The Confederate Resurgence of 1864
By: William Marvel

     William Marvel's The Confederate Resurgence of 1864 examines a dozen understudied Confederate and Union military operations carried out during the spring of 1864 that, taken cumulatively, greatly revived white southerners' hopes for independence.  Among the pivotal moments during this period were the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the CSS Hunley, Nathan Bedford Forrest's defeat of William Sooy Smith's cavalry raid, and the Confederate army's victory at Olustee, Florida.  The repulse of Union advances on Dalton, Georgia; botched Union raids on Richmond; and the capture of the Union garrison in Plymouth, North Carolina, likewise suggested that the tide of fighting had turned toward the Confederate cause.  These events boosted the morale of southern troops and citizens, and caused grave concerns about the war effort in the North and in the mind of Abraham Lincoln.