Rebels and Yankees: Battlefields of the Civil War [Hardcover]

William C. Davis (Author), Russ A. Pritchard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999 | Series: Rebels & Yankees

A must for any Civil War library. Recounts the stories of thirteen of some of the most important battles of the war, from First Manassas in July 1861 to the Battle of Nashville in 1864. Full-color double-page maps show the reader each move of the opposing forces. No effort has been spared to include rare war era photographs and color photos of rare artifacts. Engagingly written by William C. Davis, the author of more than thirty books on the American Civil War. Writes professor James M. McPherson, "The most readable, authoritative, and beautifully designed illustrated history of the American Civil War." Also in the series: Commanders and Fighting Men.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Pr (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571451943
• ISBN-13: 978-1571451941
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,353,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More Than Just A Book of Civil War Maps, October 14, 2009

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebels and Yankees: Battlefields of the Civil War (Hardcover)

Here, the authors give us through a lively narrative an eminently digestible summary of the very essence of the thirteen main battles of the Civil War. They note that in the span of four years (1861-1865) more than 10,000 military engagements took place. It was these battles, skirmishes, raids and sieges that President Abraham Lincoln immortalized in his famous but short speech dedicated to them at Gettysburg.

Having beat them at Fort Sumner, the South considered itself morally, physically and spiritually superior to the North, and in any, case figured that the North would not have the stomach for a long drawn out battle. The North on the other hand considered the South succession the supreme insult to the stars and stripes and came forward as volunteers in large numbers and with great resolution to redress the insult. They considered the rebels as blustering clowns that needed a "comeuppance," and that they were the one to see that they got it.

Well, as the war progress, neither of these images were to hold true. There was bravery and cowardice on all sides, and in the end, even though the North won the fighting war, what the South valued more than the war, was maintaining the racist social status quo, where White Supremacy ruled supreme. Judging by how short-lived the Reconstruction was, and by the compromise that got Rutherford B. Hayes elected and thus ended Reconstruction and began the Southern Redemption, it is still debatable as to which side actually one the hearts and minds of the new unified nation.

In any case, in addition to its crisp and lively storytelling, there is a lot more to the book than just the wonderful summaries of the main battles and the associated political analysis and commentary. There are inserts, sidebars, footnotes, a glossary of the battles, and highlighted introductions to each chapter.

Being a Virginian and living literally on and around some of the most sacred and hallowed grounds of these main battlefields, I found the large militarily annotated maps contained in the book an invaluable guide to following the progression of the war from battle front to battle front: from Lincoln's issuance of a call for 75,000 volunteers "to put down the rebellion," to First Manassas in July 1861 all through Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, to Nashville Tennessee in 1864.

But equally important is the fact that I also found it invaluable in divining the strategies and tactics of the generals on either side of the conflict. The annotated battlefield maps bring the strategies and tactics alive in a way that puts the reader in the decision cycle of the field commander's mind themselves. That alone is a very sobering experience and is all by itself worth the price of the book. There are also bonuses for Civil war buffs, that include many haunting candid photos of war weary soldiers and the paraphernalia of the war, and not to be forgotten is the large amount of trivia and folklore that rounds out a more complete picture of the war and of Civil War history. Altogether, it is a "one stop shopping Civil War book," that makes it a "must have." I could not have been more pleased. Five Stars

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, July 2, 2005

By 

P. MCTAGGART (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebels and Yankees: Battlefields of the Civil War (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book, full of illustrations, rare pictures and excellent profiles of thirteen of the most important battles during the Civil War. I would recommend this book to Civil War buffs.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful pictures...very bad text!, March 14, 2010

By 

M. Xavier "Mrx" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rebels and Yankees: Battlefields of the Civil War (Hardcover)

I bought this collection couple years ago, the Don Troiani's art cover is very attractive and the book is full of nice pictures and maps that is why he deserves one star but the text is a joke, or a "junk". The author William Davis has an ironic style and zero knowledge of the civil war facts. All the CSA generals are stupid for him and he has no respect at all for the great south military leaders of the War Between the States. The author is very racist and, for example, calls the General P.G.T. Beauregard the "Creole" all the time and uses this expression: "... a child could take Fort Sumter..." I never read so stupid words in a historic book... Don't waste your money on this want to be "civil war collection".