{"id":17223,"date":"2014-10-16T09:16:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=17223"},"modified":"2015-11-12T18:46:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T23:46:14","slug":"civil-war-historian-james-mcpherson-signs-new-book-gives-lecture-at-square-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/civil-war-historian-james-mcpherson-signs-new-book-gives-lecture-at-square-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil War Historian James McPherson Signs New Book, Gives Lecture at Square Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford, Miss. (TLV) – Renowned Civil War Historian James M. McPherson<\/strong> visited Square Books<\/strong> in Oxford, Mississippi<\/strong> on Tuesday, October 15, 2014, to sign copies of his\u00a0new book, Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis As Commander In Chief <\/em>(Penguin).\u00a0\"Embattled-Rebel-cover-0337sm-583\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1989, McPherson’s\u00a0book Battle Cry of Freedom<\/em>\u00a0won\u00a0a Pulitzer Prize and he has been awarded many other accolades<\/a>. His\u00a0work with the Civil War Trust<\/strong><\/a> has preserved important areas of American Civil War History. James McPherson\u00a0is considered one of the foremost Civil War Historians of our time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Square Books’ event was attended by about 40 people, including locals, residents, and even a few\u00a0Alabamians, who traveled far to meet the author. The audience listened attentively while the historian\u00a0gave a lecture entitled “The President and the General Who Would Not Fight.” <\/span><\/p>\n

This title\u00a0could certainly apply to Union\u00a0President Abraham Lincoln<\/strong> and General George McClellan<\/strong>, however, McPherson’s speech\u00a0was actually about Confederate President Jefferson Davis<\/strong> and General Joseph E. Johnston<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

McPherson gave a brief, but highly interesting, account\u00a0of the tumultuous, adversarial relationship between Davis and Johnston, plus a\u00a0history of their disagreements on engagements of battle, including Richmond<\/strong> in 1861, the Peninsula Campaign<\/strong> in 1862, Vicksburg<\/strong> and Jackson<\/strong> in 1863, and\u00a0Atlanta<\/strong> in 1864, where the Confederate President\u00a0finally retired\u00a0General Johnston after years of retreating from Lincoln’s Army.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Q&A\u00a0session followed James McPherson’s\u00a0lecture, and many in attendance had very good queries for the historian. Topics included Napoleonic tactics, resources, various Generals of both armies, slavery, and the arming of slaves and freedmen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Square Books owner Richard Howorth<\/strong>\u00a0eventually cut off the Q&A, after many\u00a0minutes of back and forth interrogating.\u00a0As Howorth noted, “This could go on all night.”<\/span><\/p>\n

McPherson’s newest book,\u00a0Embattled Rebel,<\/em> is available now at Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi. <\/span><\/p>\n

In his latest offering, McPherson aims to give Jefferson “Davis his due as a military leader and as the president of an aspiring Confederate nation,” according to his publisher.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Local Voice Publisher Newt Rayburn with Civil War Historian James M. McPherson at Off Square Books, October 15, 2014. Photograph by Rebecca Long.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford, Miss. (TLV) – Renowned Civil War Historian James M. McPherson visited Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309,19],"tags":[1072,2943,7085,4519,4509,4518,4508,366,4507,4055,2826,5,4516,15,4,4512,4514,4511,168,4515,4513,4517,4510,312],"class_list":["post-17223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civil-war","category-local-news","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-atlanta","tag-civil-war","tag-civil-war-trust","tag-embattled-rebel-jefferson-davis-as-commander-in-chief","tag-freedmen","tag-george-mcclellan","tag-jackson","tag-james-m-mcpherson","tag-jefferson-davis","tag-joseph-e-johnston","tag-mississippi","tag-napoleonic-tactics","tag-newt-rayburn","tag-oxford","tag-penguin-books","tag-peninsula-campaign","tag-pulitzer-prize","tag-rebecca-long","tag-richard-howorth","tag-richmond","tag-slavery","tag-the-battle-cry-of-freedom","tag-vicksburg"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014-10-15-JamesMcPherson.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}