Customer Reviews

Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent book! If you've liked Gordon Rhea's books on the Overland Campaign then you'll want to add this to your collection. Wilson Greene writes that the final battles of the Petersburg Campaign were not the "done deals" as most Civil War students seem to think. Even though we know the eventual outcome, the story itself is very suspenseful. Even the footnotes provide valuable information on modern day roads and other books I might have overlooked. The book is filled with details,(including many excellent maps), but never bogs down. I've lived in the Petersburg area for several years and this book has given me a new found appreciation for the area and its history.

Will Greene's latest work is absolutely spectacular. He addresses a chapter of the Eastern Theater which has been glossed over for years. Too many people jump from the Crater to Appomattox without taking into account the long and difficult maneuver campaigning which occurred during the intervening 9 months. Greene addresses this in exceptional fashion with in- depth discussion of each of the events and how it impacted on the Army of the Potomac's Sixth Corps' preparations for the culmionating assult on April 2, 1865. It is exceptionally well researched and written and a delight to read. The notations are very illuminating and provide the reader an explanation of where the 1865 battlefield fits on the road networks of 2000. A great read and a must have.

An excellent study on the final union thrusts at Lee's defenses at Petersburg that culminate not just with Sheridan and Warren's combined collapse of Picket at Five Forks but the final break through with the VI corps punching a hole in A. P. Hill's defenses that virtually cause a hemorrhage in the Petersburg defenses only staved off by the heroic defenses at Fort Gregg and a line of artillery giving time for Lee to organize the final retreat. Petersburg was a very complicated campaign that contains a series of modest to large battles as Grant constantly moves forces west to cut off supplies and avenues of escape. As Greene describes well, Lee constantly parried with creative engineering and counter attacks. Greene provides a detailed account of all these battles that stretched over one time farms and wilderness outside of Petersburg. Petersburg was a very complicated campaign and just driving the roads today around Petersburg to some of these still remote sites makes you appreciate the effort of Greene's work. The final break through is at the center of Pamplin Historical Park for the Civil War Soldier where Greene is the Chief historian and CFO. Read the book then visit Pamplin Park, and see the extraordinary well preserved trenches where the final break through occurred and walk the trail that leads to the Union jump off point and then follow it right into the Confederate trenches where it leads right to the unique vulnerable spot of the line where the union attack punched through. It is well worth seeing park with its living history, historic headquarters, outdoor exhibits and a great modern museum. An excellent book for the serious Civil War student.

For a variety of reasons, the successful Union assault upon the Petersburg defenses on April 2, 1865, has been largely ignored in Civil War histories, barely getting a passing mention as an incident just before Lee's retreat to Appomattox. But the battle of April 2, as Greene ably demonstrates, was a crucial military action. It was, quite simply, the battle that broke the backbone of Lee's defenses and necessitated the immediate evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. The story is told largely from a Union point of view, not because of any innate bias on Greene's part, but due to the very pragmatic reason that there are few Confederate primary sources dealing with this stage of the fighting. He crafts an rapidly moving, but comprehensive story of the military struggle, illuminating it with vivid details of incidents and personalities. I count it as a first-rate addition to any library of Civil War titles.

The above is a review of the original edition of this book, published in 2000. A revised edition has now been published (2008) and I would repeat exactly the same things. The new edition has some minor corrections and expansions, but for the most part these are aimed at updating the text to reflect the current status of development and battlefield preservation in the Petersburg area and to ensure that references to Civil War era roads correlate to 2007 route designations ("The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign" is an invaluable guide for anyone wishing to trace out the activities of late March and early April on the actual ground). The most evident change from the original edition is the improvement of the maps for clarity and detail.

The perfect complement to this volume is a visit to Pamplin Historical Park southwest of Petersburg which preserves the earthworks successfully overcome by the Union attackers as described in "The Final Battles". (And even better is to have the good fortune of visiting around the anniversary of the battle and being able to participate in a pre-dawn battlefield walk to actually see the ground in question at the appropriate season of the year and time of day; such was my own good fortune.)

For several years, Wilson Greene's book has been among my very favorite Civil War history volume, and this new edition even makes it better. This book is an absolute necessity for anyone wishing to understand the closing weeks of the Civil War in the East, the end of Lee's army, and the final triumph of the Union Army of the Potomac.

The style of writing reminds me of a detailed battlefield tour with the Park Historian and other senior personal. The details, perceptive insights and clear overview of the fighting are what you find in this type of tour. The sixteen years the author worked for the National Park Service and being President of Pamplin Historical Park may have contributed to this feeling. Personally, I like this style of battle history. It is detailed, covers how the terrain affects both the attack and defense, lays out the problems and results. For me, it conveys the reality of Civil War combat in an understandable informative manner. I have never found this style of writing a boring read.
The Petersburg Campaign lasted for months. Expect for the Crater and Five Forks, most of it is covered in a paragraph or two. The standard is an explanation of the North extending their line to the West until the South broke. The siege of Petersburg did not end at or because of Five Forks nor was extending the North's lines west a simple matter of marches. The moves and counter-moves from February to April 2, 1865 is the story this book tells. The author prepares a solid foundation of about one hundred pages that place the armies, identify the major players and define the conditions of the armies. The image of starving almost naked southern soldiers is not completely a myth but it is embellished. The author shows how poorly the men were fed and clothed and how well they managed to work within the system to make up this deficiency.
Hatcher's Run, Fort Sedman, Jones's Farm, McIlwaine's Hill and Lewis' Farm are not battles that most of us know about. They were important steps in breaking the siege in 1865. Each of these battles is covered with one or more maps and place within in the campaign. The critical days from March 31 to April 2, 1865 have 175 pages and 18 excellent maps. This keeps the reader fully in the picture with the ability to understand the importance of each action. In addition, we understand the magnitude of the disaster that Robert E. Lee and his generals face. While the area is small, the numbers are not. Thousands of men and hundreds of guns fight in areas of two miles.
The VI Corps Break Through is excellent writing. This is the critical piece of the battle usually lost as authors cover Five Forks. Except for A. P. Hill's death, the perfunctory treatment of this critical action robs readers of a complex tactical battle fought with great courage on both sides.
The author takes the time to detail how the defeats at Dinwiddie Court House, Five Forks, the Break Through, Fort Gregg and Fort Whitworth build into the total defeat that surrenders Petersburg and Richmond. The book abounds with small personal details and accounts from major and minor participants. This is much more than the 12th Whitsitt lines up to the left of the 75th you know. The richness of the details, coupled with clear writing produce a compelling complete story.
Documentation is important in detailed histories. The book has over 200 pages of appendices, Order of Battle, notes, Bibliography and index. This is an impressive history that is a must read for anyone trying to understand the end of The Army of Northern Virginia.

I was very impressed with the depth and scholarly treatise of this work, and I only wish the author would endeavor to write another two volumes on Petersburg during 1864 to completely cover the campaign. Frankly, there isn't much for me to add to the other 5-star reviews who cover the ground rather well.

To the reviewers who gave this book less than five stars, I would suggest that history sometimes does not always lend itself to writing that is exciting, compelling and gripping as in mystery novels. Especially when a campaign was so grueling as this one. It's hard to make desertion rates and leadership blunders thrilling, and readers should not expect scholarly, historical works to always be captivating. Yes, the writing could have been better, but I will always rate scholarship and accuracy more highly in history than tight and interesting prose. If the reader wants a story rather than accuracy, read Shelby Foote's three volume set, "The Civil War." Or watch Ken Burns's Northern propaganda piece for TV, "The Civil War" that was woefully deficient in scholarship and could almost be classified as a polemic. They are entertaining, but hardly rise to a level that attracts an historian's interest.

That being said, even this volume contains elements of analysis that are very attractive to the historian. The Federal command situation was far from satisfactory, as Meade repeatedly demonstrated an inability to command effectively, particularly with Grant looking over his shoulder. One wonders how the campaign would have gone if Grant had swapped Meade to Lee in return for Longstreet or Gordon. And at the corps and divisional levels, the Federals were generally staffed with less aggressive and decisive leaders than Lee's generals. Yet when it came to the end game, Sheridan, Wright and others rose to the occasion. Picket and Rosser enjoyed a shad bake instead of attending to business at Five Forks, and as a result, the dominos began to topple. The drama is there, if only a little slowed down due to the details of interest to the true historian.

In short, I recommend this work without qualification. And yes, the maps are the best of any work on the Petersburg campaign.

I was surprized by the depth and freshness of coverage of this fast flowing account as the last days of Lee's power unfold. A good well balanced narrative.Greene is right up there with top civil war historians in my estimation. A hightlight for me was the touring infomation he provides on the battlefild sites. Last summeer I spent two days trying to cover as much of the Petersburg Battle and Appomatix retreat as my time allowed. This book would have made my trip much more effective. I applaude the efforts currently being made to preserve these site.
If one is diligent he can find defensive pits still in good condition that remain unprotected by walking in the woods off the main Five Points byways. How long will they last this way?

This is a book I have desired for years.

Most writers have dismissed in a couple of paragraphs the breaking of the Confederate lines at Petersburg in March 1865. They want to rush quickly along to Appomattox.

Yet the breakthrough was the result of a significant six day campaign.

This book is not for everyone. If you want your Civil War history from Time-Life books, this book is not for you.

If you own "The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War" this is your book.

This book describes that six day campaign in a fair amount of detail.

Excellent reading, diligent with references to facts but kind of a synopsis of the action. It lacks an in depth look at the battles and the action at the defensive positions of both sides during the Petersburg siege. Nor does it have much to say about the action surrounding the infamous "CRATER".Just briefly covers Grants continuous movement to the left to cutoff Confederate access to the rails and lengthen Lee's lines of defense. Or the important cavalry engagements related to it.
If you want an excellent, easy to read overview here it is

"Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion, the final battles of the Petersburg Campaign". This book describes the battles from late March through 2 April 1865 that finally forced the Confederates out from behind their entrenchments around Richmond/Petersburg and put them on the path that led to their surrender at Appomattox. Written by A. Wilson Greene, a longtime National Parks historian in Virginia and currently the president and CEO of the Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Virginia, it is perhaps the definitive account of the last days of the siege of Petersburg.

The author briefly covers how the armies came to be there, gives short biographies of the generals commanding the brigades, regiments, divisions, and corps, discusses each side's strategy, and examines the armies themselves, setting the stage for the intense fighting at the end of March. He then covers the positional moves and subsequent fighting on a day by day basis

While most people are familiar with the Battle of Five Forks on 1 April, it was probably the all-out assault ordered by General Grant against the General Lee's thinly held rebel entrenchments on 2 April that was the decisive event of the campaign, particularly the attack by the Federal 6th Corps that broke through the Confederate lines and was only stopped from moving directly on to Petersburg by the thinnest of margins. Mr Greene provides information and anecdotes from both sides of the fighting, and clearly shows each step of the attack and defense and the desperate attempts by both sides to win the day.

In hindsight, by April 1865, the Confederate cause was clearly doomed. Grant had pinned Lee down behind entrenchments, and Lee was unable to do much other than to react to Grant's moves. Sherman was rampaging through the heartland of the confederacy and preparing to move north to add his strength to Grant's armies and surround Lee. Most importantly, Abraham Lincoln had been re-elected the previous November, and he was determined to see the war through to Union victory. But, to the men attacking and defending at Petersburg, the issue was far from settled. The author puts all of this into its proper context, and does an outstanding job in describing why the battles were fought (for Grant, to cut off Lee's supply lines and try and destroy Lee outright if he could, or if not, to least force him out into the open to be destroyed, while Lee wanted to keep Petersburg and Richmond defended and supplied, while retaining operational freedom for his armies), as well as the battles themselves.

The writing can occasionally be a bit on the dry side, but this is a scholarly analysis of the battles and tactical description of the fighting as much as something to be read for entertainment, so it's not a problem for me. There are plentiful maps and some photos from the time, which were useful in following along with the fighting.

In my opinion, these battles have not received sufficient attention from the public or even historians, who often seem to skip from Cold Harbor to the Battle of the Crater to Appomattox. But if Lee had managed to hold on at Five Forks and defeated the assaults against his entrenchments, the end of the war would have looked very different. The Union still would have won eventually, mind you, but this Union victory undoubtedly shortened the war, and should be receive more attention than it does.

I highly recommend this book to those with an interest in the American Civil War.