Booknotes: Reckless in their Statements

New Arrival:

• Reckless in their Statements: Challenging History's Harshest Criticisms of Albert Sidney Johnston in the Civil War by Leigh S. Goggin (Fontaine Pr, 2025).

Opinions surrounding Albert Sidney Johnston's tenure as the top Confederate commander in the West vary widely. Some, citing Johnston being tasked with protecting the borders of his vast Department No. 2 with nowhere near the resources necessary to successfully operate within President Davis's initial cordon defense strategy, argue that the general was placed in an impossible situation. Others believe that it was Johnston's own deeply flawed decision-making that was principally responsible for producing much of the catastrophic military disaster that characterized the final months of his rather brief (less than eight months in total) time in command.

Of course, generations of American scholars, most recently Timothy Smith in his 2023 study The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, have weighed in on Johnston's strengths and weaknesses. It has often been said that well-worn Civil War topics can benefit from foreign eyes infusing fresh perspectives from the outside looking in, and we might be getting just that from Australian author Leigh Goggin in his book Reckless in their Statements: Challenging History's Harshest Criticisms of Albert Sidney Johnston in the Civil War.

From the description: "Through a meticulous analysis of military records, contemporary accounts, and secondary sources, this book challenges history's harshest criticisms of Johnston's generalship and provides explanations for his most controversial decisions, such as the reinforcement of Fort Donelson and the stacked column of corps formation used in the battle of Shiloh. Here, for the first time, Johnston's actions are interpreted in a new light - challenging long-held assumptions and inviting readers to reconsider the legacy of an important Civil War commander."

The general format employed by Goggin in his analysis is the Q&A. Each of those styled chapters (23 in total) begins with a pointed question related to Johnston's decision-making [ex. "Why did Johnston assume command of the Central Kentucky Army?"], conduct [ex. "Was Johnston responsible for the blunders at Fort Donelson?"], or awareness [ex. "Was Johnston aware of events in eastern Kentucky?"]. Arrival at an answer to the question is processed through a series of contextual angles (indicated by nested subheadings) before a final conclusion is offered. Addressed throughout each chapter are the views of key historians as they relate to the issues at hand, their major works along with the O.R. being the two most commonly cited source types in the endnotes.

Having a great deal of interest in Johnston myself, I'm looking forward to delving into this.