Customer Reviews

The Beleaguered City: The Vicksburg Campaign

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I hope my fellow reviewer's amusing description of this slender volume as "Foote Lite" doesn't mislead a potential reader into thinking that "The Beleaguered City" lacks any of the poetry and the power of the three-volume masterwork from which it is excerpted. It simply presents the great historian's work in a more easily digested portion - a consumer service for which I personally am quite grateful.

While the Vicksburg campaign, being (in my simple opinion, anyway) more of coup de grace than a turning point, lacks the supreme drama of the battle at Gettysburg (magnificently presented in Foote's "The Stars In Their Courses", over which I have raved elsewhere), it is an amazing story in its own right. As always, not only does Foote brilliantly limn the military action with stirring prose of an almost Homeric grandeur, he unearths the small human details that bring the long-ago events to life with shuddering poignancy. (i.e. A Union commander preparing to assault a Confederate fort at daybreak reports that from behind the enemy's walls he heard "the prettiest reveille I ever did hear", or General McClernand maintaining his military reserve even as a distraught Southern woman defiantly sings "The Bonnie Blue Flag" right in his face.) He is fortunate, of course, to be studying a period in which even humble footsoldiers, steeped in the cadences of the King James Bible, commanded a musical quality of rhetoric that puts today's orators to shame. (i.e. A disgruntled newspaper editor begs his political friend to convince Lincoln that General Grant is "a jackass in the original package", and a captured Union officer gallantly inquires of his captors, "Is this the Army of the Confederacy for which I have so long and earnestly sought? Then, sirs, I am your guest for the duration.")

A very special treat is the audio edition, read by Foote himself in a smoky Mississippi drawl that could not be better suited to the text. It's akin to hearing the great national epic patiently recited by the Voice of America itself.

This book is the book to turn to for info on the Vicksburg Campaign. Shelby Foote handles it beautifully. Another thing that is very common with Mr. Foote is the fact that he doesn't give you the dry facts, he gives it to you easily, and with a lot of small extra stories to go along with the big picture. I am reading the whole Civil War a narrative and have already finished the chapter on Vicksburg. My opinion of this book is very high and I advise "everyone" to read this and the whole three volume set.

"The Beleaguered City" is a Modern Library adaptation of part of Foote's masterpiece, "The Civil War." Excerpted for the lay reader, nothing of Foote's careful research or literary skill is lost. While always taking a backseat in American history to Gettysburg (the subject of another Modern Library edition of Foote "Lite"), Vicksburg was arguably the critical campaign of the Civil War -- it permanently severed the Confederacy, guaranteed Federal domination of the nation's premier waterborne trade route, and made the career of U. S. Grant. Foote's history is a delight -- good scholarship and good writing. I recommend it highly to Civil War buffs and casual readers alike. Just like "Stars in Their Courses" however, it suffers from poor maps.

No one has written about the Civil War with the lyricism and eloquence of Foote. As anyone who has read his delightful three volume history of the Civil War can attest, his novelist background combined with thorough research to produce a classic of American literature and history.

This book is an excerpt from the history focusing on the Vicksburg campaign. As one of the most significant campaigns (some argue the most significant) of our national four year drama (and tragedy), this breakout survives its separation from the whole very well.

Foote traces the story thoroughly. Vicksburg controlled the Mississippi and was the strong point that thwarted the Union's efforts to cut the Confederacy from Arkansas and Texas. It was a very strong site, with bluffs that commanded the river and thousands of troops. U.S. Grant tried traditional ways to approach the city. His failures led him to perhaps the riskiest, most bold and audacious campaign of the war. Grant here is revealed as the master strategist, commander and decision maker. The story of the first major army to "live off the land" and his swing through Mississippi and the investiture of Vicksburg from the South and East is dramatic and stirring -- and extremely well handled in the more than competent hands of Shelby Foote.

Unforgettable! Superb. Shelby Foote's captivating tale and his sonorous voice have not been out of my mind, now 3 or 4 years after listening to it...absolutley worth the buying....I am shopping today for a friend!

"The Beleaguered City" is an extended excerpt on the Vicksburg Campaign from Shelby Foote's absolutely superb three volume narrative history of the Civil War. The Vicksburg Campaign is a gripping story in its own right, the central dramatic thread of which is Union General U.S. Grant's struggle to capture the great Confederate citadel on the Mississippi.

Grant, stubborn and taciturn, will try a variety of methods to close with and subdue the Confederate forces defending Vicksburg. His initial approaches fail, sometimes spectacularly, and it is only when Grant takes the great risk of cutting loose from his own supply lines to cross the Mississippi river and place his own army between two Confederate forces that he is finally able to place the city under siege. The Vicksburg campaign marks the coming of age of Grant as a mature senior leader, the kind of general who can plan, fight and win campaigns at the operational and strategic level. His success at Vicksburg will lead directly to his summons by Lincoln to lead all Union armies.

This book is highly recommended to the student of the Civil War and to the casual reader looking for an absolutely page-turning account of the Civil War meant to be read as literature.

Shelby Foote is the quentisential Civil War historian and he is at his finest in this exposition of General Grant's campaign to take Vicksburg, Mississippi, called the Gibralter of the West. The book will be read by Civil War buffs with great interest. The richness of detail is incredible. But those who have only a passing interest or knowledge of the Civil War will be captivated. Foote weaves the details of the Union campaign to take Vicksburg and regain control of the Mississippi together with intimate portraits of all the major officers on both sides of the conflict. These historical figures leap off the pages large as life with their quirks, faults and heroic characters described and explained. Foote is not judgmental and not an apologist for the South. He tells the complete story with little editorial. Where Foote does give his opinion it is uniformly well founded, sympathetic and balanced.

Best of all Foote is superb dramatist with a skill at picking the right word that amazes. We all know how the Civil War and the Vicksburg campaign ultimately came out. From Foote the story is fresh, the outcome in doubt. The reader is given no definitive clue whether Grant and the Union army will succeed. If you can willingly suspend your recollection of history the story reads like exciting fiction.

Whether you are interested in the Civil War or looking for a wonderful read full of well turned phrases, carefully draw characters and an element of suspense, you'll like Foote's fine effort.

Once again Shelby Foote's well researched studies are further enhanced by his narration. His southern manner and style makes a good book to read, a great book to hear.

I'm emptying my bank account and then some, to buy this audiotape. Seek not the lower star reviewers opinions! This is well worth the $2,000 plus price tag. I will personally debate anyone who says otherwise, and I will dogdance the floor with him/her! The meliflous, Deputy Dog southern accent comes across on this tape much better and more crisply than other Shelby recordings! Don't even get me started there!
This is it, folks! Worth three grand, if you ask me! I hope you guys/gals don't beat me to second guessin' myself! That would not be good! I want some more reviews! I want some more definitive answers!

I'm questioning that "over 13" thing? Hmm. This is hard!

BEK

This is, without a doubt, the best book on the seige of Vicksburg that maybe was ever written. Never have I gotten more insight into the heart of Grant as well as a blow by blow description of the problems that befell this Union Army in undertaking what some have called an impossible victory.