Shenandoah (The Civl War Battle Series, Book 8) [Hardcover]

James Reasoner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2002

In this eighth volume of the ten-volume Civil War Battle Series, the action returns to northern Virginia and Culpeper County. The long absent Titus Brannon returns home on Christmas Day, 1863, just over a year since his disappearance during the battle of Fredericksburg. As much as his family is startled to learn that he is alive, he is surprised to find that his wife, Polly, is now married to his brother Henry. And she is pregnant. Unwilling to accept Polly and Henry’s marriage, Titus insists that Polly is still his wife, and a judge agrees. He refuses to divorce her, and later Polly’s body is found at her father’s plantation. The evidence points to Titus, and he is arrested and jailed. As spring approaches, Will Brannon recuperates from his Gettysburg wound and returns to his regiment. In the meantime, a new commander leads the Union army into northern Virginia—U. S. Grant. To block Grant’s march on Richmond, Robert E. Lee attacks. Grant, however, does not retreat after this surprise engagement but marches on. The two armies clash again and again, maneuvering ever closer to the Rebel capital. Will throws himself into the battles with abandon. At last his pain ends at the portentously named crossroads, Cold Harbor. After Titus’s innocence is proven, he joins the partisan rangers of John S. Mosby. This guerrilla-style warfare suits his nature, and the rangers so effectively harass the Federals in the rich farmland of the Shenandoah that Grant dispatches a special force to squash Mosby. This unit adopts a policy of total war in the valley so as to undercut Mosby’s support. Titus vows vengeance on the Yankees for this wanton destruction, but even he knows that there is little chance that the tide will be stemmed. Both the Confederacy and the Brannons have suffered much in the year 1864. Now even the hotheaded Titus begins to wonder if the nation and his family will survive into 1865.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JAMES REASONER is a veteran writer of historical fiction and author of several volumes in the Wagons West Series. In addition to Manassas, Shiloh, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga in The Civil War Battle Series, he has written a frontier trilogy set in the years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Reasoner lives near Azle, Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing (October 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581822944
• ISBN-13: 978-1581822946
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,819 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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Bannon family manages to survive into the year 1864, March 6, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Shenandoah (The Civl War Battle Series, Book 8) (Hardcover)

I had high hopes for The Civil War Battle Series when I picked up James Reasoner's first volume about "Manassas," but from the vantage point of Book 8 "Shenandoah" it is clear that from the beginning the idea of each volume in this series being about a particular battle was just a hook. The title battle always takes place in the last couple of chapters of the book. It has been equally clear that The Civil War Soap Opera Series would have been a better title.

Actually I am getting tired of making that crack, because the idea was to tell the story of the Civil War from the perspective of one family, the Brannons of Culpeper County in northern Virginia. The family consists of a widowed mother, five sons and a daughter, all named after characters in Shakespeare plays or the bard himself. But it is hard not to think "soap opera" when it is 200 pages before the Civil War intrudes on the lives of these characters. "Shenandoah" begins around Christmas of 1863 when Titus Brannon, believed to have been killed at Fredericksburg but until recently held in a Union prisoner of war camp, arrives home. This would be good news except for the fact that Titus discovers his wife Polly is now pregnant and married to his younger brother Henry. What matters the plight of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia or the Confederate States of America when you have this sort of Greek tragedy being enacted out on the Brannon farm.

The second half of the book does get back to the war, covering the Battle of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor as Ulysses S. Grant takes control of the Union armies and begins the push on Richmond. Phil Sheridan's campaign to make sure the Shenandoah Valley would no longer serve as the main source of food for the Confederacy provides the climax of the book. Reasoner provides general background on the battles, but keeps the focus on how the battles appear to the older Bannon boys, Will and Mac, in the Stonewall Brigade and with Jeb Stuart's cavalry, respectively.

I am inclined to think that there is a high level of attrition for readers of this series, especially when I notice that this book has been out for almost half a year and has received no reviews. But Reasoner's books are quick reads and I am stilling hanging in here because there are two things I am having been waiting to see happen for several volumes. The first is for one of the Bannon boys to get killed. I mean, four sons, we are up to 1864 and the fourth year of the year, and all four Bannon boys are still alive. What are the odds? The other thing is for somebody to realize that Polly, the wife of apparently both Titus and Henry, has been in an incestuous relationship with her planter father, Duncan Ebersole. We know how the Civil War is going to turn out for the Confederacy, but it is when and how Ebersole pays for his sins that is taking about as long to be resolved.

There are two volumes left to go in the series: "Savannah" will be out later this year and then the final volume should be "Appomattox." These books are quick reads and with chapters perfect in length for the commuter lifestyle.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Much Misunderstood Series, May 5, 2003

By 

Westy (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shenandoah (The Civl War Battle Series, Book 8) (Hardcover)

I have read all eight volumes (released so far.... there will be ten volumes in the series) in James Reasoner's The Civil War Battle Series, and all of the customer reviews on Amazon. Many of the reviewers are missing the point of the books. They are not meant to be historical texts, with great details about every battle of the Civil War. There are already plenty of those, many of them too dull to read, in print. The books in James Reasoner's Civil War Battle Series are NOVELS about the BRANNON family, as the author himself has made clear. The cover of each book clearly states, in good-sized print, A NOVEL.

All of the books in this series are fast-paced, hold the reader's interest, and are well-researched, providing enough historical facts and details to make the reader feel as though the fictional Brannons really were participants in the various battles in which they appear.

My only complaint with the series is, due to a production problem, the release of the ninth book in the series, SAVANNAH, has been delayed somewhat. Hopefully, it will be available soon.

4.0 out of 5 stars The South's Devastation, September 2, 2009

By 

Ruth Thompson "Weaver of Tales" (Venice, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shenandoah (The Civl War Battle Series, Book 8) (Paperback)

Things get complicated for the Brannon Family. Titus who the family thought was dead arrives home from the prison camp. His welcome home is to find his wife Polly married to Henry and expecting a child. Almost half of the books is devoted to Grant's Wilderness Battle and Sheridan's march through the Shenandoah. All of this is devastating for the South. He keeps you turning the pages. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"