The Hard Hand of War
Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865

This volume explores the Union army's treatment of Southerners during the Civil War, emphasising the survival of political logic and control.

Mark Grimsley (Author)

9780521599412, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 February 1997

260 pages, 10 b/w illus. 3 maps
23.3 x 15 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

"The impact of the war on civilians is often not fully understood or misunderstood or quite deliberately misstated. So those new to the Civil War should read Mark Grimsley's The Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865. It examines the intentional and unintentional effects of the conflict in a balanced, comprehensive manner." Fritz Heinzen, Osprey Military Journal

The Hard Hand of War, first published in 1996, explores the Union army's policy of destructive attacks upon Southern property and civilian morale - how it evolved, what it was like in practice. From an initial policy of deliberate restraint, extending even to the active protection of Southerners' property and constitutional rights, Union armies gradually adopted measures that subjected civilians to the burdens of war. Yet the ultimate 'hard war' policy was far from the indiscriminate fury of legend. Union policy makers emphasised a program of directed severity, and Grimsley demonstrates how and why it worked. Through comparisons with earlier European wars and through the testimony of Union soldiers and Southern civilians alike, he shows that Union soldiers exercised restraint even as they made war against the Confederate civilian population.

Introduction
1. The roots of a policy
2. Conciliation and its challenges
3. Early occupations
4. Conciliation abandoned
5. War in earnest
6. Emancipation: touchstone of hard war
7. From pragmatism to hard war
8. The limits of hard war
9. Gestures of mercy, pillars of fire.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]