Military Necessity Civil-Military Relations in the Confederacy

Subjects:

• Military Studies » Military History
• History » American Civil War & Reconstruction History
• History » American History -- Nineteenth Century
• Military Studies » U.S. Armed Forces

Reviews:

• Escott, author of several major works on the history of the US South and the Civil War, examines the relationship between civil and military authority in the Confederacy during the Civil War. In this recent entry to a series on the larger subject of US civil-military relations, Escott finds that the pressures of war on a smaller, less industrialized, less modernized society forced Confederate leaders to make increasingly difficult decisions about the role of the military in a nation dedicated to civilian control of the military. When faced with the possibility of defeat and extinction, the Southern nation depended increasingly on military answers and seriously eroded the traditional US allegiance to civilian superiority. Indeed, this erosion was deeper than at any other moment in US history. Still, "the Confederacy became neither a police state nor a dictatorship," and neither Jefferson Davis nor Robert E. Lee would consider becoming a dictator, though some urged them to do so. This is a clearly written, sensibly argued, and valuable perspective on the Civil War period. Illustrations, maps, endnotes. Recommended. Professionals, graduate students, and undergraduates.
  —Choice December 2006
• Escott has added an undeniably fresh dimension to our understanding of the familiar by showing the extent to which the military fashioned pivotal civilian policies.....[H]is analysis is reasonable and balanced, his interpretation containing much truth.
  —Civil War History March 2008
• Escott is to be commended for adopting an expansive definition of civil-military relations in guiding his research. Instead of focusing solely on the interaction between the formalized institutions of the Confederacy, his survey embraces a multitude of questions arising from the broader dynamic of modern warfare's demands upon a democracy. In crisp and well-reasoned prose he draws upon much recent scholarship into Confederate governance, producing a work that rewards scholars and enthusiasts alike.
  —On Point: The Journal of Amry History Fall 2007
• Over the course of the Civil War, military necessity increasingly determined policy in the South. In this text for scholars and interested general readers, Escott analyzes the militarization of civil society in the Confederacy and explores the relationships between military commanders, legislators, and the Jefferson Davis administration. The focus is on the conflict that arose between those who favored a strict adherence to the Confederate Constitution and those who argued for the subordination of certain individual and state rights during wartime. The volume is illustrated with b&w portraits of the leaders profiled.
  —Reference & Research Book News May 2006
• Any studying Confederate military history and experience will want to place Paul D. Escott's MILITARY NECESSITY: CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS IN THE CONFEDERACY on their reading list as something a bit out of the ordinary. No light coverage, Professor Escott's history analyzes how life was militarized in the Confederacy and considers the evolving relationships between commanders, legislators, and Jefferson Davis' administration as the South entered war times and hardships. The military had a big impact on policy and also on civil society: MILITARY NECESSITY charts these changes and documents crisis points and relationships between military and civil society.
  —California Bookwatch May 2006

• Endorsement From Emory Thomas
  Regents Professor Emeritus
  University of Georgia: Paul Escott is a brilliant scholar. I believe that this book is the most important work on the Confederacy published in the last quarter-century. Escott's insights about the Confederate South transcend the nineteenth-century and, as good history should, speak to universals in the human condition. This is exciting stuff and an outstanding book.
• Endorsement From William C. Davis
  Professor of History, Virginia Tech: The Confederacy was beset with internal discord before the ink dried on its constitution. Not surprisingly, the tug-of-war between a strict adherence to that constitution, and the necessary subordination of certain individual and state rights during the emergency of a war for survival, became one of the conerstones of that internal debate. Paul D. Escott's The Plea of Military Necessity: Civil Military Relations in the Confederacy is the first work ever to explore the dynamics of an argument that began before the first shots were fired, and which raged to within hours of the surrenders. Anyone hoping to appreciate the complexity and nuance of the Confederacy's own vision of itself will profit from this innovative work.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Traditions for a New Nation
• Policy-Making Produces Innovation and Controversy
• The Politics of Command
• Toward a Militarized Society
• Military Power and Debility
• Military Men and Civil Policy-Making
• Desperate Proposals and Maintenance of Civil Supremacy
• Citizens and Soldiers
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography