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southernsoldier35's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Review forthcoming.
starwarrior91's review against another edition
5.0
My first history of the Overland Campaign of 1864. It’s always been a bit of a blind spot in my Civil War knowledge partly due to the ease at which individual battles like Shiloh or Gettysburg can be covered when compared to this massive and weeks long struggle. As military history books go this one was engrossing. Fascinating on one hand for the evolution of military tactics from the fluid Napoleonic style to the static entrenchments of WWI, and fascinating in a more morbid sense when discussing the horrors of war seen in this campaign. Forty days of nearly constant combat and maneuver where even the smallest engagements racked up casualties in the hundreds if not thousands. Not to mention the exhaustion and starvation felt by soldiers on both sides. It’s impossible for me to truly understand what these men went through in 1864 but this book has gone a long way to expand my knowledge of this period in the Civil War.
judyward's review against another edition
4.0
For forty days in the Spring of 1864, the armies under the command of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant were locked in combat at the Battle of Cold Harbor, North Anna River, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Wildnerness. Wheelan examines the personalities involved in these struggles as well as the strategies employed by both sides and he concludes that at the end of the forty days that the tide of the Civil War had turned toward an ultimate Union victory. But he also points out that the cost of these forty days was immense. By the time the Overland Campaign ended outside Petersburg, more than 100,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured. Grant's army suffered more than twice the casualties of Lee's army, but Grant could replace his losses and Lee could not. Because of this reality, while the Confederate Army fought on brilliantly in a series of defensive campaigns, the war ended less than a year later with Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. A very well-written examination of the Overland Campaign that is both interesting and accessible to readers with all levels of knowledge about the Civil War.
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