[1] Woodworth is a firm believer in the strategic importance of the sometimes-overlooked Western Theater of the American Civil War.

In Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West, he wrote: The Virginia front was by far the more prestigious theater.

[3]Writing in the Journal of American History, Woodworth derided the 2003 Civil War film Gods and Generals, based on Jeff Shaara's 1998 novel of the same name, as a modern-day telling of Lost Cause mythology.

[4] Woodworth called the movie "the most pro-Confederate film since Birth of a Nation, a veritable celluloid celebration of slavery and treason."

He summed up his reasons for disliking the movie by saying: Gods and Generals brings to the big screen the major themes of Lost Cause mythology that professional historians have been working for half a century to combat.