Book Review: War Like the Thunderbolt

I have a distinct interest in the Civil War in the West, as opposed to the better known Eastern Theater battles. Despite this, though, I've read surprisingly little about the battles that took place in the West. Recently, I've been taking steps to remedy this deficiency, I started (but didn't finish) Cozzen's book This Terrible Sound, about the Battle of Chickamauga (I'm going to re-start it soon, since it's been long enough that I'll have mixed up all the important names by the time I get back to it). More recently, I read the Vicksburg book. So, along those lines, I finally got around to reading about Atlanta, though I had picked up the book some time ago.

Review
Bonds, Russell S. War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta. Westholme Publishing. 2009. 522p. Photographs, bibliography, maps, index. ISBN: 9781594161278


It's unusual to read a book about the Civil War that starts by giving a detailed historical account of an event in the 20th century. When the book is about the Battle of Atlanta, though, and the event described is the filming of the movie Gone With the Wind, it begins to make more sense. Bonds (attorney, author) paints a vivid scene of how Atlanta "burned" in that movie, and describes how the popular vision of the Battle and burning of Atlanta were created in large part by the movie and the book. His decision to take this approach is an excellent example of his approach throughout this book. His writing is accessible, simple, exceedingly clear, and yet very detailed. Throughout the book, he grabs the readers attention with pertinent details and excellent descriptions that leave the reader feeling acquainted with the places and the people and the battles described. Through his extensive research, Bonds seeks to evaluate the generalship and actions of Union General William T. Sherman, and of Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. In so doing, he clears away many myths, especially about the Hood, who has often been perceived as incompetent, stupid, and fixated on attacking. He also tackles difficult questions of responsibility for the atrocities committed against civilians during the campaign, handling these complex and still-sensitive issues with delicacy and honesty. Bonds doesn't always give the answers - for example, in the end we'll never know if, despite written orders that residences in Atlanta not be burned, there was a wink-and-a-nod verbal order to the contrary - but he does use an impressive array of sources to leave the reader with a clear idea of Sherman's march to Atlanta, and the battles of Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church and Jonesboro, as well as the two times the city burned, and the political and social ramifications for all of these events, both during the war and afterwards.

This excellently written books is one of the clearest battle accounts I've ever read, and at the same time is a cogent social, psychological and political profile of the events and personalities involved in the battle. Before I read this book, I couldn't have said I remembered that there WAS a Battle of Ezra Church, and now I could tell you who was involved, what went wrong, and how it influenced the campaign. To so clearly and successfully describe so many different aspects of a major campaign is quite an achievement, and Bonds succeeds while making it look easy.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Book Review: Vicksburg: The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi

The second history book that I read this year year was on a topic I've been wanting to read more about for a while - Vicksburg. I had picked up Michael Ballard's book on Vicksburg over the summer, after reading and comparing reviews of it with the other Vicksburg title on the shelf - Winston Groom's Vicksburg, 1863. I started thinking of reading this one next while reading Bonekemper's book, and he mentioned William Shea's work on the same topic, and highly recommended it. I'm interested enough in Grant and the Western front that I expect I'll ultimately end up reading all three, but I'm not sorry to have started with this one.

Review

Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg: The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi. The University of North Carolina Press. 2004. 490p. Photographs, bibliography, maps, index. ISBN: 9780807871287.

Ballard (Congressional and Political Research Center at Mississippi State University) sets out to give an in-depth description of the events leading up to, during, and after the Vicksburg Campaign. Towards that end, he draws on a very impressive range of sources, and places the campaign in to it's geographical, historical, political and military contexts. The most interesting and unusual thing about this work is the use of local Vicksburg sources to paint a picture of what the town of Vicksburg was like before the war reached it's doorstep, how people there felt about the war, and about their cities changing role in it. Ballard also does an excellent job tracing how Vicksburg came to assume it's war-time position as the key to free navigation of the Mississippi River. In a clear, thorough, and incisive way, he also analyzes the actions and behavior of the many historical figures involved, using his extensive research to assess the effectiveness of the decisions made by key participants. He reserves his most harsh judgement for Joseph E. Johnston, and raises the question of how differently events might have gone had Johnston not remained so timid throughout the campaign. He also raises many insightful issues related to the difficult alternatives of abandoning or defending the city, and suggests that abandoning the defense of the physical location would have been a more effective way of preserving Pemberton's army to fight another day for the Confederacy. While there is little new in these analyses, they are here brought together very effectively with high-quality scholarship and clear writing.

In the end, this lucid account leaves the reader with a very clear idea of the importance of the Battle of Vicksburg, the personalities of the people involved in the conflict, and some ideas of how to critically assess the decisions made by the parties involved. While this is very helpful, Ballard is definitely presenting a point of view, and that has to be kept in mind while reading his assessments. Also, the prose is very thorough and detailed, but at times it gets to be dense reading, and the work will at times likely be more information than a non-enthusiast would find interesting or accessible. However, for those with an interest in the events that led to, as Abraham Lincoln said, to "The Father of Waters again [going] unvexed to the sea," Ballard's comprehensive work is an excellent source.

Rating: 4 out of 5.