Fighting for the Lost Cause: The Life and Career of General Jubal Early

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Mike Cheifetz

Jubal Early (1816-1894) fought two big wars during his life. About 150 years ago, Early played an important role as a general for the Confederacy, fighting his way up the ranks until he was eventually given an independent command by top Confederate general Robert E. Lee in late 1864. Early served under Stonewall Jackson and Lee, rising from regiment commander to Corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia, and he played crucial roles in key battles like Gettysburg and in the Shenandoah Valley campaigns. During his raid toward Washington, DC, his forces nearly killed President Lincoln during a battle at Fort Stevens, making Lincoln the only sitting president to come under live fire.

However, it was Early's writing that truly changed history. During the 1870s, Early was one of the writers for the Southern Historical Society who helped establish the Lost Cause, a cultural phenomenon that dominated the writing of Civil War history for a century and is still a widely held view today. His autobiography, Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early, Confederate States of America, is a perfect example of Lost Cause writing, in which the Confederacy is unable to overcome the North's vast advantage in men and resources. The Lost Cause was primarily a creation of men from Virginia, so in turn they deified the Virginian Lee, and are widely responsible for Lee's immense popularity today. And since Lee could do no wrong in their eyes, writers like Early looked for others to blame for the South's loss, especially at Gettysburg, which was widely viewed then and now as the chief turning point of the war.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Not much about Early. Title very misleading.

This book is maybe 20% about Early and 80% a general narrative of the war in the East and that’s being generous. It seems like the Author(s) were originally trying to write a short history of the civil war in the east, ran out of time or gave up on it and in an attempt to salvage what they’d already done went back and threw some pages about Early into it and gave it a new title. They basically tell a general story of a battle and might throw in a minute or so of Early’s report at the end.

For example: there is over an hour on Gettysburg and within that maybe 5 minutes on Early if that. You hear a lot about the 20th Maine on little round top, pickets charge, Hancock, etc. but it doesn’t even mention Early’s attack on July 2nd -at all- as if it never happened, the title subject of the book is not important to the book. There is more time dedicated to What Longstreet and Stuart were doing during the Gettysburg campaign than there was given to Early’s entire valley campaign. In fact maybe only 5 minutes about Early’s entire valley campaign exists where he apparently was guarding against Sherman?!?

The book basically gives you a little about Early in the beginning, a little at the end that’s interesting but the core of the book is a general narrative of the campaigns in the east through Gettysburg with a few short excerpts from Early thrown in here and there occasionally.

If you want a refresher on the war in the east 61-63 it’s okay, but if you’re hoping for a book about Early or the lost cause movement as the title suggests you’ll be very disappointed.

A Ramble Through The War

The story told very little about Gen. Early. He wasn’t the primary focus of the book, not sure what was.

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Not a biography of Early or a treatise on the Lost Cause. There are a couple of paragraphs about the 1864 Valley Campaign and then Early is suddenly in Mexico at the end of the war. It seems the Charles River Editors skimmed the Time Life Civil War Series and wrote a C level book report. Not worth the time to listen.