Customer Reviews

First Manassas (Voices of the Civil War)

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Alas! This is the last "Voices of the Civil War" volume that I will review. With this review, I will have reviewed all of the books in this series that are in my library.

First Manassas (Bull Run) was one of the first major battles of the Civil War. It dampened Union confidence that the rebellion would be easily crushed. As with others in the series, this has a number of features, such as a map (artist's rendering) of the battlefield, an order of battle (the units down to brigade level that were involved), analytical essays, and, at the center of the book, civilians' and soldiers' reflections on the struggle. In that sense, an "up close and personal" perspective.

The book begins well before the battle, with the barrage by Confederate forces against Fort Sumter, with the poor Federal showing at Big Bethel (under the command of the enigmatic Ben Butler), and with George McClellan's successes in West Virginia.

But the centerpiece here is First Manassas/Bull Run. We see how the raw forces on each side maneuvered, how the Confederate forces used rail to bring Joe Johnston's forces from the Shenandoah Valley to the battlefield, how the fight unfolded. And the voices of civilians and military add a human dimension to this work.

At the time, this seemed a titanic context. As the war unfolded, far more sanguinary battles erupted--from Shiloh on. But this was a major battle at the outset. A good human perspective on this fight.

this book tells us the soilders story of the battle in their own words rather then hearing the historians perspective of battle we read the privates letter home or the colonels battle report this book examines bull run, the battle for west virginia, and the battle of big bethel