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Terrible Swift Sword

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"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".

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.

"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.

Just as Volumn 1, 'The Coming Fury' this is an amazing piece of work, Volumn 2, 'Terrible Swift Sword' that will capture you within its' pages. You will be taken through the escalation of the war. You will learn of the great as well as the poor decisions made by the governments of the Union as well as the Confederacy. You will learn just how close the war came to the involvment of the British government. This book ends around the last of the year 1862.
You will not be able to put it down and the only consolation to finishing this work is the fact that you can now start on Volumn 3, 'Never Call Retreat.'

The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton is one of the best Civil War books that I've read, and the second volume in his American Civil War Trilogy, Terrible Swift Sword, is even better. I can understand why these books have continued to be popular almost 50 years from when they were first published.

Terrible Swift Sword begins after the First Battle of Bull Run and runs through Antietam. With Bull Run, both sides realized that this was going to be a long-term, all out war and that there was no going back. Both sides also realized that they were woefully unprepared for what lay ahead. Catton is at his best in presenting not just the battles, but also the many other facets of the war (politics, leaders, etc.) in a way that is very informative yet easy to read. As for battles, Catton spends much time with Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, the Spring Campaigns of Kentucky and Tennessee, New Orleans and Second Bull Run. It is fascinating to read so much about the western campaigns. It seems that many Civil War books highlight the eastern campaigns (around Maryland and Virginia) at the expense of the western battles. Yet, it was the western campaigns that gave the Union a much-needed jumpstart in the war effort.

While Catton gives us a good bit of information, his analytical skills in tying it all together is second to none. In describing the first battle between the ironclads, he writes "When morning came, ironclad would fight ironclad...and every navy in the world would have to rebuild." He also analyzes how the very principles that brought about the Confederacy attributed to its downfall. "The Southern people might in truth be all fire and ardor, but they were bound by the rigid limits of the theorem on which they had seceded."

With two books down and one to go in The American Civil War Trilogy, I hate to see it come to an end. But Catton was prolific in his Civil War writing and I'll have to start reading some of his other Civil War works.

This is the second volume of Bruce Catton's Civil War trilogy, originally published to mark the 100th anniversary of the war itself. As I noted in my review of the first volume, Catton was more or less the Northern counterpart of Shelby Foote, though for whatever reason in recent years he's somewhat fallen out of favor. The Coming Fury covers the year starting with the Democratic Convention in Charleston South Carolina, and concludes in the aftermath of the Battle of Bull Run. This second volume covers more fighting, with the Confederates and their Union counterparts evolving from improvising warfare to actually getting experienced at it. The course of the fighting is followed from the Seven Days campaign on through McClellan's firing after Antietam, so Little Mac occupies a great deal of space. Much of the focus of the book is on the politics of the war, both in Kentucky and Tennessee on the one hand, and in the eastern theater, between Richmond and Washington D.C. on the other.

In the eastern theater, Catton spends a lot of time discussing the relationship between George McClellan on the one hand and Abraham Lincoln on the other. This relationship was at times a painful one, and when it wasn't painful it was at the very least awkward, and Catton does a good job of outlining it and the issues that divided the two men. In the other theater of the war, Beauregard, both Johnstons, Buel, Rosecrans, Grant and Halleck are all portrayed about as they would be elsewhere, and the campaign's emphasis on maneuver and territory is discussed in some detail.

I really enjoyed this second volume of the trilogy too, and would recommend it along with the first.

I've finished 'The Coming Fury' and now completing 'Terrible Swift Sword'. Both have been excellent. I look forward to the end of the day when I can settle down with the book and have some pleasant hours reading this wonderful book.

Catton's books are like Ken Burn's documentaries; they feature diary and newspaper accounts and editorials to give a first-hand picture of events as they unfolded. According to Catton, the South was at a disadvantage from the start; woefully bereft of munitions and other material, the South was on the defense for most of the war. That gave the South one of its few advantages; its soldiers were tough and even vicious fighters. They were fighting for their homes and their families.

A year into the fighting, the North had made real gains; they had secured Missouri and Kansas, split up Virginia, occupied sizable parts of Kentucky and Tennessee. They had struck at the eastern coast of the South, and invaded New Orleans and started to push up the Mississippi, threatening to split the Confederacy in half.

Bruce Catton had that great gift of making history not only interesting, but fascinating. The Civil War trilogy is a precious accomplishment, and we are all the richer for it.

Highly recommended. Catton makes use of footnotes to cite sources, but saves them to the end so as to allow the reader uninterrupted reading. This gives the books the credentials to be a scholarly work, but allows him to give the reader a grand overview of the persons and the events of the great war.

This superb narrative examines the U.S. Civil War from mid-1861 (after Bull Run/Manassas) through the fall of 1862 (Antietam). In his gripping, readable style, Catton writes about the officers leading the charge and the poor foot soldiers that fought so valiently and often suffered horribly. Readers get a feel for the top Union commanders (Grant, Buell, Halleck, McClellan, etc.), their Confederate counterparts (Johnston, Bragg, Beauregard, Lee, etc.), and their respective strengths and weaknesses. We also learn about vital areas such as politics, slavery, diplomacy, economics, etc. Catton demonstrates how Lincoln initially avoided emancipation for political reasons, and how the Confederacy survived because too few of Lincoln's commanders carried out his game-plan of constant pressure on many fronts to crush the Confederacy. The author leans towards the Union, but provides a well-rounded view suitable for nearly everybody. Some readers may feel frustrated at the costly incompetence of Union commanders that skirted victory and gave General Lee a chance to revive the South's prospects - I didn't realize the Union was so close to victory in early 1862.

Bruce Catton (1899-1978) combined solid research with gripping prose, and was a top non-academic historian along with William Shirer, Barbara Tuchman, John Toland and David McCullough. I prefer their best-selling readability to the dry academic style of most professors, some of whom fume with jealousy rather than adopt more readable (and better-selling) prose. TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD is well worth your time, and Catton's STILLNESS AT APPOMATTOX is even better.