Customer Reviews

Stones River: Bloody Winter in Tennessee

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I want to start off by saying that I certainly enjoyed this book, but it could have been better. I'll start off with the positive first.

As in all of his book, McDonough writes very well in this book. I found myself gliding through the pages. But now for the bad.

I consider good maps almost essential to a great military history; I will not consider a book worth five starts if maps are nonexistant or are not good. The maps in this book are few, and, well, bad. The few provided are small and hard to read.

I also found myself wanting to learn more of the details. As are McDonough's other books, this one is not very detailed.

These reservations put aside, I would recommend this book to any Civil War or military history buff. But, if these problems bother you too much, I would recommend this book for only "hardcore" Civil War buffs, or those specifically interested in the Murfreesboro (or Stones River) Campaign.

This bloody Murfreesboro, Tennessee battle became a turning point in the central theater of the Civil War. Starting with a Confederate surprise attack, 24,000 casualties would be inflicted on both sides before the Union army would awake to find the Confederate army having deserted the field three days later. Fought by two mediocre generals, Braxton Bragg and William S. Rosecrans, this engagement was intense and ugly. Once begun, there was little strategy involved. The opposing armies simply mauled each other.

Stones River was the first major battle in the Union's plan to seize the Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor. Claimed by many to be a tactical draw, it was a Southern defeat of the worst sort. The South lost control of an invaluable asset, middle Tennessee's railroads. It is from this spring board that Union armies once again sliced the Confederacy in two.