Mississippi in the Civil War: The Home Front
This book examines the social, economic and political fabric of Mississippi from the heady days of secession through the loss of Jackson and Vicksburg, and then the occupation of the state by Federal troops. Those who are familiar with John K. Betterworth’s Confederate Mississippi: The People and Policies of a Cotton State in Wartime will be delighted to find that the author has used this study as the foundation for his research. Timothy Smith, descendant of a long-time Mississippi family, probes the question “Why did the Confederacy Lose the War?”. His thesis is that while one needs an army to defeat a foe, the army needs home-front logistical support to remain effective. The author uses the metaphor of a wagon wheel to explain his examination of the Mississippi home front. The hub is made of the politicians who took Mississippi out of the Union and established the policies and procedures by which they thought Mississippi would survive and flourish under the Confederacy. Radiating out from the hub are four spokes: government, military affairs, infrastructure and economy. These spokes are held to the hub by the wheel’s rim that encompasses the state’s population: male and female, white and slave, pro-Union and pro-Confederate. As long as all these elements of the wheel work as one, the wheel functions as designed. However, if these parts cease to work in tandem they put a strain on the wheel that leads to its collapse. In his 10 chapters the author examines how the slow deterioration of Mississippi’s social, political and economic elements during the period 1861-1865 resulted in the collapse of Mississippi’s will to continue the struggle. The author sets the stage for his discussion of Mississippi during the Civil War by examining the state’s secession convention. He points out that it was dominated by slave owners whose concern was to protect the institution of slavery. He describes as false later reports of unanimity among all the delegates for secession. In chapter two Mississippi’s wartime state government is examined and found wanting. The author’s premise is that in order for a government to be a government it must govern, i.e. it must provide essential services to its people. Smith details the wartime decline in the ability of the state’s legislative, executive and judicial branches to function. By 1864, the state could not collect taxes, provide relief to the destitute, or defend its people. Chapters three to five examine Mississippi’s military structure to see how it functioned and how it failed to function. The author recounts the recruiting and arming of an army by the state and its destruction on various battlefields. Then he studies the effects of both the Federal and Confederate hard-war policies concerning private property; both sides burned it. Smith is even-handed in his discussion of the destruction of Mississippi’s infrastructure by noting that the Confederates destroyed as much of Mississippi’s rail and water transportation system as did the Federals. Next he delves into the state’s tax and financial matters. Mississippi’s economy was based on credit to plant cotton. The war cut off this financing, and there was no influx of hard money to pay debts. Chapters six to ten look at Mississippi’s society and how the war affected it. The author considers the interplay of its diverse people as the war moved into 1863 and beyond. The initial burst of patriotism was crushed under the relentless demands placed on Mississippi by both the Confederate and Federal governments. Smith provides a nice overview of the collapse of the Mississippi through actions and reactions within its social and political framework. I have one minor quibble concerning what I perceive as an unfair portrayal of the pro-Union population. They are often pictured as being pro-Union only for economic gain. I would counter that this same “vice” can be attributed to many of the pro-Confederates because they were primarily protecting their right to hold African-Americans as property. Those interested in why the Confederate military logistical system collapsed will find much of interest in this well-written book. Hopefully the author will expand some of the book’s chapters into a much broader discussion of these intriguing issues. Reviewer: Charles H. Bogart Charles H. Bogart has a BA in history from Thomas More College and an MA in urban planning from Ohio State University. He is the historian for Frankfort, Kentucky's Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site.
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Illustrated, maps, notes, index, 260 pp., 2010, Mississippi Historical Society,