Attack and Die; Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage

University, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1982. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/fair condition-. xv, [3], 209, [5] pages. Footnotes. Maps. Tables. An Essay on Selected Sources. Index. Name of previous owner and date on half-title page. Embossed stamp at rep. DJ is price clipped. DJ has small chips, tears, soiling, and scuffs. Grady McWhiney (July 15, 1928 - April 18, 2006) was a historian of the American south and the U.S. Civil War. McWhiney became a noted specialist on the American Civil War era, as well as southern social and economic history. He coauthored Attack and Die with his doctoral student Perry Jamieson. Attack and Die stressed the ferocity of the Celtic warrior tradition. McWhiney argues that an analysis of Celtic warfare from 225 BC to 1865 demonstrates cultural continuity. According to this thesis, the South lost the Civil War because Southerners fought like their Celtic ancestors, who were intensely loyal to their leaders but lacked efficiency, perseverance, and foresight. In the first 27 months of combat, 175,000 Confederate soldiers died. The authors contend that the confederates bled themselves nearly to death in the first three years of the war by undertaking costly attacks. Offensive tactics, which had been used successfully by Americans in the Mexican War, were much less effective in the 1860s because an improved weapon--the rifle--had given increased strength to defenders. The authors argue that the Confederates bled themselves nearly to death in the first three years of the war by making costly attacks more often than did the Federals. Southerners, imprisoned in a culture that rejected careful calculation and patience, often refused to learn from their mistakes.