Shattered Courage
Soldiers Who Refused to Fight in the American Civil War
Seiten
2026
University Press of Kansas (Verlag)
978-0-7006-4095-9 (ISBN)
University Press of Kansas (Verlag)
978-0-7006-4095-9 (ISBN)
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From renowned Civil War historian Earl J. Hess comes a study of Union and Confederate soldiers as never seen before. Shattered Courage examines the experience of the men who refused to fight on the day of battle.
When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of presidential office on March 4, 1865, he urged the country to care for those “who shall have borne the battle”—a reference to the Union soldiers who successfully met the challenges of combat. But while honoring and helping the good soldier, Americans have forgotten those men who tried but failed to meet the test of battle in the Civil War. Shattered Courage tells the stories of those previously obscure soldiers and explores the other side of combat courage.
In this unique and groundbreaking volume, based on decades of research, Earl J. Hess provides the first comprehensive account of soldiers who refused to fight in the midst of combat. Hess charts the limits on combat morale, which affected veterans as well as green troops, officers in addition to enlisted men, and Union along with Confederate armies. Hess is the first historian to identify combat defaulters from personal accounts and official reports and to then examine their service records to discover what happened to them in the military system. He is also the first to compile statistics on defaulters and to reveal that their comrades sometimes reacted with anger, but more often accepted their failure as an unavoidable aspect of engaging in battle. Hess also discovered that the army tried unsuccessfully to stop combat defaulting but managed to contain its effects by efforts to encourage battle spirit. Far from heroes but not deserters, most of these men returned to duty and continued trying to deal with the experience of battle as lived during the Civil War.
When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of presidential office on March 4, 1865, he urged the country to care for those “who shall have borne the battle”—a reference to the Union soldiers who successfully met the challenges of combat. But while honoring and helping the good soldier, Americans have forgotten those men who tried but failed to meet the test of battle in the Civil War. Shattered Courage tells the stories of those previously obscure soldiers and explores the other side of combat courage.
In this unique and groundbreaking volume, based on decades of research, Earl J. Hess provides the first comprehensive account of soldiers who refused to fight in the midst of combat. Hess charts the limits on combat morale, which affected veterans as well as green troops, officers in addition to enlisted men, and Union along with Confederate armies. Hess is the first historian to identify combat defaulters from personal accounts and official reports and to then examine their service records to discover what happened to them in the military system. He is also the first to compile statistics on defaulters and to reveal that their comrades sometimes reacted with anger, but more often accepted their failure as an unavoidable aspect of engaging in battle. Hess also discovered that the army tried unsuccessfully to stop combat defaulting but managed to contain its effects by efforts to encourage battle spirit. Far from heroes but not deserters, most of these men returned to duty and continued trying to deal with the experience of battle as lived during the Civil War.
One of the nation’s premier historians of the American Civil War, Earl J. Hess is professor emeritus of history at Lincoln Memorial University. He is the author of 31 books on the Civil War, including July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta, The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat, and The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth, all published with Kansas.
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Battle and Its Challenges
2. Combat Reluctance
3. Combat Failure—Officers
4. Combat Failure—Enlisted Men
5. Combat Failure—Units
6. Punishment
7. Encouragement
8. Other Wars
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 24.3.2026 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Modern War Studies |
| Zusatzinfo | 7 Halftones, black and white |
| Verlagsort | Kansas |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-7006-4095-9 / 0700640959 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-7006-4095-9 / 9780700640959 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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Buch | Hardcover (2024)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
CHF 47,60
