Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) [Hardcover]

Earl J. Hess (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807831549 | ISBN-13: 978-0807831540 | Publication Date: September 5, 2007

In the study of field fortifications in the Civil War that began with Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War, Hess turns to the 1864 Overland campaign to cover battles from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Drawing on meticulous research in primary sources and careful examination of trench remnants at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and Bermuda Hundred, Hess describes Union and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this new era of field entrenchments.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hess's understanding of field fortifications is expertly conveyed, as are his explanations of why and how specific trenches were built. Maps and photographs add a visual layer to understanding the campaign. . . . Well-written and researched."
--Maryland Historical Magazine

"The author covers familiar ground in writing about these battles, but does it in a brisk, informative way, offering his own analysis of command decisions and outcomes. . . . A valued resource."
--H-Civil War

"A significant addition to the military history of the American Civil War and adds an important argument to a topic generally ignored by Civil War historians."
-- Canadian Journal of History

"Intriguing, important, and authoritative."
— Military History of the West

"Keeps the subject fresh while presenting the nuanced tactical differences in a logical sequential manner."
— TOCWOC: A Civil War Blog

"A detailed examination of fieldworks. . . . Ideal for any Civil War reference collection. . . . Hess's meticulous attention to detail is enough to warrant his work a place in most military reference collections or on the shelf of a Civil War enthusiast."
— North Carolina Historical Review

"A most important addition to the literature on this major campaign and [it] has certainly earned a place on the bookshelves of those fascinated by the Civil War and the men who fought."
-- Virginia Magazine

"For military specialists and Civil War enthusiasts . . . Those with such a focused interest will be rewarded by reading Hess' intense study."
— The Journal of Southern History

"Both compelling and refreshing. . . . Something new for the serious enthusiast."
— Civil War Times

"Hess tells the story with clarity and tactical detail."
-- Blue & Gray

This fine book covers a significant unexplored topic in gratifying depth.
--Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Civil War Weather in Virginia

About the Author

Earl J. Hess is Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. He is author or editor of nine other books, including Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864 (from the University of North Carolina Press).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (September 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807831549
• ISBN-13: 978-0807831540
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,024,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Work of Civil War Scholarship, September 9, 2007

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) (Hardcover)

Earl J. Hess's new "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign" is as good a piece of Civil War scholarship as I have read in years. It is at the most fundamental level a narrative history of military operations in the Overland Campaign of May and June, 1864: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, but it is a narrative history that focuses particularly on how field fortifications evolved over the course of those six weeks of heavy combat and it details how the use of field fortifications influenced the course of that campaign. In his earlier volume, "Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War," Hess dispelled the old myths that such entrenchments were a direct consequence of the power of rifled-muskets or that their use suddenly sprang into being in the spring of 1864 (he documented three years of field fortifications, although not on such a scale as became standard by the end of the Overland Campaign) and that these entrenchments were somehow merely the fruit of the teaching of Dennis Hart Mahan at West Point. Or to quote the author: "The use of field fortifications evolved during the Civil War not due to some irrational fear, but due to a real and potent threat: the continued presence of an enemy army within striking distance. Their use was a rational and logical response to that threat."

Hess reserves most of the technical details of entrenchment and breastwork design for an appendix, leaving his main narrative fast-moving and compelling. "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee" is an important contribution to Civil War literature and should find a ready spot on the bookshelves of any serious student of the era. I look forward to his planned third volume, to examine field fortifications during the Petersburg campaign.

Inevitably, it must be asked how Hess views the Overland Campaign in balance. Was it a Union or a Confederate success? Although Hess does not absolve Grant of errors in too hastily ordering attacks or in failing to recognize the power of impromptu fieldworks, Hess concludes: "Grant's most significant achievement in the Overland campaign was not in capturing territory, or in positioning his army close to Richmond, or in reducing the fighting strength of the Army of Northern Virginia by 50 percent; rather it lay in robbing Lee of the opportunity to launch large-scale offensives against the Army of the Potomac. In laying claim to the strategic initiative, Grant won an important physical and emotional victory over Lee, and he did it with fewer losses than his predecessors had suffered in attempting the same goal ... Most important, he did not give up the strategic initiative and thereby brought the war to an end. The Overland campaign was as much a watershed in the strategic course of the Civil War as the Seven Days."

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The War Changes, January 2, 2008

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) (Hardcover)

By the time of the Overland Campaign, the star of Earl Hess's second volume on Civil War fortifications, the idea of bravery that most soldiers had when hostilities began had just about fizzled out. In that more innocent time, soldiers and officers thought it cowardly to hide behiind entrenchments, or anything else for that matter. Battles were about sticking out your chest and, in plain view of the enemy, marching and shooting. (For a good account of this transition, see Linderman's Embattled Courage.)

Three years of the harsh reality of war changed all that, and by the time of the Overland Campaign, troops on both sides were digging in fast and furiously whenever they got the chance. Aside from the Vicksburg and Petersburg campaigns, nowhere was the entrenchment so obvious as in the Overland one. Most Civil War buffs know about the entrenchments at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. But many will probably be surprised (as was I) that entrenchments were also dug in The Wilderness and at the Bermuda Hundred.

Hess' account of the evolution of fortifications in this stage of the war is well-written and entirely accessible to the nonspecialist. He tends to protect Grant from the general's worst critics, arguing (much as does James McPherson) that the huge cost of federal lives in the Overland in fact did succeed in strategically defeating Lee.

The photographs are priceless. I've actually never seen most of them before. Moreover, the line drawings of fortifications and entrenchments are brilliant. All in all, highly recommended.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIG, DAMNIT DIG!, October 10, 2007

By 

James W. Durney (Tampa Bay area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (Civil War America) (Hardcover)

This is the second book in a series on fortifications in the eastern theater during the Civil War. The first book covers the war up to this point, while reading the first book is not required; it is worth taking the time to do so. 1864 produced a major revision in how digging in and fighting behind entrenchments is viewed by both armies. Open field battle gives way to fighting from behind entrenchments as both sides maintain close contact for months. The war is no longer open fields with a mile between the armies. Both sides dug into the earth often closer than skirmish lines were in 1862. The book details this change and the impact on the commanders and men.

The author continues working fortifications into the overall campaign giving the reader an excellent history of the Overland Campaign in the process. This presentation keeps the subject fresh while presenting the nuanced tactical differences in a logical sequential manner. This is very much a battle history but the emphasis is on how fortifications changed the campaign even as the campaign changed fortifications.

Earl Hess is one of our best authors. In this series and this book, he manages to give the reader a rich learning experience coupled with an enjoyable read. This is not a beginner's book but can be enjoyed by anyone with some knowledge of the Civil War.