Ben Mcculloch and the Frontier Military Tradition
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
[A] well-written, comprehensively researched biography.--Publishers Weekly
"Will both edify the scholar while captivating and entertaining the general reader. . . . Cutrer's research is impeccable, his prose vigorous, and his life of McCulloch likely to remain the standard for many years.--Civil War
"A well-crafted work that makes an important contribution to understanding the frontier military tradition and the early stages of the Civil War in the West.--Civil War History
"A penetrating study of a man who was one of the last citizen soldiers to wear a general's stars.--Blue and Gray
"A brisk narrative filled with colorful quotations by and about the central figure. . . . Will become the standard biography of Ben McCulloch.--Journal of Southern History
"A fast-paced, clearly written narrative that does full justice to its heroically oversized subject.--American Historical Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Confederate general Ben McCulloch (1811-1862) is commonly depicted as an amateur out of his depth in a large-scale war. This well-written, comprehensively researched bigraphy, written by an associate professor of American studies at Arizona State University, instead places McCulloch in a distinctively American tradition of citizen commanders. He began as a militia private, but was no mere backwoodsman: self-schooled in the craft of war, McCulloch was as well read as most West Pointers. He was a charismatic combat leader, a first-rate organizer and a Jacksonian Democrat whose common touch inspired raw volunteers. Cutrer ( Parnassus on the Mississippi: ``The Southern Review'' and the Baton Rouge Literary Community, 1934-1942 ) makes a strong case that McCulloch was underutilized by Jefferson Davis and would have adapted to the conditions of the Civil War as effectively as he did to earlier conflicts in Texas and Mexico.
