Often eloquent, often strained
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I must agree with the reader in VA when he states that Rhea often strains with his narrative. The research is thourough and the book is well organized. His storytelling is often eloquent but is also often awkward. On a personal note, as a Wisconsinite and a poud veteran of the WI Army National Guard's 57th "Iron Brigade"-the direct descendant of the Civil War Iron Brigade- I must take issue with his contention that the unit broke and ran in disorder. A relatively new account of the Iron Brigade's fight in the Wilderness, Sharon Eggleston Vipond's chapter "A New Kind of Murder" in "Giants in their tall black hats : essays on the Iron Brigade" edited by Alan T. Nolan and Sharon Eggleston Vipond sets the record straight. She successfully convinces that the brigade's hard core still existed and never broke in disorder. On the contrary, they captured many prisoners and several battle flags. It was the suspect reinforcements which had been attached to the brigade after they were decimated saving the army of the Potomac at Gettyburg who melted away that afternoon on the turnpike, leaving the hard core of veterans. The veterans retreated in good order with prisoners and captured flags. Routed men don't do that. Overall, good book.
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Detailed, Entertaining, Excellente!
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A refreshing and detailed book about some of the most intense and gruesome fighting of the war. I must ask when Mr.Rhea is going to turn out more of these outstanding summarys of Grant's overland campaign. It is to be applauded that this book ignores the pro-southern tilt than many works about the Civil War invariably manifest. Clearly this enlightened author is out to provide an account of what happened, not folklore. This book covers it all.
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Tangled in the Wilderness
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This book comes with recommendations of high praise - but unfortunately falls short of the mark. While Rhea demonstrates that he successfully surveyed the appropriate primary sources and has a grasp of the tactics (especially identifying and elucidating errors committed by officers in charge) and circumstances of complex troop movements and engagements in a very confused environment - no small feat - he also demonstrates deficiencies in story-telling and analysis. There is a great story to be told here, one of the beginning of the end of Lee's proud army as they face the first conflict in Grant's remorseless Overland Campaign. Shelby Foote tells it (in a much more concise fashion) with insight, emotion and the intensity of human drama - Rhea falls well short of that standard. Rhea fares better with discussions and descriptions of logistics and tactics - although he doesn't measure up to some of his contemporaries, for example Sears - but his real downfall is the con! clusions he draws from his analysis. For example, Rhea makes the statement that Longstreet's delay in reaching the battlefield until the morning of the 6th was somehow the saving of Lee's army. This is absurd. If Longstreet (and for that matter Anderson's division of Hill's corps) had been up the night before, Lee's army would have been in place to vigorously repulse Hancock's attack, saving their energy, manpower and firepower for a devastating counter-attack (after the pattern of Second Manassas). As it was, when Hancock was out-flanked later in the day, Longstreet's troops were already exhausted from the counter-attack along the plank road (required to save two of Hill's divisions) and they lacked the organization and the energy to press their momentary advantage. Rhea writes well, but with much room for improvement. If this is the best we have to date, then we are still waiting for the definitive history of this important battle.
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Page turning account of this terrible battle
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I loved this book, it is one of the best written and researched accounts on the Battle of the Wilderness. With over 450 pages of text and 20 well presented and easy to read maps this book gives you a day to day and blow by blow account of this terrible battle. This is the definitive account of the Battle of the Wilderness and I highly recommend it to any person who loves a good book on the Civil War.
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