In this first book-length environmental history of the
American Civil War, Lisa M. Brady argues that ideas about nature
and the environment were central to the development and success of
Union military strategy.
From the start of the war, both sides had to contend with forces of
nature, even as they battled one another. Northern soldiers
encountered unfamiliar landscapes in the South that suggested, to
them, an uncivilized society's failure to control nature. Under the
leadership of Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and
Philip Sheridan, the Union army increasingly targeted southern
environments as the war dragged on. Whether digging canals,
shooting livestock, or dramatically attempting to divert the
Mississippi River, the Union aimed to assert mastery over nature by
attacking the most potent aspect of southern identity and
power-agriculture. Brady focuses on the siege of Vicksburg, the
1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign, marches through Georgia and the
Carolinas, and events along the Mississippi River to examine this
strategy and its devastating physical and psychological
impact.
Before the war, many Americans believed in the idea that nature
must be conquered and subdued. Brady shows how this perception
changed during the war, leading to a wider acceptance of
wilderness. Connecting environmental trauma with the onset of
American preservation, Brady pays particular attention to how these
new ideas of wilderness can be seen in the creation of national
battlefield memorial parks as unaltered spaces. Deftly combining
environmental and military history with cultural studies, War
upon the Land elucidates an intriguing, largely unexplored
side of the nation's greatest conflict.
eISBN: 978-0-8203-4383-9
Subjects: History, Environmental Science
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