Reviews for The Coming of the Civil War, 1837-1861

The average rating for The Coming of the Civil War, 1837-1861 based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-08-29 00:00:00 Thomas Cope When I stumbled across this book on Amazon, my initial thoughts were: "mmm - professional geographer meets amateur Civil War buff. I wonder..." But the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, so after lingering for a few months on my wish list I finally clicked the "buy" button. And I am glad I did. As a long time reader of military history in general, and Civil War history specifically, I have found that the vast majority of detailed operational accounts bog down in the details of unit movement. Ninety-Eight Days is the exact opposite. Grabau's emphasis on the overriding influence of geography on Grant and Pemberton's planning adds a fascinating new dimension to his account of the Vicksburg campaign. What might otherwise be a tedious account instead brings even mundane troop movements to surprising life. I read the 500+ pages of text avidly, reluctantly put the book down each night, and during the day at work I would find myself daydreaming about oxbows, natural levies, and limestone cliffs. The chapters are short, and as other reviewers have noted, each presents first the Union perspective followed by the Confederate perspective - a very useful technique - but the real star of Ninety Eight Days is the terrain, most notably, the Mississippi River. So fascinating was the geography that I found myself clicking on Google Earth to study the modern day configuration of the river, and similarly consulting the massive Military Atlas of the Civil War (the modern reprint of the Official Records atlas volume). A couple of comments - which should not detract from this five-star review: The numerous and excellent maps are all grouped at the back of the book. Now, normally when reviewing military history, the first defect one notes is a lack of maps, so it may seem a bit churlish of me to be complaining about the veritable cartographic bounty encountered in Ninety-Eight Days. But I want to point out that because of their location at the rear, I spent a great deal of time flipping back and forth between the text and the maps. This really isn't a fair criticism since obviously the maps have to be located somewhere. My task became much easier after I printed off a number of very respectable maps from the Wikipedia chapter on the Vicksburg Campaign, which I subsequently kept next to me while reading. The only eccentricity is Grabau's use of formal, all caps terms for ranks and military units. Thus we have MG Jones DIV moving here, COL Smith's BDE moving there and joining 7 ARTY. This may be consistent with some standard of formal military nomenclature, but does little to enhance the readability or accessibility of this volume. But no matter. Five stars without reservation.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-30 00:00:00 Dillon Jones The scholarship in Ninety-Eight Days is great, the writing is excellent, and I absolutely loved the structure: Grabau tells the story in parallel, from each side's perspective and knowing only what they know, as opposed to an omniscient third-party overhead view. While this doesn't make Pemberton look like a military genius, it definitely does make some of his errors and strange decisions a lot more understandable. He wasn't stupid; but he didn't know what he didn't know, he made some incorrect assumptions, and (most dam ning) vacillated at times instead of acting decisively. But one really gets an understanding of the situations he was in. I think my only beefs are the use of modern/anachronistic military terminology (although, to be fair, Grabau uses the terminology clearly and effectively), and the fact that the maps are all consigned to the back of the book rather than interspersed with the narrative at appropriate points. I follow why he did this, as he refers to some of the same maps in multiple places, but it really requires a two-bookmark method of reading that I find a little distracting. The maps, despite the arrangement, are excellent. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who has read an initial overview of the Vicksburg campaign and wants to take a deeper dive into it.