My Name Is America: journal Of Rufus Rowe, Witness To The Battle Of Fredricksburg (My Nam Is America)

My Name Is America: journal Of Rufus Rowe, Witness To The Battle Of Fredricksburg (My Nam Is America)
Average customer rating:

Plain.

Death and carnage at Stonewall

The journal of Rufus Rowe(review) : By Tabatha Denham

My Name Is America: journal Of Rufus Rowe, Witness To The Battle Of Fredricksburg (My Nam Is America)
Sid Hite
Manufacturer: Scholastic Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0439353645

Customer Reviews:

Plain........2006-09-19

"The Journal of Rufus Rowe" I found to be boring. I was looking forward to this book since it comes from the stand point of the Confederate, but I felt it didn't come from either side - but neutral. I think I find author Sid Hite's writing to be bland, as I've yet to find a book he's writing that I like. I felt the journal entries were lacking and history was not presented in an interesting fashion. I do not recommend.

Death and carnage at Stonewall.......2006-06-21

The journal of Rufus Rowe brings the reader into the mind of a young 16-year boy. Rufus witness the horror of war: "I shall never forget the smell of gun power" and "broken windows, furniture in the streets, and houses on fire" and "defeat in war means loss and victory in war means loss". Rufus patriotism and love Fredricksburg and Virginia was replaced by the burdens of carnage, death, and suffering.

Rufus felt and witness the raw carnage of war; the dead horses, the deafening boom of cannon and gun fire, the exhaustion and hunger, soldiers stripping clothes and items off dead soldiers, truces agreed upon too bury the dead, the illogical carnage that resulted from Yankees charging stonewall. Rufus discovered Soldiers consume massive amounts of pork, beans, and gruel. All of Rufus's chickens were stolen. Food became scarce.

The battle of Fredricksburg favored the confederates even though the Yankees number 115,000 and the Rebels 78,000. The Yankees were trapped into a pocket with only one direction of movement, forward. The confederate sharpshooters shot the Yankees with deadly accuracy. In scene, Yankee casualties reached 200 in one charge. The battle of Fredricksburg was a serious Union defeat, but not the end too the war. Union generals and soldiers had an endless supply of replacements.

Many Confederate Generals were involved in the battle of Fredricksburg. The battle of Fredricksburg formed a defense formation from right to left starting with Jeb Staurt, next Gen Robert E Lee, Gen Longstreet, and Hooker too the left. Rufus overheard on fat man brag about Jeb Staurt out whitting the Yankees with a calvery flank move to the right and predicted the war would be over in "six months". The war would last three years.

In one scene, the Yankees played "The Star Spangled Banner" and other Yankee patriotic songs, but when the union musicians played "Dixie" a roar of cheers and shouts climaxed on the rebel side. Union General Burnside felt capturing Fredricksburg was a strategic prize. President Lincoln lost confidence in General Burnsides lack of aggression and replace him. The delay in building the bridge had allowed the confederate armies to arrive and anchor into place. President Lincoln was angered by the delay.

The Yankees had to cross the Rappahannock River before gaining access to the interior of the city. The battle was delay for one week until the Pontoon bridges arrived. The Union soldiers received Rebel gunfire while they installed the pontoon bridge necessary for crossing the Rappahannock River. The Union army was able to cross over the Rappahannock River and march into Fredricksburg.

Confederate General Lee ordered the evacuation of Fredricksburg. Civilians departed their homes and many walked out of the city with their possessions. Rufus dreamed he saw a little girl carrying her doll out of the city. The little girl struggled to carry the doll and at the same time keep pace with her party. Rufus prayed for the little girl in his dreams and hope she would be able to keep her doll and exist the city.

Rufus would return home too his mother before the battle was over. Rufus arrived at dinnertime, Saturday dinners were large and he appreciated the food. The prodigal son had returned home and Rufus's mother affection for him demanded she not leave his side. The mother was not to blame. The mother's husband ran off when Rufus was two. Rufus was the man of the house, but when his mother remarried a businessman, whose profession was timber, the man treated Rufus both harshly and cruelly. Rufus despised his stepfather's cruelty and ran away from home and Rufus earned money for food by purchasing merchandise for the confederate soldiers. Upon return home Rufus told his mother about the progress of the battle and the stepfather excused his poor treatment of Rufus by blaming the ailing timber business. Rufus agreed that amends had been given and properly received.

Peg and Evelyn noticed Rufus and provided him a place to sleep, work, and eat; however, Evelyn's father pretended that Rufus did not exists, but allowed him to stay. Rufus friend was a George, one of the house slaves. As the fighting commenced Peg, Evelyn, and her father departed Brompton too live in a neighboring city with a higher elevation. George made Rufus promise he would hide during the fighting; good advice that would save Rufus's life. Once Confederate soldiers shot at Federate Soldiers from the second floor window of the home and bullets sprayed the home and a canyon ball knocked out one of the columns too the home.

Rufus became a friend with Captain Nelson. Captain Nelson provided information about the battle. Captain Nelson told Rufus about causalities and updated him on the progress of the battle.

Major General William B. Franklin attacked from two small divisions - Major General George G. Meade and Major General John Gibbon. Mead's troops broke through but Jackson's men expelled the federals. Burnside launched his attack from Fredericksburg against the Confederate left on Marye's height. Stonewall provided the fortress of protection and allowed the Rebels to move down the Yankees with precision. Not a single Federal soldier reached longstreet's line." Rufus explains that the confederates did not kill in cold blood, if a union soldier was trying to help a fallen comrade, the shots would go high.

"On December 15, Burnside ordered his beaten army back across the Rappahannock. The Union had lost 13,000 soldiers in a battle in which the dreadful carnage was matched only by its futility"

The journal of Rufus Rowe(review) : By Tabatha Denham.......2005-10-20

Rufus rowe ran away from his home in Bowling Green Virgina.
Cause of his step dad his teacher gave him the journal to write in.He starts to write in the journal a month after he got the journal September 22, 1862. Rufus left to go to fredricksburg to were the battle of the Yanks and Rebels will be fighting on october 6, 1862. He also thought that his step dad Mr. Jenkins will be looking for him in richmond cause he takled about moving there. before Rufus left for fredricksburg he told his mom cause he didn't want her to worry. rufus is sleeping in a alley way when he gets to fredricksburg he didn't write in his journal for a week when he gets there cause he has been to buissy looking for a place to live. the day after he wrote in his journala girl saw him in the ally and she offered him a potatoe after she offered him the potatoe she asked him if he had a place to live. She told him to go up togo up to Brompton Hill to where she worked for a rich guy she told him to meet her there the next day. So he takes her offer and he meets her there she said that he can sleep in the barn on the second floor she said she already put hay up there for him. He lives there for a week until he meet a soilder and the soilder ask if he can run a errond for him Rufus took the offer and the soilder aid him that he'll pay him a dollar and fifty cents so he did. after a month of doing that the war started and he had to quit running erronds.

The Fredericksburg Campaign : October 1862-January 1863 (Great Campaigns Series) (Great Campaigns)

Average customer rating:

Highly informative
Needs to be re-edited.

The Fredericksburg Campaign : October 1862-January 1863 (Great Campaigns Series) (Great Campaigns)
Victor Brooks
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Antietam Campaign: August-September 1862 (Great Campaigns)
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The Spotsylvania Campaign (Great Campaigns)
The Petersburg Campaign: June 1864-April 1865 (Great Campaigns)

ASIN: 1580970338

Book Description

No other general on either side of the American Civil War had the opportunity to end the war in a single day that Union General Ambrose Burnside had on December 12, 1862. Burnside?s plan to cross the Rappahannock River and surprise Robert E. Lee?s overextended Army of Northern Virginia was a brilliant one, perhaps the boldest stroke conceived during the war.

Unfortunately, the plan for a river crossing in winter was overly ambitious, and Burnside was one of the unluckiest generals of the war. Delays in the river crossing allowed the Confederates to occupy strong positions on a slope above the Rappahannock. What followed bore more resemblance to the doomed assaults of World War I than to a Civil War battle, as Burnside refused to call off the attack and fed more troops into the slaughter. James Longstreet?s Confederates on the heights were more sorely pressed than was apparent to the Northerners, and feared they would run out of bullets before they had run out of targets. This tragic engagement is now best known for the gallant charge of the North?s Irish Brigade and Joshua Chamberlain?s sombre account of his close brush with death. In the familiar Great Campaigns fashion, Victor Brooks? dramatic text is supplemented by sidebars on aspects of the campaign, a complete order of battle and 6 maps.

Customer Reviews:

Highly informative.......2006-06-14

This book is the most informative and comprehensive book on the Battle of Fredericksburg, the bloody Bunker Hill of the American Civil war.

A must have for any Civil War Library.

Needs to be re-edited........2001-10-09

With Christmas season soon approaching, thoughts of home and a warm cozy spot by the fire may have surpassed any thoughts of war. Longing perhaps for a slice of Mother's homemade pie or a brief letter from home describing the latest events, men, many cold, hungry, and miserable went about their duties awaiting orders from their commanders. This terrible conflict showed no sign of ending and with the onset of colder weather, men dug in around Fredericksburg and waited. Both armies watching for signs of advance, until that fateful moment when General Ambrose E. Burnside, the unluckiest commander of the Civil War, took charge and laid forth a plan to cross the Rappahannock.

This complex plan if followed accordingly, would surprise General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and bring a swift end to the escalating conflict. However, crossing the river in the midst of winter became a logistical nightmare and the delaying actions caused by the weather allowed Lee's troops to occupy strong positions overlooking the town such as Marye's Heights.

Union men were sent into battle as if lambs led to the slaughter. Lead flew through the air like hoards of locusts during a plague, mowing down men where they stood. Bodies piled up and the living took refuge behind walls of once living flesh. Thumps of bullets could be heard as they entered the bloody makeshift walls as those clinging to life on the "killing ground" cried out for help. Burnside sent wave after wave of men to their death and even tried to rally his commanders by claiming he would personally lead men to the fight and win the day! He was finally persuaded to call of the attack with many of his troops lying on the cold bloody earth for the night. The cries of the dying intermixed with the hoarse prayers of those passing from this earth.

As one begins reading this work you begin to realize that more editing was needed before publication. The opening chapter of the book does a pretty good job of detailing the aftermath of Antietam. It gives a good account of the 178th Pennsylvania and their slaughter at Shepherdstown, and how the Rebel forces pushed them back across the Potomac. However, the 178th was not there - it was the 118th Pennsylvania, better known as the Corn Regiment from Philadelphia. This is not to say that the entire book is filled with errors, the detail and research that went into battle statistics were in good order but to miss the proper labeling of the regiment so early in the work is somewhat disturbing. Thorough editing would have picked up that key fact; alas it was not done.

Book Description

All too often, histories of Civil War battles concentrate on the events of the battle, ignoring the larger campaign and undervaluing the battle’s impact on subsequent events. This work reveals and explains the vital connection between two epic battles: Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

The staggering Confederate victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are seldom treated as part of a coherent strategy, and they have never been presented as a single campaign. Yet, analyzed as a whole, the two battles go far to explain Lee’s military success. At the same time, the failures and bungling that characterized Federal efforts are more intelligible when seen in the light of the political and military circumstances that thrust unprepared and inadequate Union commanders into predicaments they little understood. The eastern theater in the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863 witnessed sudden shifts in northern command and strategy and increasing political intervention. Lincoln despaired of McClellan and sought a general more willing to fight; whatever the ultimate result of this search, it provided opportunities the canny Lee was willing and able to exploit.

The Fredericksburg Campaign: Decision on the Rappahannock (Military Campaigns of the Civil War)

Average customer rating:

ritcal essays by the Foremost Experts on Lee's Best Battle
A correction for your on-line review.

The Fredericksburg Campaign: Decision on the Rappahannock (Military Campaigns of the Civil War)
Gary W. (ed.) Gallagher
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0807821934

Book Description

'It is well this is so terrible! We should grow too fond of it,' said General Robert E. Lee as he watched his troops repulse the Union attack at Fredericksburg on 13 December 1863.

This collection of seven original essays by leading Civil War historians reinterprets the bloody Fredericksburg campaign and places it within a broader social and political context. By analyzing the battle's antecedents as well as its aftermath, the contributors challenge some long-held assumptions about the engagement and clarify our picture of the war as a whole.

The book begins with revisionist assessments of the leadership of Ambrose Burnside and Robert E. Lee and a portrait of the conduct and attitudes of one group of northern troops who participated in the failed assaults at Marye's Heights. Subsequent essays examine how both armies reacted to the battle and how the northern and southern homefronts responded to news of the carnage at Frederickburg. A final chapter explores the impact of the battle on the residents of the Fredericksburg area and assesses changing Union attitudes about the treatment of Confederate civilians.

The contributors are William Marvel, Alan T. Nolan, Carol Reardon, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Wilson Greene, George C. Rable, and William A. Blair.

Customer Reviews:

ritcal essays by the Foremost Experts on Lee's Best Battle.......2001-07-14

A great collection of essays by those historians most familiar with the Battle of Fredericksburg. Burnsides excellent biographer, Wiliam Marvel, writes a very balanced essay on Burnside and his high command that was still full of McClellan political generals and some that were inept. Burnside shares blame for failed opportunities but was primarily let down by Franklin who proved to be incapable or neglectful in providing a strong attack on the Confederate right that was necessary to attack the heights of the town on the confederate left. The objective critic of Lee, Alan Nolan, writes an essay substantiating why this battle was Lee's greatest and how Longstreet was so capable that his great critic Douglas Freeman had to praise him. A. William Greene who spent many years with the park service at Fredericksburg (he's now at the new Pamplin Civil War Museum in Petersburg) writes of Burnside's last and lost attempt at continuing the campaign, the mud march. Difficult in bad weather but made worse by the political generals who contributed willingly to his failure. The other essays contribute to the realities of war, the carnage and the effect on Civilians and how the virtually destroyed Pennyslvania Division were later to shout "Remember Fredericksburg" at Gettysburg.

A correction for your on-line review........1999-02-24

Your review of Gallagher's book on the Battle of Fredericksburg has the date wrong. It was fought on Dec. 13, 1862, not 1863.

The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock

Average customer rating:

Irritating and Dull
An excellent American Civil War Battle book
A excellent, detailed account of the battle
Very nice
Steve

The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock
Francis Augustin O'Reilly
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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The Battle Of The Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864
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ASIN: 0807131547

Book Description

The battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in December 1862 involved hundreds of thousands of men; produced staggering, unequal casualties (13,000 Federal soldiers compared to 4,500 Confederates); ruined the career of Ambrose E. Burnside; embarrassed Abraham Lincoln; and distinguished Robert E. Lee as one of the greatest military strategists of his era. Francis Augustín O'Reilly draws upon his intimate knowledge of the battlegrounds to discuss the unprecedented nature of Fredericksburg's warfare. Lauded for its vivid description, trenchant analysis, and meticulous research, his award-winning book makes for compulsive reading.

AUTHOR BIO: Francis Augustín O'Reilly is also the author of Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg: The Battle of Prospect Hill. He has written numerous articles on the Civil War and conducts extensive battlefield studies and tours throughout Virginia. He lives in Woodford, Virginia.

Customer Reviews:

Irritating and Dull.......2007-07-04

We have been reading books on the Civil War for years now, particularly accounts of important battles such as Shiloh or The Seven Days. Many of them have been of the same genre as The Fredericksburg Campaign, Winter War on the Rappahannock by O'Reilly. That is, detailed accounts of particular battles or campaigns as integrated into the broader context of the war. Sears's books, e.g. To The Gates of Richmond and Landscape Turned Red are exemplars of the genre. Hennessey's Return to Bull Run is a solid entry. Tanner's Stonewall in the Valley is another favorite of ours.

O'Reilly's The Fredericksburg Campaign is by far the dreariest, most unfocused, and annoying book of this type that we have read.
Mr. O'Reilly clearly sympathizes with the South. That is not, per se, what makes his writing style so irritating. What makes this aspect of his writing so annoying is that, like a handful of other southern-leaning modern writers, he is still fighting the war, not with rifles and cannon, but with adjectives and emphases. This unpleasant slant permeates the book, leading to an implicit theme that is not otherwise supported with evidence or balance. We'll give just a couple of the more striking examples here.

In the chapter on the sack of Fredericksburg, O'Reilly discusses Union General Sully's entering his sister's home--she and her husband were Confederates--and using it as his headquarters, standard practice during the war on both sides. There was no damage at all done to the house. However, we had to read this paragraph twice to be sure that this was the case. O'Reilly tells the story in terms of (characteristic northern) "outlandish mischief"...which Sully did not commit...against the house of a "d___ rebel!" which he "[broke into]"...by climbing through a window - because the door was locked. We're told, with no source cited, that Sully did not mean to protect the house, but used it only for his own comfort. O'Reilly tries to add some "humor" by relating the story of Sam, a house "servant" (the term slave is virtually absent from the book), who jokes along with hooting, "grinning onlookers", in an Amos-and-Andy accent, at Sully's entering through the window.

Along similar lines, O'Reilly slants his abundant, and frequently grotesque, descriptions of battlefield death shamelessly. Consider these typical descriptions of northern deaths, taken from a desultory re-reading of Chapter 10: "one shell struck a man in the back, cut him in two, and sent his entrails flying" (page 303), "Blood and brains were scattered everywhere" (page 309), "A shell had eviscerated a Union soldier, `and...set fire to his clothing...his corpse lay slowly cooking'" (page 312). Contrast these with a southern death that O'Reilly chooses to detail, that of General Maxcy Gregg (page 443). He "struggled in silent agony" as fellow officers and a distant kinsman prayed and kept a vigil. Gregg, we learn, passed away after a touching reconciliation with a magnanimous and spiritual Stonewall. He "looked very handsome" in death.

George Romero deaths for northerners. Edmond Rostand deaths for southerners. Invariably? No. But overwhelmingly, as if the author delighted in the overwhelming northern carnage.

However this heavy-handed southern sympathizing is merely annoying. What makes the book incomparably dreary is O'Reilly's un-integrated, virtually interminable, cataloguing of particular troop movements. Good books of this genre, e.g. those by Sears, present a cogent account of the battle or campaign as a whole, spiced with significant anecdotes and enriched with telling accounts of the experiences of individual soldiers or regiments. O'Reilly, by contrast, seems simply to tell the story of each individual regiment in more-or-less chronological order, without attention to relevance for a thesis. And, after the first few dozen pages of this, one recognizes an odd narrative formalism into which these accounts are fit: commander initiates the attack, anecdote about the commander or the regiment, quirky banter about doom and duty among the soldiers, up and out of the millrace ravine or the unfinished railroad or wherever they'd been protected, the nightmare of entering the field of battle, details of one or two grisly deaths, attack failed. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat...

We are interested in the Civil War, having read at least twenty books on the topic over the past few years, so we're glad to have this resource on the details of the battle on the ground. But the recitation of such details does not constitute an integrated, coherent, lucid account of the Battle of Fredericksburg. O'Reilly has done a service by extracting these stories from letters, memoirs, regimental histories, and other sources. But they belong in a (long) appendix, or in a companion volume. We had to refer, repeatedly, back to Catton, MacPherson, and Foote to get a clear overview of the structure of this battle into which to integrate O'Reilly's overabundant details.

We're going back to Sears for Chancellorsville. Although we don't have a specific recommendation, we recommend looking elsewhere for a thoughtful account of the Battle of Fredericksburg.

William Dale
David S. Ross

An excellent American Civil War Battle book.......2007-05-18

I'm in the middle of reading this work, but I can already highly recommend it for anyone interested in exploring the Battle of Fredericksburg in great detail (one of my great-great grandfathers was living there at the time). An outstanding author, Mr O'Reilly was recommended to me by a volunteer researcher working with the National Park Service in the area. I heartily second this recommendation.

A excellent, detailed account of the battle.......2007-05-08

This book is an excellent and very detailed report of the battle of Fredericksburg. It is not a good book for someone who is interested in a simple overview of the battle, but to someone interested in the details of what happened at Fredericksburg and why the events unfolded as they did, it is an excellent reference. I believe that this will be the definitive book on Fredericksburg for many years.

I was very pleased how it shows that the plans of Burnside were not as myopic as a lot of current history buffs seem to think. Burnside actually achieved a number of positive accomplishments in the battle, including stealing a march on Lee and breaking Lee's lines in Jackson's front. The book makes clear that to a large degree that there is plenty of blame to go around for the defeat at Fredericksburg. People such as Halleck, Lincoln, Duane, Franklin, Smith and others all had a major hand in the defeat, and most of them had reasons to attempt to lay the entire blame at the feet of Burnsides. While no one can defend Burnside's later obsession with Maryes' Heights (which is covered in wonderful detail in the book), and in the final analysis the blame for the final result is with the general who planned the battle, which Burnsides freely shouldered, this book shows that at least in its initial conception his plans were not the ravings of a lunatic.

I believe it is only through looking at the details and accounts written at the time of the battle that a more true picture can be seen, and this is what I believe O'Reilly presents.

Burnside

Very nice.......2007-01-15

It was a Christmas gift and the person we gave it to was very happy.
Thank you!

Steve.......2006-11-10

Having the absolutle pleasure and honor of meeting Mr. O'Reilly, and having a tour of the Slaughter Pen farm by him, I can say without a doubt that Frank O'Reilly is the PREMIER authority on the Battle of Fredericksburg. His impeccable sense of detail and intimate knowledge of the battle puts the reader in street by street combat, from Lee's command on Telegraph Hill to the Sunken Road stone wall massacre of the Union to the absolute brutal battle on the southern end of the battlefield that would forever be known as "the Slaughter Pen."

I cannot recommend this book enough!

The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian

Average customer rating:

Mr. Foote's Legacy
Excellent but for serious readers only
An Iliad of American agony

The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian
Shelby Foote
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3 Red River to Appomattox
The Civil War: A Narrative--Fort Sumter to Perryville, Vol. 1
Shiloh: A Novel
Stars in Their Courses : The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863
Chickamauga: And Other Civil War Stories

ASIN: 039474621X
Release Date: 1986-11-12

Book Description

FREDERICKSBURG TO MERIDIAN

"Gettysburg...is described with such meticulous attention to action, terrain, time, and the characters of the various commanders that I understand, at last, what happened in that battle.... Mr. Foote has an acute sense of the relative importance of events and a novelist's skill in directing the reader's attention to the men and the episodes that will influence the course of the whole war, without omitting items which are of momentary interest. His organization of facts could hardly be better."--Atlantic

Customer Reviews:

Mr. Foote's Legacy.......2007-03-10

He has left us with a view of our Civil War, that was never captured before, and has not been since. This volume begins with the horrific carnage at Fredericksburg and the crises in Lincoln's cabinet in the aftermath. As in Vol. 1, Foote transitions smoothly from politics to battlefield, and from the war in the East to the campaigns in the West, and stays highly readable every page of the way.

Excellent but for serious readers only.......2004-02-22

This second of three volumes covers the conflict from late 1862 to early 1864. This is the period where events began to favor the Federal or Union forces. The largest portion of this volume covers Grant's successful but difficult campaign to seize Vicksburg Mississippi and Lee's disastrous invasion of Pennsylvania (i.e. Gettysburg). While other books provide more details of a single battle, Foote touches and summarizes nearly every engagement during the period covered. He also covers political, economic and civil events on both sides.

A note of criticism or warning if you will. Approaching 1000 dense pages "Fredericksburg to Meridian" is not for the faint of heart. While the narrative style and inclusion of several black-and-white maps make it more readable, the additional inclusion of small details can interfere with the 'big picture'. For example, Foote mentions nearly every Brigadier in the conflict along with the movements and actions of their commands. Nevertheless, the book is recommended for serious history readers and a must have for Civil War buffs.

An Iliad of American agony.......2002-06-10

I read all three volumes of the great Shelby Foote's Civil War narrative in the 80s. This volume is yet another of his logically well-integrated, dramatic trio on that war and speaks a soft/loud pianoforte of war from the Southern perspective. It contains many a large gulp of its often hesitantly bitter, prolonged agony from the bloody cup of setbacks and disappointments on both sides of the conflict. Had Foote given us the same mysterious energy without frequently caricaturing the North to glorify the South, it, in my estimation, would've transcended all such history, narrative or not, in the long fog of peace and romancing of the war. Yet it's THE monumental work, forcefully contradicting the rule that only victors write definitive histories of war. I hope its brilliant histrionics are never misused by historical revisionists, or deter America from completing the Spartacan dream of abolishing all vestiges of involuntary servitude.

Union Sixth Army Corps in the Chancellorsville Campaign: A Study of the Engagements of Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church And Banks's Ford

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Union Sixth Army Corps in the Chancellorsville Campaign: A Study of the Engagements of Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church And Banks's Ford
Philip W. Parsons
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786425210

Book Description

The winter of 1862-1863 found the Union's Army of the Potomac in sad shape. Bloody battles, multiple defeats, lack of adequate provisions and high desertion rates had left even the hardiest Union soldiers dispirited. With Major General Joseph Hooker's advent to the army command, he set about revamping the army's conditions, establishing a generous furlough program, implementing a system of corps insignia and setting new sanitary standards. While his administrative efforts were extremely successful, his battlefield manner left something to be desired. Instructed by President Lincoln to make the destruction of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia the Union's top priority, Hooker mounted the Chancellorsville Campaign. Lee's aggressive battlefield manner coupled with Hooker's failure to initiate an assault led to a sound defeat by Confederate forces and left Hooker--who ultimately had only himself and his lack of initiative to blame--looking for a scapegoat. Among those Hooker attempted to hold responsible was the courageous Sixth Army Corps, the unit responsible for the sole Union victory of the entire campaign.

This military history focuses on the battlefield engagements of the Union's Sixth Army Corps on May 3 and 4, 1863. Compiled from contemporary accounts as well as a variety of postwar histories, it examines the role which the Sixth Army Corps and their commander, Major General John Sedgwick, played in the Chancellorsville Campaign. Particular attention is given to evaluating the impact that the Corps' actions had on Major General Hooker's offensive and refuting the accusations which Hooker made following Federal retreat from the engagement. The battles of Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church and Banks's Ford are consequently examined in detail. Appendices provide information detailing the organization of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Army of the Potomac and the Sixth Army Corps in the spring of 1863.

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Richmond: Including Petersburg, Williamsburg, and Fredericksburg (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge)
Average customer rating:

Good info, up to date

60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Richmond: Including Petersburg, Williamsburg, and Fredericksburg (60 Hikes - Menasha Ridge)
Nathan Lott
Manufacturer: Menasha Ridge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Excursion Guides | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Virginia & West Virginia | United States | Excursion Guides | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
South Atlantic | South | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Virginia | States | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
Richmond | Virginia | States | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 089732594X

Book Description

Richmond residents grab your boots and get outside! Using clear and entertaining narrative, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Richmond eliminates doubts about where to hike and what to expect when you get to the trailhead. To locate and assess the best hikes within a 60-mile radius of Richmond, this guide is indispensable. Choose among short and long hikes, hikes for children and for dogs, hikes for birding, for wildflowers and for waterfalls, historic and scenic hikes, and many others.

Customer Reviews:

Good info, up to date.......2007-01-23

We love this book and have completed several hikes so far. It is also useful for finding bike trails. The info we have used has been accurate and complete. Good details included, like whether hunting is allowed on or around the trails (important in rural area during certain times of the year). Two thumbs up!

Average customer rating:

Good book, would make a better movie than G&G
Great book - expands on film Gods and Generals
An interesting tale of the Irish at Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg
Kirk Mitchell
Manufacturer: I Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0743458273

Book Description

This is a riveting account of one of the bloodiest days in the Civil War! It is a gritty, historically accurate novel of the brutal fight for a lone stone wall along Marye's Heights, and it is the chronicle of six Irish-Americans, revealing their sufferings and aspirations in both the Old World and the New World as they pass through the shock of combat and the fog of war. But beyond that, Fredericksburg is a microcosm of the Civil War, bringing to awful light the reality of war between brothers.

Customer Reviews:

Good book, would make a better movie than G&G.......2003-05-26

This book is an excellent novel on the Civil War. Being my major, and having read many accounts of the war, both fiction and non-fiction, I would rank this with some of the great fiction accounts of the war. It is not Red Badge of Courage, Shiloh, or the Killer Angels, which are considered the pinnacle of the genre, but it is a good read, encompassing a wider range of POVs than most of the other works. It takes elements from each of the works I have mentioned, and uses them to create a story in which it is easier to see how these people were.
Fredericksburg is often compared with Gods & Generals... I can only say that I believe that Fredericksburg would make the better movie, if kept faithful to the book (unlike G&G, which was bogged down by civilian drivel for a good portion of the movie). But, considering Hollywood and the lukewarm reception recieved by many Civil War movies, I would not want to see how this good piece of war fiction would be mutilated.

Great book - expands on film Gods and Generals.......2003-03-01

This is a well written work that tells the story of the Irish at Fredericksburg. This is a battle that is often overshadowed by the battle of Antietam in September 1862 and Gettysburg in July 1863. Despite this tendency to forget this battle it stands as a bloody testament to the courage of the Federal forces that were forced to charge into destruction.

The film Gods and Generals (released 2/21/2003) features a dramatic picture of the Irish sacrifice at this battle. Over 1200 men of the Irish Brigade went into battle and only 250 came back.

It is against this backdrop that author Kirk Mitchell sets his work. It is an excellent tale of the brave men of Eire that battled against each other 140 years ago. It is well written and is very much like the style of Michael Shaara in The Killer Angels. I suggest that anyone with an interest in the Civil War pick up a copy of this novel before it is not available anymore.

An interesting tale of the Irish at Fredericksburg.......1999-12-21

Mr. Mitchell has written a compelling and entertaining novel of the Irish units during the bitter battle of Fredericksburg in 1862. The characters were a nice collection of personalites, the unit information was well handled, the factual figures were done well, and the dialog between the fictional and factual characters were superb. But the central characters needed to be fleshed out a bit more. Some of them, I couldn't relate to or feel much compassion. But, the author captured the brutality of combat, the fear, the mud, the physical discomfort, the death and chaos of battle. Good details on the terrain, weather and history of the region. Having stood behind the stone wall at Marye's Heights recently, one can only imagine what the Union soldiers must have thought as they stormed repeatedly into a virtual hail of hostile ordinance.

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