The Civil War in Tennessee, 1862-1863

By Jack H. Lepa
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 233 pp., 2007. McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $45 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Robert L. Durham
Robert L. Durham is a computer specialist. A longtime Civil War buff, he is also interested in Old West history and has written articles and book reviews for Alamo Journal, True West, Journal of the Alamo Battlefield Association, and Alamo de Parras web site at www.flash.net/~alamo3

Review:
In The Civil War in Tennessee, 1862-1863, Jack H. Lepa has done a fine job of telling this story with sufficient detail to allow even those already familiar with the subject to find tidbits of new information. This volume will be a good starting point for studying this theater of the war.

Lepa does an able job of explaining why Tennessee was so important to both sides, its strategic location and its many material resources. He describes each of the major battles and campaigns that figured in deciding the control of Tennessee: Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Stones River, the Tullahoma Campaign, Chickamauga and the battles around Chattanooga.

The battles and campaigns are described extremely well, with enough first-hand accounts to bring them to life. A volume of this size does not allow for in-depth analysis of course, but Lepa does include a surprising amount. He even finds space for a little controversy, such as stating that in the spring of 1863, "the cavalry arm of the Army of Tennessee was one of its worst handicaps."

Lepa then goes on to explain the shortcomings of Joseph Wheeler, John Morgan, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Earl van Dorn. I rather agree with him in part, but it may be hard for some who have grown up with stories of the superiority of Confederate cavalry to accept.

The photographs are very common but the only real shortcoming I found with this work is the shortage of good maps. There is no map of Tennessee at all, which makes it hard to follow the campaigns. There are maps of the battles of Shiloh, Stones River and Chickamauga, but they are too simplistic to be of much use.

Except for that, this is an excellent primer on the Tennessee theater of the war and I highly recommend it to any who are new to the study of the Civil War in the West. Actually, it is not a bad volume to have on the shelf of any Civil War library.