Rites of Retaliation - (Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era) by Lorien Foote (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

During the Civil War, Union and Confederate politicians, military commanders, everyday soldiers, and civilians claimed their approach to the conflict was civilized, in keeping with centuries of military tradition meant to restrain violence and preserve national honor. One hallmark of civilized warfare was a highly ritualized approach to retaliation. This ritual provided a forum to accuse the enemy of excessive behavior, to negotiate redress according to the laws of war, and to appeal to the judgment of other civilized nations. As the war progressed, Northerners and Southerners feared they were losing their essential identity as civilized, and the attention to retaliation grew more intense. When Black soldiers joined the Union army in campaigns in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, raiding plantations and liberating enslaved people, Confederates argued the war had become a servile insurrection. And when Confederates massacred Black troops after battle, killed white Union foragers after capture, and used prisoners of war as human shields, Federals thought their enemy raised the black flag and embraced savagery.

Blending military and cultural history, Lorien Foote's rich and insightful book sheds light on how Americans fought over what it meant to be civilized and who should be extended the protections of a civilized world.

Review Quotes

"Rites of Retaliation makes its most significant interventions by 'connecting dots that historians have not connected before' and setting the historical record straight on questions of race, retaliation, and prisoners of war."--Journal of Military History

"Rites of Retaliation questions old assumptions, highlights fresh problems, and offers some exciting gambits with implications for everyone who studies the past. This book merits careful readership within and far beyond the field of Civil War history."-- American Historical Review

"Foote's argument that retaliation served as a legitimate and widely sanctioned method of directly influencing conduct in the field sets her book apart. . . . Rites of Retaliation is a fine book, one that deftly weaves together some of the Civil War's overarching trends and patterns of thought with minute detail and thoroughly contextualized evidence. It will serve as a valuable reference for years to come."--Journal of the Civil War Era

"Foote's study of retaliation--at times moving, always fascinating--will help readers better appreciate this unseemly and little understood aspect of the Civil War."--Jonathan W. White, author of To Address You as My Friend: African Americans' Letters to Abraham Lincoln

"Lorien Foote has captured the mindset of Civil War America and produced a masterful case for the importance of seeking honorable, civilized warfare with retaliation rites designed to preserve civilization."--New Mexico Historical Review

"This book provides a detailed explication of the rite of retaliation and its use in the extremely complex context of the American Civil War."--Journal of America's Military Past

"This is a great book. Students, buffs, and scholars of the war will all enjoy this fresh take on a part of the war they probably thought they knew well. It is highly recommended."--Civil War Book Review