring in the development of a sophisticated intelligence system came during the American Civil War. Both Union and the Confederacy used undercover agents non merely for information-gathering but besides for sabotage. Allan Pinkerton formed an intelligence community tasked to supplying war information to General McClelland. In the South. General Robert E. Lee relied on the alleged ‘Canadian Cabinet’ – a group of Southern leaders who directed espionage against the Union. Although both sides were able to develop efficient intelligence systems. many military commanding officers belittled the importance of intelligence in military runs. It was merely during American’s entry to the First World War that American military commanding officers began to see the existent advantages of an effectual intelligence community. This can be exhibited by the creative activity of the convoy system. American undercover agents in Europe sent critical information about the activities of U-boats in the Atlantic ( its motions. possible marks. and scheme ) . Based on the information. the President ordered the creative activity of a convoy system which could protect merchant ships traversing the Atlantic Ocean. After the First World War. the United States had a really efficient and effectual intelligence community.

The Problem Of Rapid Population Growth - 1605 Words

It took the beginning of time until 1804 to reach a world population of one billion people. Population statistics show that there were 1.6 billion people in 1900 and this figure reached 6 billion before the end of the 20th century. Over the past several decades, the world s population has been growing exponentially. According to the population statistics, this figure is going to ascend to more than 9 billion people by the end of 2050. Recent studies shows that the growth rate of population has somewhat steadied from the prior projections due to various things such as increased education, along with higher death rates due to the spread of numerous diseases. Despite these recent projections, the overall trend of rapid population growth remains, creating numerous challenges for engineers. The main concern for engineers is that this rapid increase in population, along with fast paced industrial growth, places a tremendous strain on land, energy, and water resources that are essential for human survival. These challenges for engineers will required them to use their talents in effort to improve these situations. One of the biggest concerns for engineers with the growing population is the tremendous strain on land. In many areas of the world, the land suited for food production is dwindling. This creates a major problem since there will be a high demand of food production with the growing population. Suitable land and mass food production are both necessary for human survival.Show MoreRelatedRapid Population Growth as a Problem of Humanresources Utilization in Nigeria2752 Words   |  12 PagesRAPID POPULATION GROWTH IS ONE OF THE PROBLEMS OF HUMAN RESOURCE UTILIZATION IN NIGERIA. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REDUCE THIS PROBLEM? 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