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Title: Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle by John Michael Priest ISBN: 0-19-508466-7 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: January, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Gritty. You Can Feel the Fear
Comment: Priest has written a meticulous journal of America's bloodiest day of war from as seen from the eyes of those who earned that title for the Battle of Anteitam.
This book portrays the Civil War in all of its horror. Glory is left on the parade ground as those who witnessed and received the anonymous carnage of the cannon, grape and cannister, as well as the more intimate destruction of the infantry ball, tell of their experiences in minute by minute accounts from around the battlefield. The compellation and writing is so good that the fear and horror of those waiting in the ranks to charge or receive the attention of their enemies dominates the book.
For anyone looking to read of what it was "like" in Civil War battle, this book is about the best.
I would recommend that the reader first take a standard account of the battle, such as Sears' "Landscape Turned Red." Priest does not attempt to portray strategy, the situation that led both armies to Anteitam or the macinations of much of anyone above the rank of Colonel. Not a criticism, since he is not attempting to cover the whole battle, but it may leave the uninitiated at a loss to understand why men are engaged in places like the East Woods, Bloody Lane or Lower Bridge.
Rating: 5
Summary: Fantastic Book!
Comment: This book is a "must read" for the serious Civil War buff interested in Antietam. Priest gives you the battle from the perspective of those who fought it, in the actual chronology of the battle.
The many maps are some of the most detailed I have ever seen of the battlefield - you can locate within a few feet where a particular company stood
at a particular time. In addition, Priest simply tells what happened - again, in great detail. He thankfully does not editorialize or moralize (unlike Sears in "Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam"). This book ranks up there with "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" by Johnson and Buel as one of the truly great, unbiased works about Antietam.
...
Priest has also written a book on the few days preceeding Antietam, called, "Before Antietam: The Battle for South Mountain" - another gem!
Rating: 4
Summary: Impressive work, the effort shows
Comment: I agree with a previous reviewer that Priest's book works best with a general Antietam book like Sears's. My approach to understanding Antietam was to (1) read Sears's Landscape Turned Red; (2) visit the battlefield (this is key to understanding the numerous references in Priest's book to "Mumma's swale," "the high ground 600 yards south of the Dunker Church," etc.--with a mental picture everything fits together better); (3) buy a topographic battlefield map, such as the one by Trailhead Graphics (for sale at the Battlefield's Visitor Center); and (4) read this book. My only criticism of the maps is the lack of a small-scale "finder" map that shows the battlefield and the area around Sharpsburg. As for the author's large-scale "handdrawn" maps, I found them very useful, and they are placed well, usually never more than a page or two from the action they refer to (I read the original 1992 edition, so I'm not sure if the maps are placed as well in this 1994 edition from a different publisher). As for the text, it's wonderful: well edited and even well indexed. The emphasis on the more "minor" actions on September 17, 1862 that a more general book would breeze over or ignore because of space limitations is appreciated.
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Title: Chancellorsville by Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 039587744X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 22 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Before Antietam: The Battle for South Mountain by John Michael Priest ISBN: 0195107128 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Landscape Turned Red : The Battle of Antietam by Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 0618344195 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 30 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas by John J. Hennessy ISBN: 080613187X Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.02 |
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Title: Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried ISBN: 0306811758 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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