Terrible Swift Sword [Hardcover]

Bruce Catton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1963 | Series: Terrible Swift Sword (Book 2)

The second episode in this award-winning trilogy impressively shows how the Union and Confederacy, slowly and inexorably, reconciled themselves to an all-out war--an epic struggle for freedom.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Released in 1961 and 1963, respectively, these are the first two volumes in Catton's exhaustive trilogy on the Civil War. Fury traces the events that led to war during the 12 months prior to actual combat. Sword dissects the combatants reassessment of their positions and strategies during early skirmishes.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Bruce Catton was born in 1899. As a child living in a small town in Michigan, Catton was stimulated by the reminiscences of the Civil War that he heard from local veterans. His education at Oberlin College, Ohio, was interrupted by two years of naval service in World War I and was subsequently abandoned for a career in journalism. While he was employed as a reporter for the Boston American, the Cleveland News, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (1920-26), Catton continued his lifelong study of the Civil War period. He subsequently worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Service (1926-41) and for the U.S. War Production Board. In 1954 he became a member of the staff of American Heritage magazine, and from 1959 he served as its senior editor. A commission to write a Centennial History of the Civil War evolved into Catton's celebrated trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. Catton's brilliance as a historian lay in his ability to bring to historical narrative the immediacy of reportage. He died in 1978. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Doubleday (April 24, 1963)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385026145
• ISBN-13: 978-0385026147
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #894,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The War Deepens, July 16, 2002

By 

James Gallen (St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Terrible Swift Sword (Unbound)

"The Terrible Swift Sword" continues Bruce Catton's journey through the Civil in this, the middle book in his trilogy. Covering the period from the summer of 1861 through the fall of 1862, Catton leads the reader through the military, political and social aspects of the war.

Here we meet Charles Francis Adams, American Ambassador in London as he maneuvers to maintain British neutrality while British cloth industry manufacturers and laborers scream for Southern cotton.

The story of the Eastern front in this book is essentially the story of the McClellan era. The close relationship between McClellan and the Army of the Potomac was a unique and mutual exchange of devotion and affection.

In the Western theatre, the reader studies the battles of Shiloh and others which led to the gradual deterioration of the Confederate position in the Western states.

One enticing feature about Catton's books is his talent for weaving the political aspects of the war into the story. In this book we see the gradual shift of Union War aims from that of preservation of the Union to preservation with Emancipation.

The investigation of McClellan's role is fascinating. I always knew that McClellan was the Democratic nominee for President in 1864. Catton relates how McClellan was a conservative Democrat even before the war. Catton portrays McClellan as leader of the opposition to the administration with the army of the Potomac as his instrument of power. The relationship between the Army and its general forced decisions regarding McClellan's tenure to be made against the back drop of the possibility that McClellan could lead his Army on Washington in an effort to seize control of the government during the prevailing unrest. Ultimately, the decline of the Conservative Democrats, whose goal was the preservation of both the Union and slavery, and the rise of the Pro-Emancipation forces combined to drive McClellan from command and made his removal possible.

This portrayal of McClellan as a leader of the opposition makes Lincoln's toleration of him contrast with President Polk's active efforts to prevent Whig generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, from capturing Mexican War glory which could lead to political success. The later role of Gen. MacArthur as a defacto opposition leader during the Korean war also comes to mind (see my Amazon review of "American Caesar").

"The Terrible Swift Sword" continues the evolution of the war from a limited conflict in which the hope of reconciliation still burned, to an unavoidable, all consuming, fight to the death. The cause which brought about this change was the shift of war aims from mere preservation of the Union, which had a chance of success, to the aim of Emancipation. As the South could not accept Emancipation, the North became unable to accept anything less. This book is a worthy successor to "The Coming Fury" (see my Amazon review). I cannot wait to get into the final volume "Never Call Retreat".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Follow-up to Volume 1, October 3, 2002

By 

Richard M. Affleck (Lake Hopatcong, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terrible Swift Sword: Volume Two in the American Civil War Trilogy (Paperback)

Nearly 40 years after it was first published, Catton's "Terrible Swift Sword", the second book of his Civil War Centennial history, remains fresh. As he would do in all three volumes, Catton deftly weaves together the military, political, and social aspects of the war in a fashion that is not only readable, but positively lyrical in his use of language. He is, IMHO, at his poetic best in descibing the seismic shift in war aims, from a conflict to restore the union to one waged for human freedom.

Ably assisted by the research of E.B. Long, Catton makes good use of a wide range of sources in covering the period of the war from First Bull Run to just before the tragedy at Fredericksburg. While he doesn't break any new ground (that wasn't his intent), he provides the reader with a sweeping narrative of this critical period in our most traumatic conflict. Catton's trilogy is one of the best places to start if one is seeking an introduction to the Civil War. Buy it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Civil War: The Middle Years, June 17, 2006

By 

D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terrible Swift Sword: Volume Two in the American Civil War Trilogy (Paperback)

"Terrible Swift Sword" is the second volume of Bruce Catton's classic Centennial History of the Civil War. First published in 1963, the series remains highly worthwhile despite the inevitable advances in scholarship, thanks to Catton's superb presentation of the history of the Civil War as dramatic literature.

Catton, a journalist and public official before becoming an historian, has a remarkable gift for capturing both the very human leaders trapped in the fog of war at the center of events and the grander themes that drove events.

Much of the story arc of "Terrible Swift Sword" centers around the career of George B. McClellan, brought in to lead the Union Army of the Potomac after the fiasco of First Bull Run. McClellan rebuilds the Army and infuses it with spirit, yet proves reluctant to use it in battle. After much prompting from Lincoln, McClellan will take the Army of the Potomac south to Hampton Roads, there to begin a cautious assualt on Richmond from the East. The campaign eventually stalls before Richmond and the counterattack of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Army of the Potomac is ultimately withdrawn. McClellan will give way temporarily as senior Union General in the East to John Pope, who is promptly thrashed at Second Bull Run. McClellan returns to lead the Army of the Potomac to Antietnam in pursuit of Lee's Army. There, McClellan's lack of killer instinct allows Lee to escape with a tactical draw. McClellan's failure to use his superior numbers and position to destroy Lee or to pursue his battered army will finally take him out of the war.

Against the background of the toils of the Army of the Potomac are the steadily hardening attitudes toward the prosecution of the war. The recognition, especially in Congress and in the Lincoln Administration, that this conflict must become a war to the death leads to the Emancipation Proclamation and to a weeding of the ranks of general officers. Those perceived not to have their heart in the fight are soon removed, and some are made an example. The investigation of Union General Stone after the fiasco of Ball's Bluff is manifestly unfair to Stone, as is his imprisonment afterward; it is meant to be a warning to other generals. It is in this context that General Grant's hard-nosed campaigning in the West is noticed in Washington, D.C.

This book is highly recommended to students and fans of the Civil War. It continues to be a wonderful reading experience.