Kevin Levin: Another New Englander who believes the north is sinless

Kevin Levin "The All Knowing"

       The "All Knowing" in the above quote is meant to be sarcastic as hell, but I'm sure that will pass over the heads of some readers. Allow me to quote his "advertisement" for lack of a better word on amazon about his book: Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder.

       Here is that quote "The battle of the Crater is known as one of the Civil War's bloodiest struggles―a Union loss with combined casualties of 5,000, many of whom were members of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) under Union Brigadier General Edward Ferrero. The battle was a violent clash of forces as Confederate soldiers fought for the first time against African American soldiers (that quote is a bald faced lie, see Battery Wagner, Fort Pillow, and Brice's Crossroads). After the Union lost the battle, these black soldiers were captured and subject both to extensive abuse and the threat of being returned to slavery in the South. Yet, despite their heroism and sacrifice, these men are often overlooked in public memory of the war." 

       Now, upon reading the review, I asked my wife, "Where do you think this idiot is from?" Her first answer was a little off. She said, "New York." "Wrong," I said, "Try Massachusetts." "Of course," she replied, "so get him." 

       There is more to this blog than Mr. Levin's one-sided story of "The Crater," much more. I visited his blog and a woman asked him if it wasn't as much fault of the North as the South the institution of slavery. He replied by degrading this lady and encouraging others to degrade her. Kevin Levin is another of those "Holy north against the evil South." He has a one sided image of the War Between The States. His is a one sided battle, because he thinks his intellect is superior to all others. He obviously hasn't read my blog. Nor does he want to know the truth about that war, it would break his heart. 

       This typical New Englander ignores a few facts. I'm not going to rehash all those known facts. I will just direct you to my past blog at http://trrcobb.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-truth-about-confederate-massacres.html. This would upset Mr. Levin in the extreme because it would go against all he has taught for all these years. 

       He belittles a lady named Connie because she called his attention to the fact that it wasn't all the South's fault. He treats her as if she is ignorant for calling him out. I don't understand how a guy with such a closed mind can make money by selling books and then it hit me. I'm sure, he requires all his students to buy his book for his class. Of course, I have seen this before. You must agree with his view of the world to pass his course and woe be to you who do not agree. I often went to class in college, forced to buy a professor's ridiculously over-priced book and agree with his single-minded view to pass an exam. Welcome Kevin Levin to that list I'm sure. 
       So what happened at the Battle of the Crater? Well, if you believe Mr. Levin's one-sided story, evil Southerners mistreated poor innocent black Federal troops who had been captured in battle. I've read this before. How about we take a serious look at what really happened without a New England point of view. 
       Before the attack began, let's just quote an officer of the colored soldiers. His name was Colonel John Bross of the 29th United States Colored Troops. He stated to the press before the attack, "When I lead these men into battle, we shall expect no quarter, and shall not ask for quarter." In a Northern officers own words, they were not going to take prisoners. During the assault it was noted that the black Federal troops were shouting, "No quarter!" When the fighting was winding down, the Northern white troops began to kill all the black Federal soldiers (yeah, you heard me right), killed their own men, because they were afraid of being captured along with black troops. Allow me to quote a Federal white soldier who had joined in the process of shooting and bayoneting his fellow black soldiers stated, "We was not about to be taken prisoner amongst them niggers." 
       According to Mr. Levin, this only occurred during the brief advance of the colored troops. Of course he does say "as far as I know." It appears he doesn't know much. The damage is done, he has minimized the effect of the black troops murdering of unarmed prisoners and made sure the entire world knows that the Confederate troops were very guilty of the same deed. You'd have to be from New England to think like Mr. Levin. Like all "Holier than thou" New Englanders, it's alright for his side to perform some barbarity, but not the side he's fighting against. Typical Yankee. 
       Let's take a brief look at Confederate Major General William Mahone. He led the counterattack at the Battle of the Crater that saved the day for the South. As the break through occurred on Major General Bushrod Rust Johnson's sector of the line, General Mahone with three small brigades were called up by General Robert E. Lee to stop the Federal advance. (Side note: Bushrod Rust Johnson was a quaker from Ohio who fought for the South, but don't tell any Yankee's because they don't want to hear it.)
       Leading the three brigades belonging to Mahone's Division were Colonel David A. Weisiger commanding Mahone's old brigade of the 6th, 12th, 16th, 41st, and 61st Virginia Infantry. Colonel John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders commanded a brigade of Alabama troops, the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 14th Alabama Infantry Regiments. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew R. Hall commanded the third brigade containing the 3rd, 22nd, 48th, and 64th Georgia Infantry Regiments. These three small brigades would contain the breakthrough. 
       Major General Mahone was upset because he arrived at Bushrod Johnson's headquarters and asked Johnson for help positioning his division to stop the assault. Johnson was more concerned with eating breakfast, so Mahone decided to handle matters himself. As he began to lead his division forward toward the sounds of battle, his division began to meet retreating Confederate troops who reported that the black Federal soldiers were taking no prisoners. Mahone ordered his troops to take no black Federal soldiers prisoners because they were calling for no quarter. Thus, the Battle of the Crater was under way. Now if your from New England, it's a great and deserved thing for black troops to take no prisoners, but for Southerners to do the same, it is horrendous. You must be a self serving New England idiot to believe this. 
       Now we move on a few years to William Mahone, ex-Confederate general, and now a member of the Readjuster Party. General Mahone defended the African-Americans in his district and were even presented with a nice watch from his black constituents. The watch is now in a private collection. I have read a blog about how the SCV and Southerner's should be ashamed of General Mahone. Why should we be ashamed of this fine general? The author of this blog is none other than (you guessed it) Kevin Levin, the above mentioned idiot. 
       So tell us Kevin Levin in all your infinite wisdom why I should be ashamed of General Mahone? Levin tells us that General Mahone helped the black citizens of the Southern States. We should be ashamed of him for this? Why would Southerners be ashamed of General Mahone for caring for black citizens of the South? After all, many of those black citizens supported the Southern States. Without the black Southern citizens, there could have been no rebellion. So Mr. Levin lives in his own New England world of fantasy. The most evil South versus the sinless North in a war over good and evil, ad nauseam. Please see my article in the Alabama Confederate Newsletter in January for more about these New Englander's and their theories about the South. They are often mislead, knowing little about the culture of the South, but this doesn't stop them from spreading their vitriol side of the story.

Ryan Petty Review: This is a Historian?

Civil War expert Ryan Petty

       I normally don't respond to reviews of my books. I've only received one bad review so far and it comes from a Civil War re-enactor and author from Texas named Ryan Petty. I think I understand this type of author clearly. I know I can't please everyone with my writing style and don't really care, but he decides to portray me as being ignorant about the commanding general of the campaign, Confederate General John Bell Hood. 

       Mr. Petty says he likes most Civil War novels, but found my book a stretch as he says, "All Civil War historians know (not debatable anymore) that Hood took control..." of the army and went on the offensive and got a lot of good men killed and wounded. He says that I attempt to portray Hood as someone misunderstood by modern day historians. He complains because I compare Hood to Lee and Jackson. He says, "That right there threw up a red flag up with me." He says, "The author does his best to disprove many facts that we already know about General Hood and I think that takes away from the book." 

       Well, since Mr. Petty is an expert on Hood, we would think he would tell us what is correct about the man, but he stops short by simply bashing me and my book. Basically, he is saying I don't have a clue. Thank goodness I have studied this subject for so much of my life or I wouldn't be able to provide my line of reasoning. 

       I never said that General Hood was comparable to General's Lee and Jackson. I simply stated that every move Hood made was an emulation of what he'd seen those two great officers do in previous battles. I will use maps to make my point for those like Mr. Petty who can't understand what they are reading. 

Lee and Jackson's flank attack at Chancellorsville.

       Lee decided at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863 that the best way to deal with a larger army was to keep it occupied with a small portion of his own army and send a corps around to attack an exposed flank. This was extremely successful. Of course it worked almost to perfection, so Mr. Petty would call this an excellent plan. 

Hood's plan for the Battle of Atlanta

       As you can see from the above map, Hood was using the same plan at Atlanta. he was sending Hardee's corps out to attack an exposed flank of Sherman's army to the east of Atlanta. Why did it not succeed the way Lee's had at Chancellorsville? It took Hardee over twenty hours to march the few miles and get into position. This occurred because of traffic jams, exhausted troops, and a sullen Hardee who resented taking orders from a much younger Hood. Hardee had been offered command of the Army of Tennessee twice and turned it down. Nevertheless, Hardee arrived five hours late and by that time the Federal line had been extended. Unlike General Lee, Hood didn't have a Jackson.

       Hood gets a lot of bad publicity because of the attack at Peachtree Creek. Most people haven't studied that battle obviously or they would understand that battle was planned by General Joseph E. Johnston prior to being relieved. Hood simply continued forward with Johnston's plan. In Richard McMurry's biography on General John Bell Hood, he tells about the Battle of Ezra Church. Hood gave Lieutenant General S.D. Lee an order to take his corps west of Atlanta and dig in on the Lick Skillet Road to stop Sherman's advance around the western side of Atlanta. Lee arrived short of the road to find Sherman's army already in possession behind strong breastworks. Without consulting with Hood what he should do, Lee orders his men advance in disjointed attacks and loses a lot of good men. 

       That brings us to Spring Hill. The plan Hood had at Spring Hill was excellent. It reminds us historians of the plan Lee had for Pope during the Second Manassas Campaign. He would send part of his army around Pope under Jackson and cut Pope's communications in an attempt to capture his entire army. The plan failed, but is considered a success because Lee finally did win the battle against Pope. 

       A Spring Hill, Hood actually went along with his flanking force to make sure everything was accomplished. He placed A.P. Stewart's Corps in a position to crash into Schofield's flank when he engaged Cheatham's Corps in retreat. It was a beautiful plan, but again Hood didn't have a Jackson. Hood arrived at Franklin upset that he couldn't get his subordinates to take the initiative or obey his orders. He orders a disastrous frontal assault. This same thing happened at Gettysburg with Lee. His subordinates failed him and he ordered a bloody frontal assault in the Federal center. I suppose Mr. Petty is correct. Hood wasn't in the same league as Lee and Jackson, but he made some of the same mistakes. 

       I could go on and on about the misconceptions about General Hood, but this is a blog and it would take a book's worth of writing to get my point across. Unfortunately, people like Mr. Petty wouldn't believe it because everyone knows without debate what an idiot Hood was a commander. The late historian Shelby Foote even stated that Hood was mistreated by history and Joseph Johnston was a worse general than Bragg. Too bad Mr. Petty didn't review his work and show us how dumb Shelby Foote really was. 

       I soon realized what I believe to be the case with Mr. Petty. He rates others books low to build up his own. I've met many people like him in life. I noticed that he even rated his own book a five star. I'm proud to say that I have never rated my own book and never will. Mr. Petty sounds like another man who used to camp and re-enact with my unit. He knew everything and could tell you so. He told me that his friends drive to Texas each year to urinate on General Hood's grave. I never replied to him the way I have Mr. Petty, but thought those friends must have a very powerful stream if they can stand in Texas and urinate on Hood's grave in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

       When Mr. Petty makes such absurd statements in his review, as he likes to say, "that right there threw up a red flag with me."