VAN DORN - The Life and Times of a Confederate General by Hartje, Robert G

Vanderbilt, Nashville, 1967. US first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2, VG/VG- CONDITION ( very light dj edge wear and dj spine lightly sunned & price clipped), xiii, 359 pages, frontispiece, maps, notes, bibliog., index.-------------------------------------------In 1861 Earl Van Dorn entered the Confederate Army, heralded as one of its most promising young officers. Few men of his age had more military experience and prestige. A -West Point graduate, Van Dorn distinguished himself in the Mexican War under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, and had fought the Indians in Texas as a member of the famous Second Cavalry. His early service in the Civil War further embellished his record. In late 1861 he was transferred to the critical Virginia theater of operations, where Jefferson Davis, his personal friend and commander-in-chief, expected great things of him.-----------------------------------------------------Van Dorn failed on both occasions when he was given command of a sizable army and was promptly relegated to the secondary role of cavalry commander in Mississippi and Tennessee. An expert horseman, he flourished as a cavalry officer adept at harassing and springing raids on enemy troop movements and outposts. When it came to larger initiatives, however, Van Dorn fell back into his earlier pattern of failure. His tactical blunders at the battles of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and Corinth, Mississippi, may have signaled the end of Confederate military advantage in the Civil War.-----------------------------------------------------Van Dorn's failures were not of courage or resourcefulness. Rather, he was a dreamer, impatient for the glory of victory which he coveted, and without the meticulousness and doggedness necessary to winning in battle. He was much flash and little substance, and further plagued by the not uncommon phenomenon of insufficient men and materiel, shortages that more capable officers had been able to compensate for by careful planning and thoroughness of command.------------------------------------------------Yet undeniably, Earl Van Dorn is one of the most prominent figures in the story of the war in the West and the bloody events that marked the Federal occupation of the Mississippi Valley from 1861 to 1863. He represents a counterpoint to the Lees, the Johnstons, and the Jacksons as an officer, and on several occasions his presence on the battlefield was as important negatively as theirs was positively.The intrigue and flamboyance of his personal life and the mystery that surrounds his assassination, in May 1863, bring added dimension to this fascinating account of Van Dorn's checkered career and his role in the great tragedy of the Civil War.