This is the best battle history I've ever read; it's probably the best work of military history I've ever read (and there's been a few). Sears takes you into the mind of the combatants during Chancellorsville and explains lucidly why they did what they did. This battle has had a few volumes on it - mostly sharply critical of the Union commander Joe Hooker, mostly based on some well-chosen phrases from disgruntled Union officers. Sears unpicks that carefully woven fabric of falsehood, though also shows why Hooker failed.

Perhaps the emphasis is more on the North with Robert E Lee shown as a courageous commander whose splitting of forces and flank attacks are, really, more to the Union plan than his own. This is not to belittle Lee, but does provide some well-needed balance from the hyperbole of many writers about Chancellorsville.

Buy it