Customer Reviews

A Stillness at Appomattox (Army of the Potomac, Vol. 3)

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It would be an almost impossible task for anyone to figure out just how many books have been written dealing with the American Civil War. It would also be difficult to determine which Civil War historians are most often cited by their peers but there is no doubt that Bruce Catton would be near or more likely at the top of any such list. The reason for this is quite simply that Catton was one of the great historical writers of all time. Very few people can take their readers into the heart of an army, both those of it's soldiers and leaders like Catton and even fewer convey their story in the very clear and easy to read style that this author has mastered. To read this book of pure history is in many ways like reading a historical novel and even the reader who already has a firm grasp on the historical facts of this story will sometimes find themselves wondering what happens next.

This is the story of the last campaign of the Army of the Potomac, that Ill-fated army that had so often been humiliated by Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. This campaign was to be different however because there was a new man calling the shots and having a man like U. S. Grant at the helm made all of the difference in the world. It took Grant a while though to convince this often badly led army that he was any different than his predecessors. Different he was however and once he locked horns with Lee he wasn't going to let up until one army or the other was destroyed. In other words Grant understood what had to be done and he was determined to do it.

Catton's main field of study was this man Grant but one of the author's most endearing qualities is that he makes no effort to whitewash or hide his subject's faults. Catton also does not attempt to build Grant up by tearing away at Lee like many of the more recent Grant biographers have done. He simply makes Grant's greatness apparent by telling the story the way it happened and it doesn't take long for the reader to figure out what an outstanding general Grant was.

The author has done a lot of searching through soldier's letters and memoirs as well as regimental histories and this leads to a very personal perspective of the last year of the war. The stories he has gleaned from these sources are poignant, somber, gleeful and funny. For example, one entire brigade falls out of the final advance upon Lee's army to chase down and cook some chickens that have been scattered by artillery fire. I think it was Napoleon who said something about an army traveling on it's stomach.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Civil War. The hard core Civil War reader will find new information here and the casual reader will find that this book is fun to read and no one should have a problem following the story. If Amazon allowed six stars this is one of the few books that would qualify.

The Civil War will never lack for authors, both fiction and historical. Only a handful will leave a reader with an indellible impression. Among these few: Douglas Southall Freeman, Shelby Foote and James M. McPherson. Each has written outstanding works on the war: Freeman; R.E. Lee and Lee's Lieutenants, Foote; Shiloh and his magisterial three volume narrative and McPherson, his brilliant Battle Cry of Freedom.
Magnificent works all, but in a class by himself is Bruce Catton.
I recall my father raving about Catton; "When you read him, it's like you're there," he said. Unfortunately, I wasn't so quick to take his advice. Then, in 2000, I saw David McCullough on C-Span 2 and he raved about "A Stillness at Appomattox." Then, I decided to give it a try.
Lucky for me. I've read many accounts regarding the last agonizing year of the war, but none has matched Catton for sheer storytelling power. One marches with the Army of the Potomac as it seeks out Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. You witness and somehow, almost take part as these, the war's two military giants, Grant and Lee collide. You see the mistakes and agonize with the men yet, you always stand in awe of the everyday valor these heroes of the Blue and the Gray make. But despite battlefield blunders and poor leadership, draftees who are more likely to desert than face the enemy, the men of the Army of the Potomac never lose their faith in themselves and it is this spirit that drives the Army to ultimate victory.
Words fail me to describe how awesome this book is. I thought it would have aged badly, but it hasn't. It's truly a timeless work. This book, along with Mr. Lincoln's Army and Glory Road constitute the greatest tribute to the men of the Army of the Potomac and in a way, the Army of Northern Virginia as well.

Enjoy.

Bruce Catton's "A Stillness at Appomatox" was the first adult Civil War book I attempted after, many years ago, I was captivated by a series of Civil War stories geared to pre-teens. Since that time, I have continued to read about the Civil War and recently have recaptured something of my boyish fascination with the subject -- I hope at a more thoughtful level. I was reluctant to struggle with this particular book again because of the memory of my struggle with the book as a child. But I needed at last to go back to it to round out my reading of other works by Catton.

Catton's book tells the story of the Civil War in the East beginning in the winter of 1863 following the Battle of Gettysburg. The first thing to notice about the book is the clear, lyrical quality of the prose which somehow frustrated me as a child. Catton writes in a propulsive forward-moving style. He tends to like long sentences joined with series of "ands". This makes his account move quickly although sometimes a bit stringily. Also Catton has a gift for lyrical metaphors to drive home his points -- whether in describing the fields or in describing the emotions of the men. His writing at its best has a poetical, moving quality. Most importantly, Catton writes lucidly. His descriptions of the battles and of troop movements are relatively easy to follow. Many of the accounts I have read since I first tried this book are detailed and ponderous. This is never the case with Catton. He gives a good, basic picture of the battles he describes which will stand the reader looking for more detailed accounts in good stead.

Besides the quality of the writing, A Stillness at Appomattox is notable for the story it has to tell. Broadly speaking, Catton focuses on how the Civil War changed after its first two years, and he explains why. Although the carnage of the first two years of the war was immense, the scope of the war increased markedly following Gettysburg. The Civil War became the first total war, bringing trench warfare, sustained fighting, destruction of property, and hardship to noncombatants in its wake. Many later writers have also made this point, but Catton unforgettably drives it home.

Catton thus describes the final Union campaign in the East (There is little in the book on the Western theatre of the War.) of the Army of the Potomac from the Wilderness through Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Appomatox. He describes the desparate, harsh nature of these engagements under the leadership of U.S. Grant. Catton also pays a great deal of attention to Philip Sheridan, to the destruction he wrought in the Shenendoah Valley Campaign, and to his key roles in the Battle of Five Forks (Petersburg) and the final race to the Appomatox Court House. Catton's discussion of Sheridan brought home to me the cruel all-out nature of the final stages of the War.

Catton also integrates well the military aspects of the Civil War with the political aspects. There are good pictures of Lincoln and of the war-weariness of the North which threatened the military efforts of the Armies until the last phases of the conflict. Catton's work emphasizes, in line with recent scholarship, the critical role of African-American soldiers in the Union's war effort. But he also tends to support a reconciliationist approach following the end of the conflict rather than what might have been a more committed attempt to protect the rights of the Freedmen. Although Catton writes from the Union side of the line, he clearly is impressed with the military and personal character of Robert E. Lee and with the valor shown by the Army of Northern Virginia under the most trying of circumstances.

I was enthralled by the pace of the book, by Catton's writing, and by his love for and knowledge of his subject. This is a book to come to as an adult. It will encourage the thoughtful reader to reflect upon the Civil War as the watershed event in our Nation's history.

Bruce Catton is, in my opinion, the most readable author of American Civil War history. Whenever I've labored through some book I wanted to read but have struggled with, I reward myself with something he has written. This trilogy is, as all his work is, thoroughly researched and very balanced. It would be hard to detect any bias in this native Michiganer of the first half of the 20th century, though I vaguely suspect he had more sympathy for the South, if only for the "pluck" (he likes that word in fact) of their "David vs. Goliath" undertaking. This 3rd volume is the Pulitzer Prize winner, and with good reason. Essentially, Catton deals here with the classic struggle of Grant vs. Lee, but he does so in such a way that illuminates Grant in a light that is not only pleasing, but obviously genuine. This fine Army of the Potomac, so thoroughly identified with McClellan, was in fact a sharp instrument waiting for a leader like Grant to come along and put it to good use. Grant implicitly understood the assignment and the way to carry it out in the shortest time possible, which argues for his humanity, not his cruelty as other authors have intimated. Proof of his character is clear in the Instrument of Surrender, which was as far-sighted as any such document could have been (Sherman's, just a bit later, may have been a bit too generous for the politicians; it had to be revised in order to be accepted by Washington and to prevent the renewal of hostilities with Johnston). In any case, the real beauty of any of Catton's works is his insight not so much into the Grants and Lees, but into the common soldier of both sides; what made them fight so savagely one moment, but embrace one another so fully the next? The answer lay in the strange brotherhood that developed between the men of the Army of Northern Virginia and those of the Army of the Potomac. These men, after many years of hardship and privation and death, were a bit more likely to see their generals as the cause of their suffering and a lot more likely to see the tens and hundreds of thousands on both sides who stayed home while they fought as the real enemy. In this common bond, Catton intimates, lay the seed which made reunification at least palatable in the minds of so many men from so many distant places.

Unfortunately, much of Bruce Catton's works are out of print but, most titles are readily available in out of print bookshops. I read this title, which is currently in print, along with the first two, out of print, titles in the great Army of the Potomac trilogy. A Stillness at Appomattox is a great book in it's own right but, it is a particular treat to read the entire three volume set. Not only is the history interesting but, it is so well written that the enjoyment of reading it is incrteased many fold. I particularly thought that Catton's description of Gen. Phil Sheridan's campaign in the Shenedoah Valley was particularly vivid and fascinating. As is Catton's wont, the book ends rather abruptly, leading to the end of the military aspects of the war but not really describing the actual surrender ceremonies at Appomattox Courthouse. He also used this technique in an earlier (out of print) volume as he led the reader to the Gettysburgh Address but then stopped abruptly as Lincoln got up to speak, not describing the address or the reaction to it. Catton does this so well that it really works. He is truly one of my favorite authors. I am now reading my out of print copies of Catton's second great trilogy, The Centennial History of the Civil War.I recommend his out of print as well as his currently available Civil War histories highly.

At age 22, in 1974, I was a regular, if not voracious, reader of history. As a senior at Michigan State University, I took a class in the Civil War. The professor and the course were nondescript ("diagram Sickles' forward position at Gettysburg..."). But assigned to us was "A Stillness At Appomattox," and it opened a whole new world to me, both in understanding how history is the story of those much like ourselves, and in the beauty of its prose. Ten years later, I made a pilgrimage to Benzonia, Michigan, to Bruce Catton country, to walk upon the ground that inspired him. Nearly 30 years later, I remain in awe at his storytelling. I have remained an American history - and Civil War - buff since reading "A Stillness At Appomattox." The book changed, and enriched, my life in ways I cannot count, and surely made me a better writer than I would have otherwise been(and I have written considerably for publication). Other books have had a profound impact on my life; this one changed it. Read it, and let it change yours.

There is no substitute for Bruce Catton when it comes to the Civil War. No one has captured the heartbreak, suffering, the smell of gunpowder, or the feel for the soldiers of that era in the way Catton has. Growing up in Michigan, he knew these men in their old age and listened, as a boy, to their stories of the War of the Rebellion, undoubtedly enthralled and deeply impressed. This volume, the third in his trilogy of the Army of the Potomac begins with the 1864 campaign after Grant, now the commander of all the Union armies, moves east to accompany, but not command (that was still General Meade, the victor of Gettysburg), the Army of the Potomac in its bloodiest campaigns against its antagonist, Lee and his indomitable Army of Northern Virginia. Catton tells a captivating tale, very competently covering strategy and tactics, and the reasons soldiers fight. His strength, however, is his feel for the soldiers themselves, be they enlisted or officer, private, 1st Sergeant, or commander. His anecdotal approach to history is unsurpassed, except for perhaps John Elting, and through his eyes and pen, the reader gets to know these men on a personal level. What Catton conveys to the reader at his level best, though, is the heartbreak of the losses incurred year after year. Famous units, such as the Irish Brigade, the Iron Brigade, the 5th New Hampshire, the indomitable, crack Regular Division of the V Corps, the 1st Minnesota, that 'shattered thunderbolt', all fight as titans, and wither away because of heavy losses, to remain as shadows in the army, but never rebuilt or reconstituted. So many brave young men gone, horrific losses that won't be suffered again until the meat grinding senselessness of the Great War. Colorful, talented personalities abound, from Mississippi cavalryman Grimes Davis, killed at Brandy Station, mercurial, brilliant Phil Kearny who could 'make men follw [him] to hell', lawyer turned soldier Francis Barlow, who had the cold dead eyes of a killer, and cured straggling in his division in a most enlightened manner, to 'Greasy Dick' Richardson, killed at Bloody Lane at the Battle of Antietam shouting for the green flags of his favorite Irish Brigade, artilleryman John Gibbon who gave the Iron Brigade white gaiters, the regulation hats of the Regulars, and an outstanding combat reputation, finally to such personalities an Emory Upton, the northern Stonewall Jackson, who won his general's stars on the battlefield from Grant himself. This book, and the entire trilogy itself, are a must for the military historian, Civil War buff or not. Catton's work has stood the test of time, and he is still the best Civil War historian this country has produced.

Bruce Catton is largely responsible for the continuing Civil War publishing boom, with his publication in the early 1950's of his trilogy history of the Army of the Potomac. Catton's passion for the subject, combined with his journalistic talents, captured the essence of a fundamental of American mythology. As a boy in Wisconsin he idolized the veterans he came to know in his community and he became committed if not obsessed to learning about them and documenting what he learned. What he learned is one of the great stories in our country's history - the story of the common soldier in the American Civil War. It is not an attempt at applying the academic method, it is journalism - and first rate journalism., and great story telling. Yet, it is still historically relevant and significant. Catton was able to put the various complex subplots in the perspective of the maturation of the democratic nation and its institutions (for example, Indiana Governor O. P. Morton's wartime state dictatorship and the implications for states' rights in relationship to the national government). The famous figures are included, and humanized, but it is really the story of the rank and file. The common soldier, who suffered unmercifully under incompetent leadership, wasteful bureaucracies, political maneuvering, a multitude of physical hardships, bad food and medicine and every other handicap imaginable (including death and dismemberment in what was then a new and highly efficient killing field of warfare) - and yet somehow emerged victorious. It is not a romantic story, but it is a story full of praise for those who served their nation in one of its great defining moments. There isn't any sympathy for the opposing Confederates - neither is their any condemnation or hatred (because the soldiers themselves did not condemn or hate). For the hard core ACW armchair campaigner there is still much to be gleaned from a read or re-read of Catton's trilogy. For the casual reader, this work is a great starting place to understand the ACW - the conflict that, in Catton's view, framed and defined the unique history of the United States. There are a few misconceptions scattered about - but no matter, this is the stuff of legends. There are conclusions drawn that are not thoroughly supported - again, no matter. Catton told a great story greatly, and it has stood the test of time as a benchmark accomplishment.

I have read many books about the Civil War. I first read A Stillness at Appomattox when I was a student some 20 years ago. What a revelation to read it again these years later. The action comes to so much life on these pages that there were many times that I felt like I was there and many times when I wish I had been there.
Absolutely spellbinding. I sat down to read the introduction and ended up reading the entire book in one long sitting. I could not put it down.
If all historical books were written this well with so much detail included in the flowing words, I would probably only read history books.
My many thanks to David McCullough whose wonderful works inspired me to re-explore this classic piece.

The third book in Bruce Catton's history of the Army of the Potomac takes the narrative from the time Grant assumed command until the end of the war. This was the bloodiest period of the army's history, with more than half of all of its casualties occurring with the last year of the fighting. Catton recounts all of the great battles that helped end the war, from The Wilderness through the tragedy of Cold Harbor to the siege of Petersburg and finally to Appomattox Court House. Along the way, he documents the military genius of Ulysses S. Grant, with whom the Army of the Potomac finally had a commander with the ability and the perserverance to win the war. Catton is one of the best Civil War historians, and this is the author at his finest.