Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)

I appreciate this analysis of an under-explored topic. My biggest complaint is that Bledsoe repeatedly, uncritically, draws on the work of Gerald Linderman, whose book Embattled Courage has been massively critiqued - if not debunked - by numerous other ACW scholars. To so readily adopt Linderman's claims without discussion seems inappropriate to me.In the passage on p. 147-148, Bledsoe identifies Linderman by name and pronounces his view of courage and leadership "particularly apposite." Bledsoe also describes officers becoming hardened and embittered by their war experience (pg. 185-186 and 190-191). He doesn't namedrop Linderman in those passages, but I found them so strikingly Linderman-esque, so reminiscent of Embattled Courage, that I was driven to check the endnotes and sure enough, Bledsoe cites Linderman for his claims in those passages.

Very Satisfied. Highly Recommended.

Solidly researched and well written.

This is one of the most outstanding new works of Civil War history I have encountered in a long time. It is quite astonishing to me that there has not been an in-depth study of Civil War captains and lieutenants until now. Fortunately, this book fills that space and then some. One of the strengths of Citizen-Officers is that the author is able to gather so many different ideas and concepts, weave them together into a coherent story, and present plenty of primary source evidence along with what I feel are extremely convincing arguments to give us a clear picture of what challenges and struggles that young officers must have faced during the Civil War. In particular, I found the story of the Ohio regiment at Shiloh, falling apart under fire and barely surviving because of the company commanders who held the unit together, to be very compelling. Also, I thought the author's description of the process by which inexperienced officers hardened and began to adopt more "regular army" methods of leadership over time was fascinating, and it makes a lot of sense.To summarize, the author begins with a chapter on the ideological origins of volunteer officers and places them in the American military tradition. It is easier to understand why so many officer had such a difficult time leading when one realizes the Revolutionary War and Jacksonian America traditions that so many Civil War soldiers came from. The second chapter explains how and why Civil War armies retained officer elections for so long, and also how appointments, promotion, and patronage in the armies worked, and how corrupt the whole process could be. Chapter Three was my favorite, explaining how challenging it could be to not only lead men in war, but also to establish the emotional connections and authority required to do so could be. Chapter Four explains officer culture, going into detail on how important bearing, authority, and things like swords or uniforms could be in leadership. Chapters Five and Six examine combat and the evolution of officers at the company level as the Civil War itself changed.The writing style is clear and the arguments are presented in an easily-understandable and persuasive way. The amount of research involved is also extremely impressive. Tables, charts, and graphs at the end of the book show everything from age to wealth to casualty rates over time.Overall, this is the benchmark for how to do an innovative new soldier study, and this is a book I will refer to again and again for many years to come.

A summary of the review on StrategyPage.Com'Prof. Bledsoe (Lee University), looks at the recruiting and service of company officers of the two armies in the Civil War, surprisingly a very neglected topic. He opens with a chapter on the “Ideological Origins” of these men, tracing the American tradition of the “citizensoldier” – and thus also the “citizen-officer”– from the colonial period to the eve of the Civil War, and looks at how community and regional ties provided motivation for service. The chapters that follow cover the initial recruiting of lieutenants and captains for the war, the challenges these largely untrained men faced in assuming their duties, the rise of a “citizenofficer culture,” their initiation to combat, and their maturation as leaders and commanders. Along the way, Bledsoe gives us a number of interesting and illustrative anecdotes, and introduces us to many young officers, some familiar, such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., but many more who are wholly unknown. Oddly, while he mentions pre-war militia or volunteer service of some of the men examined, Bledsoe omits tabulation of these, as well as men who may have had some military training in college or secondary school drill companies. Despite this, Citizen-Officers is an essential read for the serious student of the Civil War.'For the full review see StrategyPage.Com

This is one of the most important books to come out on the Civil War soldier experience in years.