The Chickamauga Campaign - Glory or the Grave: The Breakthrough, the Union Collapse, and the Defe Paperback – 15 October 2017

A very detailed blow by blow account on a much neglected campaign

Chickamauga, I am convinced, was one of the most confusing battles of the Civil War. So many uncertainties. So little understanding by many officers as to what the situation was. Some wonderful generalship--James Longstreet early on, George Thomas on the Union left, division and brigade commanders. Those who has bad days? As not atypically--Braxton Bragg. As Longstreet was driving Union forces, Bragg was despondent, thinking his army in bad shape. William Rosecrans made an ill-advised move, creating a gap in the Union lines for Longstreet to fill. D. H. Hill and Leonidas Polk did not shine.This volume is well researched with extraordinary detail as to what was happening on different parts of the field. As often happens in a confusing battle, many units were fed into combat piecemeal, e.g., at the regiment and brigade level. Some of the regiment and brigade commanders did exceptionally well; others not so much.As the narrative develops, it becomes clear how confused the battle was--just as at the outset (well covered in the first volume of this series). That some officers could enforce order on the battlefield was striking (e.g., Longstreet and Thomas). Gordon Granger had a pretty decent day (although his obsession with cannons is baffling!). So many others flailed about.Several items caught my attention. First, Thomas' retreat was more chaotic than I had thought from shorter versions of the battle that I had read. Smaller units were sometimes unaware that a retreat was taking place and were in great danger as a result (many prisoners taken by the Confederate forces as a result). Second, Longstreet's idea of an offense in depth was fascinating (I have read of this before, but there was more detail here and it was clear that this was not an accident). Upton Emory at Spottsylvania was accorded great credit for this tactic-- but Longstreet had the same insight long before that).Maps of the battlefield were useful. The author did not provide an order of battle, noting that he had done so in the first volume. Well, my copy of the first volume is elsewhere and I did not have ready access to it. It would have been helpful to have had a few pages listing that order of battle.In short, I strongly recommend this volume. Between this and the first book in the series, the reader gets a magisterial view of an extraordinarily complicated and confused battle.

Such a good narrative, so well researched and documented that I can find the family’s unit, how he became engaged in the battle, survived and came home when the war ended.

Dave Powell is THE author to read regarding Chickamauga

Following the superb vol. 1, this one provides no surprises. It is equally well-done - writing, analysis, use of terrain, etc. In short, all of the crucial elements of a model operational and tactical study are here, backed up by excellent maps. For example only, the author tackles the 150-year-old controversy over Tom Wood's handling of the "close up" order from Rosecrans directly, thoroughly, and definitively. Even casual students who might on its face find the size of this study daunting will be more than happy if they nonetheless take the plunge and buy it.