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Title: Bullet and Shell: The Civil War As the Soldier Saw It by George F. Williams, Edwin Forbes, Robin Le Poidevin, Murray Macbeath ISBN: 0-681-41497-9 Publisher: Longmeadow Press Pub. Date: July, 1992 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.98

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Worth Reading
Comment: I really wanted to like this book and to a degree I did. However, it would be misleading to suggest that on completion I was truly satisfied with the pages I had just read.

Written in 1884 by George F. Williams the book is a fictionalised narrative account of the American Civil War. Williams was both a soldier and a war correspondent during the years of civil conflict between North and South and thus writes with the duel perspective of a fighting veteran and a newspaper reporter. In his preface to the book Williams suggests that the "faithful picture" he is presenting is done so "under the guise of fiction". Therefore it is important for the reader to remember that this is not a factual account but rather is a record which has undergone an "author's license".

The book is the narrative of Frank Wilmot described as " a stripling of twenty, fair complexioned, quite tall for his years, and the possessing of a tolerable share of good humor". Following Wilmot through both minor skirmishes and major battles such as Gettysburg and the Wilderness the accounts of combat are particularly powerful. Similarly the aftermath of battle is described in a manner which is honest and believable - "Horror stricken and heart sick, I gazed over the field along the line which we had held, seeing bodies in every direction and in every possible attitude. Here one poor fellow had crawled to the foot of a tree, and died as he sat. His fez was still on his head, the gibbering skull beneath it seeming to laugh at me, as the jaws had relaxed and fallen apart".

There is a great deal of dialogue within Bullet and Shell and I feel that this is perhaps one of it's faults. Written 116 years ago the dialogue will of course be dated, and that's how it reads but the interactions also rely somewhat on clichés. If you read novels regarding the Civil War you will eventually come across the Northern Irish Private or more often the Irish Sergeant. Bullet and Shell has one in the shape of Dennis Malone who is full of "begorras" and "to be shures". Often then for me, the nature of the dialogue took away from the intensity of the events. Furthermore, at times I was reminded of a bad performance of Hamlet I saw as a child at school. The dialogue was all there but the actors were not sure what to do with their bodies and thus with arms hanging limply at their sides there was no animation other than the words.

In his excellent synopsis of the Civil War -'America Goes to War' - Bruce Catton notes that "the 1860's cannot be judged by the standards of the more sophisticated and intricate twentieth century". Here he is talking about the nature of warfare and of soldiering in general. However, the same principle can be applied to the reading of novels regarding the war. Bullet and Shell was written in the 1880's and as such perhaps conveys the norms of American fiction of that period. These are no better than those used today but simply different and the experience of reading Bullet and Shell perhaps both highlighted and reflected these differences.

I'm glad I read Bullet and Shell and I would encourage others to read it. Not because I think it's the most enjoyable piece of Civil War fiction I've come across but due to the fact that it's written by someone who experienced the war first hand and thus has much of value to say to us.

Rating: 4
Summary: Fiction - BUT - Based On Actual Civil War Facts
Comment: George F. Williams was a real person, a member of several New York volunteer regiments that were part of the Union Army during the Civil War. Williams himself was both a soldier and a volunteer, and his "Bullet and Shell" written nearly twenty years after the end of the war is his account of the actions of the Union Army of the Potomac.

Be aware that this is a work of fiction based on true events and true people - including U.S. Grant, Generals Meade, Warren, Kilpatrick, Sedgwick, Custer and others. Williams apparently did not wish to go to a strictly autobiographical account as was the custom in those days. Here he skillfully chose two young protagonists - Frank, based on himself, (as was Osborn, the war correspondent) and Tom, a Virginian, who while pre-war friends argued over secession and slave rights - and then when war broke out found themselves on opposite sides.

The carnage of battle is vividly described here - at Seven Days, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg and the Wilderness, as well as the final drama of Appomattox. Here Frank describes as close friends are killed nearby, the tedium of camp life,foraging for food in a destitute country, the adventures of scouts behind enemy lines, and the true events of the war as they built to a climax.

In one dramatic scene "Frank" (Williams) temporarily captures his former friend Tom at Gettysburg, then let him go - their friendship apparently still intact.

He also describes the characteristics of the Generals to a tee - Warren, nervous and irritable; Grant - "steady calm and confident" and Meade, "courtly".

Again, this is fiction based on fact, whereas it is presented as being strictly factual. This being the only reason why I did not give it 5 stars as it is indeed a classic work of the War Between The States.

And yes, the wonderful illustrations of Edwin Forbs are a plus!