In the wake of the bloodshed at Chickamauga, the struggle for Chattanooga became a decisive engagement of the Civil War. McDonough reconstructs the siege and battles as they appeared to both Rebels and Yankees, giving the reader a front-row seat at one of the major dramas in American history. Hardcover. Original jacket. Stated First Edition. PO stamp on front end page. Very Good/Near Fine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chattanooga is an excellent study of the crucial battle.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chattanooga Death Grip Confederacy (Paperback)
James Lee McDonough comes through with flying colors. Chattanooga -- A Death Grip on the Confederacy depicts the Union and Confederate struggle for the strategic city in the fall of 1863. McDonough begins his book with the climax of the Battle of Chickamauga Creek, a Union defeat that leads to a retreat to Chattanooga and the removal of General Rosecrans. The next chapters depict the Union and Confederte operations, including the arrival of Generals Grant and Sherman for the North and the bickering within the Confederate camp. McDonough's depiction of the troop movements and battles are insightful and supported with several maps. The details of the battle are drawn from diaries and official records of both Union and Confederate sources. It is a plus that McDonough manages to keep a neutral tone throughout the book, analyzing both the reasons for Union success and Confederate failure. Strategy and tactics are not the only point McDonough is trying to make. He does and excellent job of bringing to life the feelings and emotions of some of the common soldiers involved on both sides. The narrative flows well and is entertaining. Chattanooga is an easy read for both the scholar and the layman.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Revisionist History,
By
This review is from: Chattanooga Death Grip Confederacy (Paperback)
Perhaps McDonough's finest civil war study, Chattanooga is not only highly readable and dramatic, but an excellent revisionist history. It lays to rest major old chestnuts over 125 years old at the time of publication, most importantly the nature of and reasons for the charge on Missionary Ridge.
Written essentially from the middle command perspective, the grasp of tactics, deployments, and all things military is faultless. McDonough, however, did not stop with battle reports and other prior published studies, but got out and walked the battlefield to understand precisely what happened. He thus was able to uncover facts long obscured both by the smoke of battle and the subsequent ongoing war of words. There is also much original research here from never published diaries only available in state and local historical collections, casting further light. Nor does McDonough spoil his product by sensationalist claims of old versus new conclusions; he unassumingly blends all available sources into a new synthesis. With apparent focus on the battle from human witnesses, readability and drama are increased -- but never so far as to make the book merely anecdodal. Further, the error of many classical studies merely concentrating on the highest command is abolished, without verging into the like trap of seeing it all from the level of "citizen soldier," etc. McDonough simply has no apparent axe to grind whatsoever. The footnotes and sources are full and clear, the maps ample and readable. All in all, this is state of the art civil war history at its best, setting a new standard in the genre for both the general and specialized reader.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quite Complete,
By
This review is from: Chattanooga Death Grip Confederacy (Paperback)
The battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga were two of the most pivotal engagements fought in the Central Theater of the American Civil War. Chickamauga was a stunning Confederate victory, Federal defeat, while Chattanooga was the reverse, a stunning Union victory and Confederate defeat. They were fought within two months and 15 miles of each other.
That Confederate General Braxton Bragg frittered away possibly the best opportunity for either side to completely crush the opposition with a single stroke is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the entire war. After the savage drubbing the Union suffered at Chickamauga, Chattanooga is where the shattered Union Army retreated to. Bragg is chastised by his subordinate commanders for not immediately completing the destruction of the Union forces in Chattanooga. So acrimonious is the white hot heat exchanged between Bragg and his subordinate generals, President Jefferson Davis is forced to leave Richmond to support Bragg on the battlefield. The Union Army of the Cumberland was demoralized, starving and backed up against the Tennessee River. It could not be resupplied. The Confederates outnumbered them and surrounded them on three sides. Yet unaccountably, Bragg would not only continue to fight with his generals for 2 months, he would divide his forces, sending Longstreet with two Divisions to Knoxville, far beyond recall, just to get rid of him. Defeated and whipped the Union Army would use those 2 precious months well. They replaced Rosecrans with Grant, reinforced the 23,000 man Army of the Cumberland with 17,000 men from the Army of the Potomac under Joe Hooker and the 20,000 man Army of the Tennessee under William Sherman and, in one of the most audacious actions of the war, reopened supply lines to Chattanooga with a well coordinated amphibious and land based attack at Browns Ferry. Seriously reinforced and resupplied, by mid November the Union outnumbered the Confederates 2:1. They would execute their battle plan with impunity. The Federals opened with an assault under Joe Hooker on Lookout Mountain. Dubbed the "Battle Above the Clouds" due to low lying fog, Hooker succeeds in pushing the Confederate left completely off the mountain and into the valley below. That night, 6 miles to the north Sherman crosses the Tennessee River and attacks Bragg's right but is stopped short of Tunnel Hill, his primary objective. Reengaging the following morning, Confederate General Pat Cleburne, one of the finest combat commanders the war produced, fights Sherman to a standstill. To relieve pressure on Sherman, Grant orders Thomas' Army of the Cumberland to assault Missionary Ridge, the center of the Confederate position. It was the most successful frontal assault launched during the war. The entire Army of the Cumberland, 23,000 Union soldiers, almost twice the number engaged in Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, moving along a two mile front would cross open fields a mile wide to swarm up a 500' ridge and smash the Confederate Army off the heights, sending them reeling back into North Georgia. It was a rout. Within an hour the horrific three day battle was over. The Army of the Cumberland had overrun the center of the Confederate line, connected with Hooker on their right flank and sweept everything before them. Bragg's Army broke into headlong flight "entirely routed...nearly all artillery having been shamefully abandoned by its infantry support," according to their commander. But Braxton Bragg had no one to blame for this defeat other than himself. According to author James Lee McDonough, "the victorious emergence of Union forces, in one dramatic hour, from a situation where two months earlier they were trapped and besieged, resulted in reversing the course of action, placing the Federals in the position of carrying the fight into the Deep South." There would be no turning back and the Confederacy would be cleaved in half yet again. McDonough has penned a thoughtful analysis of this turning point the Central Theater of operations. But his analysis, while good, rambles a bit and repeats itself multiple times. It's almost as if, given all the advantages Braxton Bragg had, the author still cannot understand how the Union won. Indeed, given the state of the Union Army after Chickamauga, the dazzling Union victory at Chattanooga two months later is unforgivable. But make no mistake, if you want to know what happened at Chattanooga and why, you will not find a materially better work anywhere. This really was a most spectacular feat of arms, one of the best Union accomplishments of the entire war.
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