Customer Reviews

Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga (The U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles)

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Many of you, no doubt, have acquainted yourselves with the series of books that comprise the US Army War College Guide to Civil War Battles. The latest volume, the Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga, edited by Col. Matt Spruill, constitutes a new and worthwhile addition.

The series follows a particular format that bears mentioning. Each guide uses excerpts from after-action reports, along with topo maps and detailed driving and, occasionally, hiking instructions. This enables a reader to place himself at critical points on the battlefield with a solid understanding of the terrain's significance. Spruill does not deviate from this standard. The choice of maps and selection of battle reports (most from the Official Records) along with his brief comments clearly document the fierce fighting which took place on these fields. Considering the heavily wooded terrain and confusing ebb and flow of forces over the area, Spruill paints a remarkably clear picture of what transpired.

The great clash of armies at Chickamauga played out over two intense days of combat along a front some several miles long. On this ground, characterized by forests of thick brush punctuated with only a few open spaces used for small farm cultivation, the hostile lines came almost into contact before fighting was possible. Blind to what lay before them and often unaware of the success or failure of supporting units, commanders threw their troops into attacks that flanked and routed the enemy only to be flanked and routed in return. Scattered farmer's fields became killing zones as artillery concentrated their attention on the openings in the surrounding woods. Each side felt for the others vulnerable flank in a deadly race to capture and hold the road to Chattanooga. Soldiers entrenched at every opportunity and built breastworks, however shallow, whenever a lull in the fighting permitted time.

Spruill's book depicts this story very well, guiding the reader from one disputed point to another. For the most part, he allows the participants to narrate each scene. Yet he tempers their tale by reminding you how restricted a view each possessed. Invariably, men felt the fighting on their front to be the fiercest they experienced, during the war. As a consequence, we travel in our mind's eye along the paths of victory and defeat, where soldiers marched and fought and died to possess the ground where we now tread. Let me recommend the book to you.

The Chickamauga battlefield guide published in 1997 and the first not edited by Jay Luvaas. Matt Spruill maintains the series standards and format started with the Gettysburg guide. The book covers the first major victory of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in the American Civil War. This victory, coming after the defeat at Gettysburg and Vicksburg's surrender brightened Confederate hopes in the Fall of 1863. New features include a 30-page essay on Civil War medical and a section of aftermath. The Chickamauga Park covers two days of fighting and many positions overlap. This leads to some understandable confusion for visitors while viewing monuments and trying to understand the battle. For anything beyond the park driving tour, this book is essential.
The series format is directions to a point on the field, orientation, a general lesson on what happened in your view, followed by first person accounts of the action. These guides are designed using the general staff training concept of a Staff Ride. This is when a class is taken to a historic location, discuss what happened and see how the terrain influences the event. Staff Rides are designed to be intensive "on the ground" training coupled with physical observation in the hopes students will gain experience for later use.
I am not saying this to frighten you away from this guide but to tell you this is not a walk about and look at the monuments type of guide. This guide will have several pages devoted to the action at this point. It may contain a critique of the local commander's actions with possible alternates.
My experience is that reading the book prior to my visit works best. This allows me more time observing the field and less time reading the book. Of the tour options, a professional guide is usually the best but most expensive choice. The park driving tour is the best choice for a quick trip through the field to get the kids passport stamp. This book is the best choice for a serious student of the battle looking for a detailed explanation.

I just completed a hike of the Chickamauga NBP, using Colonel Spruill's guide book. The book transformed a pleasant day outdoors into an informative learning experience. The hiking directions are precise. The selected narrations by the participants enhance understanding of the action on the field, and Colonel Spruill's additional notations explain the narrations in a larger context. If you're serious about getting the most out of a visit to Chickamauga, then this book is a required item in your rucksack.

The Army War College has developed a nice series of books on key battles of the Civil War. One highlight is the provision of suggested sites to visit on the battlefield, to get a better sense of what was happening "on the ground" back in 1863.

For example, Stop 20 is the point on the battlefield site where Confederate General James Longstreet attacked the Union defensive positions just as a gap developed in the northern lines. There is a description of how to orient oneself at this point. Then, a brief description of the key events here. Next, battlefield reports, written after the event, by officers on both sides about what happened as that gap developed. One can read Longstreet's version--as well as that of Union Brigadier General Thomas Wood, whose movement, under less than precise orders from commanding General William Rosecrans, produced the catastrophic situation for the defensive posture established by the Union forces.

There were many Union commanders who had their careers tarnished at Chickamauga, including Rosecrans himself. One who burnished his credentials, of course, was the man who came to be known as "The Rock of Chickamauga," Virginian Major General George Thomas, who commanded the left end of the Union line. While other divisions and corps fled the field in disarray, Thomas cobbled together a defensive position on Snodgrass Hill and saved the day. Pages 199 through 230 describe the events, from commanders' perspectives, taking place at Snodgrass Hill, including General Granger's "in the nick of time" reserve arriving to provide additional forces for Thomas' stand.

Other features: the order of battle that provides a listing of the units and commanders at brigade command level and above; an essay on medical practices and the care of the wounded.

For those wanting to see the battlefield and get a sense of what happened, this is a useful volume. The battle's conduct, through the words of commanders reporting their perceptions of what happened (which can be self-serving and sometimes even inaccurate), is interesting reading to me.

All in all, a useful work. . . .

I bought this book after reading 2 other books and one other guidebook on the battle of Chickamauga. I wanted to know some of the nuanced manuverings of the forces that had fallen through the cracks of my understanding of the battle.

I was dismayed that this really isn't so much of a guide as it is a collection of interesting but often innacurate and myopic official reports from the commanders involved. It was interesting to see their impressions of what happened, but that is probably the worst approach to a battlefield guide, as the participants each only see a narrow slice of the battle, and often one's impressions of the chaos of battle are not what actually happened. This would be acceptable except the rest of the requirements for a good battlefield guide are missing.

Maps. These are few and far between. But what is worse is that they are not highly detailed, have no color, minimal terrain contouring, and just don't convey detailed information.

Descriptions of the action: This is another shortcoming. We get the impressions of select participants, but not the "big picture" of what happened at each area. It's nice to know what Bushrod Johnson thought of something on an emotional level, but what really happened?

The book is really a short but interesting collection of official reports. It should not be billed as a battlefield guide. I have also purchased the Gettysburg edition of this series, and found it to have similar shortcomings as a guide.

Also included at the end was a fascinating paper on being wounded and getting medical care in the civil war. It is another example of the book being mistitled. This was a book on the impressions of participants and the aftermath for the wounded. It should have had a title that described it as that, not a battlfield guide.

Nice book, but a little dog-eared. My husband enjoyed it and is now re-reading it. Got here promptly