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A few more of my book reviews for anyone interested.
I recently read two books on the Mobile Campaign of 1865. One title was on sale on Kindle for $2.99 and the other I had bought about six months ago. I figured I'd read both because each was pretty short. Why not? I didn't realize until after I started book number two that the author was the SAME for both books. Yeah, that's odd. This is an interesting review because I get to review the same author twice for writing the same book!
The Last Siege: The Mobile Campaign, Alabama 1865 by Paul Brueske 2018.
This title was about 200 pages and covers the period of time from after the Battle of Mobile Bay to the end of the war. The author sets up the combatants and describes how and why Mobile continued to be the last major Confederate coastal city to hold out as long as it did. The campaign of 1865 to capture it was put in motion by Grant as he wanted to tie down as much of the Army of Tennessee as he could to keep them from moving east to North Carolina. Four brigades (maybe 2,500 men) were sent to Mobile from the Army of Tennessee after the Nashville Campaign along with nearly all of the artillerymen and guns from that army. Still the garrison at Mobile, commanded by Gen. Dabney Maury, was far too small to hold the city and the surrounding area. Union Gen. Edward Canby was placed in command of the Union force sent to capture Mobile. A long story shortened is that the Federal numbers were far too great to withstand once the campaign began. The book discusses why the main battles around Mobile were fought on the eastern side of the bay away from Mobile and why the Federals had such a hard time approaching the actual city for so many years. The author spends the greatest amount of time discussing the siege of the Spanish Fort and the brief battle there on April 9. The Confederates, led very ably by Col. Randall Gibson, pulled off one of the more nimble and "lucky" escapes of the war and slipped out of the Union forces grasp before being captured (they built a walkway over the swamps to escape the fort and were ferried back to Mobile). The book then goes over the attack the next day on Fort Blakely and then the fall of Mobile a few days later.
The title was average at best. The author isn't overly interesting and I feel like he had nearly as many quotes and stories from direct sources as he did actual narrative. At some point you can only read, "the firing was heavy along the line and we scampered into out bombproofs" so many times before you just start falling asleep. The maps were abysmal and laughable and it made following the campaign difficult. Unless you really want to learn about the The Mobile Campaign you can probably skip this book. The author tries to make it seem important but even he has to admit that, while it was important to the men who fought and died, in the end the war was basically over by the time Mobile fell and the losses for both sides were needless.
"Digging All Night and Fighting All Day": The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865 by Paul Brueske 2024.
I have to admit I was more excited for this book (this one about 240 pages). The hardback book was nicely made and the quality of the pages, the maps, the numerous pictures, and the overall feel of the book were phenomenal. Savas Beatie really published a quality book here! Unfortunately, it's a book I felt I had already read. Paul Brueske seemingly dredged up his notes from The Last Siege and told the same story here - but with a great emphasis on the Siege of Spanish Fort. I will give him points for trying to make it interesting but he failed. The book got very dry halfway through and I had to force myself to keep reading after a while. Again, you can only read direct quotes, which all sound alike after a while, for so long until you just don't care anymore how loud the guns were or how thick the bullets flew. Honestly, every author seems to find a quote from some participant in every battle of the war declaring it was the hottest and loudest fighting they were in. It can be Belmont, Shiloh, Munfordsville, Gettysburg, Iuka, or Bentonville and the author will find someone writing that it was the biggest battle they were in. It's probably my least favorite thing that authors do. I digress.
The book goes on and on about the siege in a rather poorly organized manner which often leaves you a bit lost as he flips back and forth between the two sides every page or two. He gives credit to Gibson, who deserves it, for conducting an excellent defense of Spanish Fort. Gibson kept his men's morale up, he looked to their defenses nightly, and he continued to pepper Maury for men and supplies to help his garrison. A lesser commander would have likely seen the writing on the wall sooner and put up a less stout defense. Again, the maps in this book are excellent and it contains a good number of historical pictures, engravings, and contemporary photographs throughout. I like that the publisher put the images throughout the book rather than clumping them in just a few pages in the middle of the book like they usually do. Really it was a very well published book! But otherwise it was a disappointing title and felt like Brueske was just rewriting his other book. He included many of the same quotes and stories that he did in The Last Siege and it felt like this was just a rewrite of the first book.
SUMMARY
I do think the Campaign deserves a better treatment than these books give it and that a more able historian might be able to write and publish a better account. I think the reason it hasn't happened yet is simply because the Campaign was/is basically a footnote to much larger events happening in Virginia at the same time (April 1865) and that the war was essentially over when Mobile fell. Even Grant knew the campaign was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and lamented the men who were lost in the needless fighting. I will give credit to Maury and Canby who both knew the war was about over and sought to minimize losses as much as they could. Canby still had a job to do but did work hard to keep his men from assaulting any enemy lines which were too heavily defended to take without great loss.
Unless you have a serious interest in the Mobile Campaign I recommend skipping these books. I learned some new things but nothing I couldn't have picked up from other sources or lived without.
What's Next? I actually have a bunch of American Revolution books I just began and so will spend some time catching up on our great war for Independence! I have Chernow's Washington queued up to read along with McCulloch's 1776 and others. I am sure I will be back to the Civil War in a month or two though as I can't stay away long.
_________________ Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012
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