In a period when the study of campaigns and battles is considered old-fashioned if not misleading, the military side of the Civil War continues to receive a higher proportion of attention than any other modern conflict. Eicher (The Civil War in Books), associate editor of North and South
and managing editor of Astronomy, manifests a corresponding degree of intellectual courage in offering this 900-odd–page operational history. The war's causes, the armies' composition, the soldiers' motivations—all take second place to a straightforward account of the fighting of a war that has already produced shelves of excellent combat narratives by such outstanding scholars as Thomas Rhea and Harry Pfanz. Eicher does more than hold his own in distinguished company and establishes himself as a remarkable battle narrator. He does set pieces like the attack on Little Round Top at Gettysburg or the doomed Confederate charge at Franklin with the verve of Shelby Foote or Wiley Sword. His accounts of Antietam and Gettysburg, Stone's River and Chickamauga, are models of clarity and cohesion, correspondingly useful introductions to the detailed monographs that often lose readers in thickets of data and analysis. Eicher is no less successful on a larger scale. His presentation of the Vicksburg campaign will serve general readers and specialists alike as an overview of one of the war's most complex operations. Eicher offers no significant revisions of conventional wisdom on crucial issues nor does he seek controversy in a field that often invites it. This book,
with maps by Lee Vande Visse and a foreword by James M. McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom), succeeds above all in demonstrating that the Civil War offered no shortcuts to victory or defeat at the sharp end of battle. (Sept. 13)
Forecast:While reenacters may rely on monographs devoted to their specific sites, this will be the word-of-mouth single-volume operational account for nonscholars. Expect correspondingly steady sales as the news spreads.
