Samuel W. Mitcham

Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. is an American author and military historian who specializes in the German war effort during World War II and the Confederate war effort during the American Civil War. He is the author of more than 40 books and has collaborated with other historians such as Gene Mueller.

Personal life Mitcham was born in 1949, in the Louisianian village of Mer Rouge. He currently lives in Monroe. Mitcham is married and is the father of two children.

Education and career Mitcham participated in the Vietnam War where he served as a helicopter pilot for the United States Army. He studied journalism at Northeast Louisiana University and science at the North Carolina State. Mitcham earned his Ph.D. in geography in 1986 from University of Tennessee. His dissertation at Tennessee was titled The origin and evolution of the southwestern Louisiana rice region, 1880-1920. Mitcham taught geography, historical geography and military history at Henderson State University, Georgia Southern University, and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. He has been consulted by the CBS, the BBC, the NPR and The History Channel. He is also a former visiting professor in the United States Military Academy.

Authorship and reception Mitcham is the author of more than 40 books on military history, including orders of battle, operational studies and prosopography, focusing on the careers of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS figures, as well as on Confederate figures.

His works have been translated into at least 8 languages, including German, Polish, Chinese, and Russian among several others.

The Desert Fox in Normandy: Rommel's Defense of Fortress Europe In The Desert Fox in Normandy: Rommel's Defense of Fortress Europe (1997), Mitcham focuses on the career and activities of Erwin Rommel while he served in Europe from November 1943 until his death in October 1944. He also explores some "what-if" scenarios in relation to Rommel.

The book received a positive review by the staff of the World History Group, who called it "a well-written and concientiously researched historical work".

Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944 In Retreat to the Reich (2000), Mitcham gives an account of Operation Overlord from the German perspective.

Publishers Weekly wrote that the book would be fascinating for specialists and determined readers, but it could be tedious for the lay reader. The book received a positive review by historian Lee Fullenkamp in the Parameters Journal of the U.S. Army War College.

The book received a mixed review by historian Bradley Nicols in H-Net, noting its "excellent job [at] describing battles and establishing links between the social, political, and religious background of German officers and their actions in combat", but criticizing its methodology and a few other aspects such as its adherence to the myth of the clean Wehrmacht. Mitcham makes it clear that he wrote the book from a German point of view, but he draws from both German and American sources. He argues that responsibility for the American defeat in the battle lies closer to the Americans themselves rather than to German advantages. Mitcham also gives great focus to the 18th Volksgrenadier Division.

Publishers Weekly wrote a positive review of the book, calling it "insightful" and "well-researched".

Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 In Crumbling Empire: The German Defeat in the East, 1944 (2001), Mitcham wrote about the World War II battles of 1944 from the Battle of Stalingrad to the Siege of Budapest.

Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine and the Waffen-SS In Hitler's Commanders (2012), Mitcham along with Gene Mueller wrote brief profiles of several lesser-known Nazi commanders.

Publishers Weekly wrote a positive review of the book, calling it "a sterling introduction for anyone interested in how the men who fought for Hitler ticked".

The Rise of the Wehrmacht: The German Armed Forces and World War II In The Rise of the Wehrmacht (2008), Mitcham gives a military history of Germany and its war effort from the fall of the House of Hohenzollern in 1918 to the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 with a focus on the Wehrmacht.

Historian Keith Eubank, specializing in WWII, wrote a positive review of the book in CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.

Richard Taylor and the Red River Campaign of 1864 In Richard Taylor and the Red River Campaign of 1864 (2012), Mitcham wrote about Confederate general Richard Taylor and the 1864 Red River Campaign.

Historian Kyle Sinisi, writing in the Civil War Book Review, gave the book a mostly negative review, writing that there are several errors in writing, research and interpretation. He faults Mitcham for not revealing archival research in a book full of "printed primary and secondary sources". However, he also states that the book is "not without some virtue" noting its "colorful detail and clear descriptions of complicated movements". On the other hand, historian Michael Thomas Smith, writing in the Journal of Southern History, gave the book a mostly positive review, stating that Mitcham's conclusion, (i.e., that the ultimate significance of the Red River campaign was to delay William Sherman's capture of Atlanta, which was a key city because it might've cost Abraham Lincoln the re-election in 1864), "sensible and judicious" albeit lacking in novelty. Smith concludes that "General readers interested in the Civil War will likely enjoy this book".

It Wasn't About Slavery: Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War In It Wasn't About Slavery: Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War (2020), Mitcham advances the neo-Confederate view that the American Civil War was not, as most historians assess, about slavery. He calls the conflict "the War for Southern Self-Determination".

Gene Kizer Jr., a neo-Confederate historian who has authored books defending the Confederate States of America, wrote a 15-part positive review of the book. He stated that it doesn't solely address the issue of slavery, but goes beyond it, and that: "It is well argued and documented so that it is hard to question any of it".

Other works Among his other works, is Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest (2016), presenting a flattering biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a prominent Confederate Army general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The book received a positive review by author James Rutledge Roesch in the Abbeville Institute.

Selected works World War II With Gene Mueller: Hitler's Commanders. Cooper Publishing Group, London 1992. Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich. Praeger, Westport 1996. The Rise of the Wehrmacht: The German Armed Forces and World War II. Praeger Security International, Westport 1998. Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944. Praeger, Westport 2000. The Panzer Legions: A Guide to the German Army Tank Divisions of World War II and Their Commanders. Greenwood Press, Westport 2001. Hitler's Field Marshals and Their Battles. Cooper Square Press, New York 2001. Rommel's Lieutenants: The Men who Served the Desert Fox, France, 1940. Praeger Security International, Westport 2006. Defenders of Fortress Europe: The Untold Story of the German Officers During the Allied Invasion. Potomac Books, Washington, D.C. 2009. Eagles of the Third Reich: Leaders of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. Crécy Publications, Manchester 2010. Blitzkrieg No Longer: The German Wehrmacht in battle, 1943. Pen and Sword Books, Barnsley 2010. The Death of Hitler's War Machine: The Final Destruction of the Wehrmacht. Regnery History 2021.

American Civil War

Richard Taylor and the Red River Campaign of 1864, Pelican Publishing Press, 2012, Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Regnery History, 2016. Vicksburg: The Bloody Siege that Turned the Tide of the Civil War. Regnery History, Washington, DC 2018. The Greatest Lynching in American History: New York 1863, Shotwell Publishing LLC 2020. It Wasn't About Slavery: Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War, Regnery History, 2020. The Encyclopedia of Confederate Generals: The Definitive Guide to the 426 leaders of the South's War Effort, Regnery History, 2022,