Long Arm of Lee

"An exhaustive, valuable study, often consulted and widely quoted."--James I. Robertson Jr., Civil War Books: A Critical Bibliography. "A most informative study ...[that] contains many photographs not to be found elsewhere."--Douglas Southall Freeman, The South to Posterity: An Introduction to the Writing of Confederate History. "This basic book of Civil War history is an indispensable addition to the personal collection of the student of that war."--Military Affairs. "A requisite for all general students of the Civil War...[Lee's artillerymen] and their war deeds might be forgotten were it not for this wonderful account."--Civil War History. Originally published in 1915, when Jennings Cropper Wise was commandant of the Virginia Military Institute, The Long Arm of Lee has never been surpassed as an authoritative study of the Confederate artillery in the Civil War. Volume I describes the organization and tactics of the field batteries of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and their performance in famous battles, including those at Bull Run, Malvern Hill, Cedar Mountain, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg. It ends with the bitter winter interlude before the Chancellorsville campaign of the spring of 1863. Volume 2 of Wise's history, also available as a Bison Book, takes up the harrowing events stretching from Chancellorsville to Appomattox. In his introduction, Gary W. Gallagher addresses some of the myths exposed by Wise, touching on the persistent under-estimation of the artillery's role in winning battles. Gallagher, a professor of history at Penn State University, is the editor of Lee the Soldier (Nebraska, 1996).