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Title: This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga by Peter Cozzens, Keith Rocco ISBN: 0-252-01703-X Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: November, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Powerful!
Comment: If you want to know more about Chickamauga, you cannot do any better than this.
Chickamauga is the pivotal Civil War battle for the central South. Here the South literally wins the battle while subsequently suffering a series of calamitous defeats, the ultimate loss of Chattanooga all the way down to and including Atlanta.
If you are a detail freak who still wants to smell the powder and hear the battle, this is for you. If you are not, skim the incredible detail, this is still for you. Cozzens style IS different: He gets it right. His are the most detailed accounts I certainly have ever read. Yet, while he delivers the most incredible detail, he delivers the battle as well, hour by hour and minute by minute.
And this was an awesome battle, one of the worst ever fought on the North American continent. Out are the then current leaders Rosecrans, Bragg and Halleck. The South's continuing, and truly horrid villain is Jefferson Davis. The ascending stars are ultimately Grant and Sherman, and they have not even appeared on this scene yet. The Union hero of the day is George Thomas, a Virginian, who is subsequently treated very poorly by his country. Lincoln proves vigilant and resilient as always, adjusting the Union game plan with excellent decisions.
If you want to know more about one of the most pivotal and vicious fights between North and South, make time for this excellent work. While a brilliant Southern victory, it was the South's best earned, long term tactical defeat. While a humiliating Union battlefield catastrophe, it just may have resulted in one of the Union's finest hours.
Rating: 3
Summary: Attention to detail to the max
Comment: This is the most detailed retelling of the battle of Chickamauga I have ever read. This may be good, it may be bad. It took me about 100 pages to get used to Cozzens style, and even after that I was still overwhelmed with detail. Was it the 23rd Tennessee in Brock Field or the 19th Illinois at Snodgrass Cabin? You will know for sure after reading this book.
The problem is that Mr. Cozzens pounds you with such detail that you might miss some of the best parts of the book. Early on, Gen. George Thomas has sent Col John Croxton to flush a Rebel brigade. Croxton runs headlong into Forrest's cavalry, then is attacked by Claudius Wilson's Georgians. He wires Thomas "Which of the four or five brigades in front of me should I flush out"?
And Cozzens portrayal of Bragg as a mind-numbed leader and Rosecrans as a ranting lunatic is somewhat off-base. And while this was truely a soldier's battle, Cozzens frequently ends up giving short shift to the generals.
If you want to read this book, here's how to get through it. Download the entire series of maps of Chickamauga from www.loc.gov. As you are reading the book, study the maps. Also buy Chickamauga:A Battlefield Guide by Steven Woodworth as a study guide. You'll make it through it. I did.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Best Study of the Battle of Chickamauga
Comment: After reading Cozzens' book I can safely say this is the best study of the Battle of Chickamauga in existence today!
Before getting into the battle itself Cozzens lays the foundation leading up to the titanic struggle. He describes the Tullahoma Campaign in which Rosecrans brilliantly outmanuevers Bragg and the political atmosphere surrounding the North and South in August/September 1863.
Instead of a dry rehashing of troop movements, Cozzens peppers the text with several biographical descriptions of the officers and enlisted men who fought there. The author also includes several anecdotes in the battle descriptions. Some of the more interesting: An intense prayer meeting in the 11th Ohio before the regiment went into battle, a clash between the 4th Texas and 15th Wisconsin around a schoolhouse, the uncertainty and tension surrounding Cleburne's Confederate Division during a late afternoon/early evening attack in the Winfrey Field, and the death of Richard Kirkland of the 3rd South Carolina (a year earlier he had won the respect and appreciation from the Union troops at Fredericksburg by giving water to enemy troops after the doomed Union attacks against Marye's Heights).
Whenever I visit a battlefield I like to visit the place where a particular engagement took place, visualize, and absorb what it may have been like. While the National Park Service does a good job of interpreting major Civil War Battlefields, they often only mention the hight points and the major tour roads do not include many important actions. Books such as Cozzens' provide interesting and touching anecdotes that help fill in the gaps and help you understand the many personal tragedies and intense fighting that happened during Civil War battles.
The major complaints I have about the book are the lack of maps and photos of the participants. While the maps in the text are excellent (well drawn and detailed), about 5-10 more maps would have made it easier for me to keep track of troop movements. As mentioned in earlier reviews, I also believe that photos of the major players (Rosecrans, Bragg, Cleburne, Polk, Longstreet, Wilder, McCook, Crittenden, etc.) would have added an additional personal touch. Had photographs and more maps been included, I would have given the book a 5-star rating.
All in all, an excellent read and the most informative study of a Confederate victory that could have turned the tide of the war!
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Title: The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga by Peter Cozzens ISBN: 0252065956 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River by Peter Cozzens ISBN: 0252062299 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Modern War Studies) by Albert E. Castel ISBN: 070060748X Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas by John J. Hennessy ISBN: 080613187X Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.02 |
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Title: Chancellorsville by Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 039587744X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 22 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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