<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by dmallory</i>
My single favorite book on the entire war has been "Battle Cry of Freedom," by James McPherson.
My favorite author is Stephen Sears but, to my knowledge, he has not written a book on the entire war.
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As a one-volume history of *any* war (era), in its combination of depth, complexity, scope and readability, McPherson's book is unsurpassed in my opinion.
I read five books by Sears and while they're certainly all above average, for me some are outstanding while others are just OK. I thoroughly enjoyed his biography of Little Mac, with the single caveat that, after reading it, you can't stand the man any more, if you ever could, because after several hundred pages his combination of pretended modesty, extreme hyperbole and flat lie becomes so utterly predictable and unbearable. (Truth is, it makes one wonder why Lincoln, having had his share of McClellan, appointed him again.)
"Chancellorsville" and "Gettysburg" are truly good books which have a compelling narrative while still going into enough detail to make the battles come to life. They should be read in succession, because the one really picks up the story where the other left it, and you can't really understand Gettysburg without Chancellorsville anyway.
On the other hand, I found "Landscape Turned Red" (on Antietam) and "To the Gates of Richmond" (on the Peninsula campaign) a bit dull. There's just way too much detail in the style of this regiment did this and then that regiment did that and then another regiment did another damned thing when in fact their experiences in a certain assault were pretty much all the same. One or two examples would have sufficed to make the battle experience more palpable. The general picture, the narrative, on the other hand, gets pretty much lost there for me. I especially recall that on I believe near 100 pages (I have the book at home, not here) I lost all comprehension for what actually happened in the series of Federal assaults on Jackson's position at Antietam, from East Woods to Bloody Lane, reading about it broken down into a series of individual regimental or, at best, brigade actions. That the maps in these two books are rather poor (they have positions and ground cover, but no elevation lines) is no help either.
But then I believe these two were his earlier books? Then he has certainly improved since then.
Gen. Walter, USA
<i>The Blue Blitz</i>
AoS
