To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam [Hardcover]

Richard Croker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

In the bestselling tradition of The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals, Richard Croker has written a vivid, exciting, and realistic novel of oneof the most important battles of the Civil War. Itwas fought on September 17, 1862, at Sharpsburg, Maryland, and in just twelve hours over 22,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded, making the Battle of Antietam the bloodiest day in American history.

From Abraham Lincoln's White House to battles outside Dunker Church, To Make Men Free brings to life this legendary battle and the events surrounding it. Abraham and Mary Lincoln grieve over the loss of their son while Robert E. Lee mourns the death of his daughter. And General Lee must be a commander when his youngest son pleads not to be sent "back in there." Croker paints flesh-and-blood portraits of such larger-than-life figures as George McClellan, John Pope, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, and A. P. Hill. Hill is seen nearly entering into a duel with Stonewall Jackson, and he also has something to prove to his old West Point roommate, the Union commander George McClellan -- who married Hill's first true love. Much of the battle is seen through the eyes of Stonewall Jackson's fun-loving young adjutant, Kyd Douglas, and a little-known reporter named George Smalley, who dabbled briefly in mutiny and in the service of Horace Greeley, scooping the other reporters covering the story.

With verve and insight, Croker offers an indelible picture of this single day that dashed Southern hopes for a quick victory, denied the Confederacy crucial support from European allies, afforded the North the first clear indication that its troops had the dogged persistence to win, and ultimately cleared the path for Lincoln's most enduring legacy -- the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Emancipation Proclamation and the Battle of Antietam are married in history but divorced in literature. To Make Men Free reunites them in their original unhappy, bloody, and inseparable bonds.

A stirring tale of blood, glory, intrigue, mutiny, deceit, jealousy, revenge, nobility, and power, To Make Men Free introduces a new voice in historical fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The bloodiest day of the Civil War, a Union victory that crushed Lee's first invasion of the North and gave Lincoln a triumphal pretext for the Emancipation Proclamation, is the subject of this rousing, panoramic debut historical. Documentary filmmaker Croker skillfully fictionalizes a meticulously researched accountâ€"of the battle, the campaign that preceded it and its momentous political falloutâ€"that is more comprehensive than many nonfiction treatments. In vivid, punchy scenes, occasionally illustrated with maps, readers follow the strategic maneuvers of the Union and Confederate armies, learn how to operate a cannon and amputate a leg, and get swept up in the panic and pathos of combat. Croker fleshes out the gore and gallantry on the battlefield with a sprawling cast of well-drawn characters, from Lincoln and his cabinet down to lowly privates. Particularly interesting is his portrait of Union General-in-chief George McClellan, one of the more fascinating psyches in American history, whose mixture of insufferable vainglory and paralyzing insecurity constituted a major obstacle to a Northern victory. Croker's didactic impulses occasionally get the better of himâ€"one scene is inserted mainly to correct a common mispronunciation of a general's nameâ€"and his determination to convey the entire range of perspectives on Antietam sometimes clutters the stage with incidental figures. But his combination of period detail, gripping battle scenes and psychological insight bring the epic to life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The battle of Antietam fought on September 17, 1862, gave us the bloodiest day in American history, with an estimated 22,000 casualties. Croker, an independent documentary filmmaker, is a southerner whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy. In this fictional re-creation of the battle, he seems to be striving to emulate the achievement of Michael Shaara's masterful novel of Gettysburg, The Killer Angels (1974), and, on one level, he succeeds. Like Shaara, Croker clearly knows his history, and he consistently lays out both the political conflicts and the military tactics in an easily digestible manner. Unfortunately, he fails to create balanced, believable, flesh-and-blood characters. In effect, he takes a few personality traits of historical figures and exaggerates them to the point of caricature; for example, Union General George McClellan could be both arrogant and self-pitying, but Croker emphasizes those traits to the point of absurdity. Still, despite these flaws, there is enough here of substance concerning the battle itself to please historical fiction readers with a special interest in the Civil War. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006055908X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060559083
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,178,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The hand of God, April 4, 2004

By 

Walrus Rex "rexferal" (Grand Junction, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam (Hardcover)

This is a novel in the style of The Killer Angels. It is about one of the most fascinating battles in American history, the Battle of Antietam. The title comes from a verse to The Battle Hymn of the Republic: "As [Christ] died to make men holy, let us die to make men free." The emphasis on death and freedom is entirely appropriate in that it was the Union's marginal victory at Antietam that allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation thus taking the first actual step toward freeing the slaves. But this was at a cost. September 17, 1862 remains the bloodiest day in American history. More Americans died at Antietam than on D Day, or at Pearl Harbor, or on September 11. (Some early casualty estimates of September 11 suggested that Antietam's toll had finally been exceeded but more accurate later figures prove that Antietam still holds the record.) And the population at that time was a small fraction of today's population.

Most Civil War battles, at least most single day Civil War battles, have a single location, a peach orchard or a sunken road, where the fighting was most intense and the bodies dropped liked dominos. Antietam has three: Miller's cornfield in the north, the sunken road forever after known as Bloody Lane in the middle, and the Rohrbach Bridge, forever after known as the Burnside Bridge to the south. The battle also features some of the most fascinating characters in American history; Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker, and George McClellan.

McClellan, the Union commander, is particularly fascinating. This thirty-four year old had the supreme self confidence that only his belief that he was preordained by God to save the Union could convey. He also possessed massive amounts of paranoia that caused him to treat better men than himself with contempt, most notably Abraham Lincoln whom he routinely referred to as a baboon. McClellan had three reasons that he should have overwhelmingly crushed Lee and ended the war: He had massive numerical superiority approaching three to one, a stroke of luck placed a copy of Lee's plans into his hands at just the moment he could best use them, and Lee's troops were spread out such that McClellan could defeat them in detail. But McClellan squandered all of these advantages and barely avoided defeat. Despite the reality, McClellan believed that it was he who was massively out numbered. Despite knowledge of Lee's plans, he failed to move quickly enough to truly capitalize on this unique opportunity. When the actual shooting started, McClellan committed his troops piecemeal rather than launching coordinated attacks and thus was himself nearly defeated in detail. (Simulations of this battle from my cardboard counter days through Sid Meier's Antietam all require that only certain Union troops be available or activated at any given time. Otherwise, the Confederate player would not stand a chance. McClellan himself, of course, was not so restricted and could have launched coordinated attacks using overwhelming force simultaneously.) McClellan subsequently ran as a peace Democrat for president against Lincoln in 1864 in one of the most bitterly contested elections in American history.

If, as should have been the case, McClellan crushed Lee at Antietam, the war would have ended on terms that almost certainly would have included the continuation of slavery. If, by some miracle that almost became an actuality, Lee had crashed McClellan, England, France and other European countries would have recognized the Confederacy, the Republicans would have been voted out of Congress in November of 1862, and the Confederacy would have won its independence including the continuation of slavery. Only the actual result, a glorified draw tilting at least strategically to the Union, allowed Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and end slavery. One wonders if it was not the hand of God that so subtly and delicately balanced the events that slavery might end. But if so, was it also the hand of God that wreaked the harvest of death in Miller's cornfield, that drenched the Blood Lane, and that forced the crossing of the Burnside Bridge?

This novel, apparently the first book of the author, is not as good as The Killer Angels and reveals some rookie errors. Nevertheless, this is required reading for Civil War aficionados.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars War is hell, May 25, 2008

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam (Mass Market Paperback)

William Tecumseh Sherman is credited with saying "War is Hell", and in To Make Men Free, Richard Croker has illustrated that truism. Croker's novel covers "America's bloodiest day" from its inception in the strategy of Robert E. Lee, through each and every hour of the battle, to its aftermath. He ably demonstrates the clash of politics and generalship, popularity and competence, arrogance and sincerity. His portrayals of the great men caught up in this battle ring true, despite the necessity of fictionalizing conversations, and he also conveys a sense of the plight of the common soldier around which all the chaos swirled. Croker does a creditable job of enlivening the story of one the most difficult of all Civil War battles to narrate and describe. Recommended to all with an interest in this heartbreaking national conflict.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Someone Who Has Trouble Following Battles, May 18, 2004

By 

Kirstin Steele (Charleston, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Make Men Free: A Novel of the Battle of Antietam (Hardcover)

I am not a history buff, and I've been frustrated before trying to pick through who was on which side during which battle (for instance the Shelby Foote books, which I understand are excellent!).

TO MAKE MEN FREE is about only one battle, and Croker puts it in the context of not only the "big picture" of the war, but the political situation and the personalities involved. I know, it's fiction; that probably helped me get through it too.

Anyhow, my point is, it's a riveting read, even if you don't normally like war stories. Highly recommended.