Savannah (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 9) [Hardcover]

James Reasoner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2003

More than 100,000 Copies Sold in the Civil War Battle Series Following the defeat of Confederate forces at Chattanooga in November 1863, the battered Rebel army retreats to winter quarters at Dalton, Georgia. The following May, a large Union army led by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman leaves Chattanooga and northern Georgia camps and marches south to Atlanta and ultimately arrives at the coastal city of Savannah, laying waste to the territory through which it passes. If Sherman is successful, Georgia will be divided and Confederate supply lines will be disrupted even more than they already are. Cory Brannon, who is bitter over the failure of the Confederate army at Chattanooga, takes part in a series of battles as the Army of Tennessee retreats slowly toward Atlanta during May and early June. By the end of August, Atlanta is lost and the Confederate retreat continues. Meanwhile, the Brannon family farm in Culpeper County, Virginia, is now behind enemy lines. Titus is fighting in the Shenandoah Valley with Mosby's Rangers, the great Ebersole plantation house at Mountain Laurel is in ruins, and Henry has been removed as sheriff of Culpeper County. To everyone's surprise, Cordelia is courted by one of the Union officers. She hates the Yankees but is unable to hate this Yankee in particular, much to her dismay. When Henry kills a Union deserter who attacks Cordelia, he flees to the Confederate lines in Tennessee and arrives in time to participate in Gen. John Bell Hood's disastrous campaign. At the same time, Cory is trapped in Savannah, surrounded by Sherman's marauding hordes. The Union army lays siege to the city, much as it had at Vicksburg. When Gen. William Hardee realizes thatdefending the city is hopeless, he abandons Savannah and heads toward the Carolinas, hoping for the chance to fight another day in another place. Sherman's March to the Sea is now complete, and despair grips the Confederacy. Fractured and defeated at every turn, the nation asks itself how much longer it can continue to fight.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JAMES REASONER is a veteran writer of historical fiction and author of several volumes in the Wagons West Series, a frontier trilogy set in the years before the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the Walker Texas Ranger Books. He lives near Azle, Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581823282
• ISBN-13: 978-1581823288
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,385,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A lifelong Texan, Reasoner has been a professional writer for more than thirty years. In that time, he has authored several hundred novels and short stories in numerous genres. Best known for his Westerns, historical novels, and war novels, he is also the author of two mystery novels that have achieved cult classic status, Texas Wind and Dust Devils. Writing under his own name and various pseudonyms, his novels have garnered praise from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as appearing on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. He lives in a small town in Texas with his wife, award-winning fellow author Livia J. Washburn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Bad to Worse, May 10, 2003

By 

Westy (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savannah (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 9) (Hardcover)

SAVANNAH, the ninth book in James Reasoner's The Civil War Battle Series, concerns itself mainly with the two youngest of the surviving Brannon brothers, Cory and Henry.

Cory, now with General Hardee's troops, takes part in the long, fruitless struggle to save Atlanta from the advancing Federal troops under General William Tecumseh Sherman. With Atlanta falling, Cory finds himself forced to march to Savannah, Georgia, even further from his beloved wife Lucille.

Meanwhile, Cory's best friend, and former comrade-in-arms, Pie Jones and his wife Rachel, find themselves near the Brazos River in Texas, where they have fled to avoid Rachel's former owner, Grat. Beset by Confederate deserters, they are rescued by a troop of stalwart Texas Rangers. Riding with the Rangers for protection to the troop captain's ranch, Pie soon finds himself, along with the Rangers, in the midst of a fierce battle with raiding Comanches.

Cory's wife Lucille befriends an English blockade-runner, then, along with her aunt, Mildred, finds herself forced to flee to west Texas, hoping against hope Cory will find her once he's free from service in the Confederate Army.

And, back home in Virginia, at the Brannon farm, Cordelia finds a new beau. When Henry defends his sister from an attacking Yankee , killing the assailant, he, unaware the man has deserted the Union army, and believing he will be executed for killing a Federal soldier, flees, to join up with the Confederate Army, the last Brannon son to head to war.

As were the previous eight volumes, SAVANNAH is a gripping tale of one family's struggles during the Civil War. Mr. Reasoner's research continues to amaze me (he incorporates many real-life minor characters, such as Elizabeth Caldwell, a wife who marches with her husband Patrick, a former Confederate soldier now a galvanized Yankee, across Dakota Territory), and the stories are all richly detailed, and geographically accurate.

I highly recommend the entire Civil War Battle Series. The tenth, and final, volume, APPOMATTOX, will be released sometime this fall. Don't miss it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars D*#n Yankees, July 31, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: Savannah (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 9) (Paperback)

As a lifelong student of America's Civil War, I turned to Reasoner's fictional series with interest because of its Confederate perspective. The ninth volume, Savannah, covers the months during which Sherman took the fight to Georgia and began the systematic shattering of the rebel army. My hope was that this book would be as compelling as Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, but it lacks the sense of urgent immediacy in which Shaara so successfully plunged his readers. Reasoner's story, from both the military and the civilian angle, is accurate enough historically, and should be compelling. Unfortunately, his writing style, relying as it does upon stock phrases (e.g., "it was all he could do" or "all he could think about was...") and elementary vocabulary, falls flat even in the most exciting of settings. Similarly, most of his characters come across as a bit wooden. Recommended for young adult readers and those seeking an introduction to the war between the states.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Savannah, August 6, 2006

By 

Capital One "terryj" (Indianaplois, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Savannah (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 9) (Hardcover)

Being a Civil War fan, this novel followed history very close. the story line continued with the series and left you ready for the next book in the series.