12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a much-needed examination in detail, August 3, 2005
This review is from: The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga (Civil War Trilogy) (Hardcover)
This review could apply to all of Cozzin's Trilogy on important battles that have been largely overlooked ( Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga ). The author takes great care in describing the military and political movements that led up to the battles themselves as well as the aftermath. Consequently, there is a good flow from one book to the next. The reader can easily follow the progress of armies, corps, divisions, and brigades, along with their leaders, from Perryville to Missionary Ridge.
The battles themselves are presented in great detail, down to the regimental and sometimes company level. In the first two battles especially, Cozzins emphasizes the fact that many tactical decisions were made at levels far below the high command. While this added much to the confused fighting on both sides, it also demonstrates the difference that a skilled commander like General Grant can make in an army's success. After reading many other books on the Chatanooga campaign, I was never clear on the exact route of the "Cracker Line" or the movement of Hooker's and Sherman's troops to the field of battle. This book leaves no doubt. I agree with the legion of other readers in their criticism of the quality and quantity of maps. I found myself hunting through the books to find maps which displayed the movements and stages of battle described in text and was often left disappointed.
Thumbnail bios on the major participants are provided in what seem to be the most appropriate spots in the books without distracting the reader from the overall flow. Cozzins is highly critical of Bragg, Rosecrans, Longstreet, Hooker, and (deservedly) the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis. It's no wonder that both sides simply wasted men and materials in accomplishing nothing until Grant and Sherman appeared on the scene, although the stabilizing influence of George Thomas - the "Rock of Chickamauga" - deserves to be cast in a more favorable light. Personalities and even personality conflicts, notably that which existed between Grant and Thomas and between Bragg and everybody, are emphasized. The reader is left with an awareness of how individuals' traits can affect the outcome of war.
It is small wonder that the first two, essentially drawn, battles have escaped the scrutiny of most authors, but Chattanooga was one of the major turning points of the war. It lifted the depression in the North which followed the fiasco at Chickamauga and, as the title implies, cost the Confederacy its last hope of survival. The battle elevated Grant to supreme command after Lincoln could no longer ignore the fact that his finest general was the quiet man in the West. And the concentration of Union forces at Chattanooga provided the makings of Sherman's well-documented triumphs in Georgia and beyond.
All in all, an essential trilogy for understanding the campaign in eastern Tennessee.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive but dry, January 29, 2004
Cozzen has produced the comprehensive tome on the battle of Chattanooga. All the information you need to understand the flow of battle as well as the political intriguing that helped to shape the results is here. What is mostly lacking is a spark of life, or a sense of being there. With a few exceptions, Cozzen's battle descriptions have more of the feel of a wargame played out on a map than the chaotic, life and death struggle that it surely was. For those who have an interest in the battle, you should have this book, for reference, if for nothing else. Be aware that it is dry, and more of a book that you must work at to get to its virtues than a thrilling read. I would only recommend this book to those with a serious interest in the battle of Chattanooga, but for them, it is a must have.
Theo Logos
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine military history, December 24, 2011
Cozzens has written a fine, detailed exposition of the Chattanooga campaign that is meticulous enough to satisfy most Civil War buffs. At the same time, the author properly emphasizes that personalities and political realities significantly shaped military decisions and their outcomes.
Cozzens has done a fine job of including appropriate quotations from the diaries and letters of enlisted men as well as the often self-serving declarations that lard official reports; and he makes what seems to me to be sound evaluations of the various generals and their comportment during this campaign.
The plethora of characters who charge and retreat across the battlefields can sometimes numb the non-expert, and I'm not a fan of regularly using nicknames such as "the Tennessean" or "the Irishman" simply to avoid repeating proper names. Although the maps are good, a few more would have been helpful.
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