Cry Havoc!: The Crooked Road to Civil War 1861

by Nelson Lankford

Overview

A "compact, engrossing narrative"* that vividly reimagines the events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War

What separates historian Nelson D. Lankford's engaging examination of the causes of the Civil War from other books on the subject is its willingness to consider the alternative possibilities to history. Cry Havoc! recounts in riveting detail the small quirks of timing, character, and place that influenced the huge trajectory of events during eight critical weeks from Lincoln's inauguration through the explosion at Fort Sumter and the embattled president's response to it. It addresses the what-ifs, the might-have-beens, and the individual personalities that played into circumstances-a chain of indecisions and miscalculations, influenced by swollen vanity and wishful thinking-that gave shape to the dreadful conflict to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143112792
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/18/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nelson Lankford edits The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the quarterly journal of the Virginia Historical Society. A resident of Richmond, he is the co-editor of Eye of the Storm and Images from the Storm and author of The Last American Aristocrat.

Table of Contents

Cry Havoc!Prologue: Harpers Ferry, October 1859

1. Faithfully Execute
Washington, D.C., March 4, 1861

2. Wait And See
Early March

3. Toujours La Politesse
Washington, D.C., Early to Mid-March

4. Contrivances Of Delay
Richmond, Mid-March

5. Collision Course
Late March to Early April

6. Flash Point
Charleston, April 12

7. Tidings Of War
April 12 to 15

8. Cheated And Deceived
April 15 to 17

9. Give The Old Lady Time
Richmond, April 15 to 17

10. John Brown In Gray
Harpers Ferry, April 17 to 18

11. Burning Bridges
Baltimore, April 17 to 19

12. Alone
Washington, D.C., April 18 to 21

13. Broad Stripes And Bright Stars
April 18 to 21

14. Sunday Rest
Gosport Navy Yard, April 21

15. Wild Excitement
Baltimore, April 20 to 21

16. Countless Rumors
April 21 to 25

17. Dismembering The Nation
Late April to Early May

Epilogue: Spring 1865

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Maps appear on pages 14, 52, 140 , and 160

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Disturbs the time-honored march of history with a series of provocative what- ifs."
-The New York Times Book Review*

"Captures the drama and complexity of this volatile period [and] reminds readers that . . . events could have taken a different path. Anyone interested in the background of our greatest national crisis will find Cry Havoc! hugely rewarding."
-Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War

Editorial Reviews

"Disturbs the time-honored march of history with a series of provocative what- ifs."
-The New York Times Book Review*

"Captures the drama and complexity of this volatile period [and] reminds readers that . . . events could have taken a different path. Anyone interested in the background of our greatest national crisis will find Cry Havoc! hugely rewarding."
-Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War

From the Publisher

One of the virtues of Mr. Lankford’s approach is to put readers in the minds of ordinary Americans trying to make sense of volatile events. War did not seem inevitable: most Americans had lived with sectional conflict and inflammatory political talk for most of their lives. The North-South split was never clean. And consequences were never clear.
— The New York Times

William Grimes

Might-have-beens haunt this absorbing study of the opening act of the Civil War. Historian Lankford (Richmond Burning) focuses on March and April of 1861, months when the future, he feels, was up for grabs. The crucial political struggle then, he argues, was for the Upper South: the eight slave states that had not yet joined the newborn Confederacy, where pro-Union sentiment was initially strong and whose loyalties would decide the war. Lankford minutely examines critical events and their effect on Upper South Unionists and the debate over secession, particularly in Virginia and Maryland, emphasizing the importance of individual decision-making in this volatile period. For him, history is contingency if Lincoln had evacuated Fort Sumter without a fight, or not called up troops to suppress the rebellion, or if Lincoln's generals had treated Maryland less gently, then the Upper South might have remained loyal, or neutral, or plumped more decisively either for the Union or the Confederacy. His underlying historiographical point that the conflict might have been finessed so as to save the Union without a devastating war is a none-too-convincing imponderable. But it frames a lucid, often dramatic account of how the nation's confusion and anxiety finally gelled into clear-cut lines of battle. Photos. (Jan. 22) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Southern historian Lankford (Richmond Burning, 2002, etc.) traces the final steps to the Civil War. He begins with John Brown's 1859 raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Va. Troops led by Robert E. Lee quickly crushed his attempt to start a slave revolt, but the event polarized the nation. Northern abolitionists treated Brown's death as martyrdom for a great cause; Southerners saw it as a barometer of Yankee hatred of their region. The Deep South took Lincoln's election as its pretext to secede, but the slaveholding border states hesitated to abandon the Union. Lankford focuses on these states, above all Virginia, where the calls of loyalty and secession seemed equally strong in early 1861. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln, whom radical southerners saw as embodying all the forces aligned against them, tried to balance firmness and conciliation. Fort Sumter became the test of the president's intentions. Secretary of State Seward was among the advisors who tried to convince him to abandon it; the South, they argued, would come to its senses if not provoked. After some hesitation, Lincoln decided to re-supply the fort. When his intention became known, Confederate artillery quickly forced the garrison's surrender. From that point, the border states began to tilt toward disunion. A Baltimore mob attacked U.S. troops on the way to Washington, and Virginia's secessionists gathered support from moderates such as Jubal Early, a staunch Unionist who went on to become a Confederate general. By the end of May, when Kentucky left the Union, U.S. troops were already in Virginia, and war was a foregone conclusion. Lankford cites contemporary newspapers and journals and letters fromordinary citizens of both regions, as well as from national leaders. Though sometimes dry, a good summary of the run-up to our nation's most destructive conflict.

Kirkus Reviews