Customer Reviews

Petersburg Campaign: Wasted Valor June 15-18, 1864 (The Virginia Civil War battles and leaders series. The Petersburg campaign)

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This is a book in the Virginia Civil War Battles and Leaders series focusing on Grant's First Offensive on Petersburg. Thomas Howe does a fine job relating the thought process of the key Generals on both sides, Lee and Beauregard for the South; Hancock, Smith, Meade, and Grant for the North. The Union had more than one unbelievable chance to take Petersburg and avert the Siege to come, but timidity, command blunders, and darkness prevented them from taking advantage of the situation on all four days. Pierre Beauregard was at his best during this period, holding off the North while being massively outnumbered, and recognizing what Lee did not: that Grant had crossed to the south side of the James River with his entire force. Howe points out the fallacy in assuming that "Cold Harbor Syndrome", the Union forces' supposed fear of assaulting breastworks, had anything to do with the Union failures in the four-day battle. The maps are pretty good and numerous, although the regimental level detail I enjoy does not appear here. This is the only monograph on the battle, and is a must-have. 192 pp., 13 maps