The Civil War: A Narrative Volume II - From Fredericksburg to Meridian

Grant Sansom-Sherwill: (Review is of all three volumes).

A staggeringly brilliant book. Incredibly comprehensive at approximately 3,000 pages and clearly well-researched. Author Shelby Foote clearly spared no effort in obtaining details on the events of the American Civil War. Some of the minutiae is incredibly interesting and some of the sources as rare as soldier’s letters home.

Shelby Foote then binds all these events and facts together in an incredibly engaging narrative that reads like a character-driven novel rather than historical non-fiction. Makes for engrossing reading.

All this detail makes it the go-to reference book on the Civil War.

On that note, where the book does suffer a bit is that there is sometimes TOO MUCH detail. No problem with the military stuff but in addition to detailing all the battles and military manoeuvring Foote also details the political aspects of the war. This is fine, as far as the external, broader-based politics goes – after all the war was about political and philosophical ideology.

However, he also spends a large amount of time on internal politics, generally machinations within the US or Confederate government that are...

Australia on Oct 09, 2023

James P.: can't put it down. I see that Shelby went through different stages of writing style, about 100 pages in you notice it gest more interesting and flamboyant. I've been a Civil War enthusiast for 35 yearns and learning things from this book.

United States on Jun 01, 2023

Amazon Customer: well written and very knowledgeable

Canada on May 01, 2023

Simone Degl'Innocenti: One of the best history and military strategy books I have read and, honestly, I read a lot.

The books are so well written (they are 3) that you follow the events forgetting that you know yet the end.

A masterpiece!

Italy on Jan 09, 2022

Rafe: The Civil War Trilogy is not a project or light read, it's a commitment. The second volume is 967 pages, about 100 more than volume one. The first two have been exhaustively researched and detailed, and Mr. Foote's ability to tell a story is wonderful. This is not just a compendium of facts and troop movements, it's a real, living breathing account of the men who fought this war. From the men on the line to the generals to the presidents, you are there, you feel what they feel. The personalities are drawn with a vivid brush, you know what it's like to try to hold the factions of a country together (both sides had riots), the politics and rivalries between the generals, and what the civilians experienced.

This book is so real, so accurate, that Gettysburg, a battle that took three days, takes three days to read. I've read books on that battle that weren't this good.

I did have to take break between tomes, but I think I'm ready for volume three. The thing is, when I'm reading these books, that's what I want to do. I mean, the dishes really pile up, y'know?

United States on Nov 04, 2016

William Ross: This 3 book series is much more than a narrative of the civil war. It also explains the thinking and tactics of the generals and the political situation in the country that drove these decisions. Lincoln, Sec. of War Stanton and General-in-Chief H. W. Halleck were all former lawyers before the war and ran the war from a political perspective. Only Halleck had any military background, but he was often overruled by Stanton and President Lincoln, who had none. The series reads like a novel and more than meets my expectations for giving me a much better understanding of what the civil war was all about. I graduated high school back in 1963, when the public school system still taught american history and civics so I thought that I knew a little bit about the subject. As it turns out what little I knew was mostly wrong and completely wrong as to the what were the root causes of the civil war. Shelby Foote did an excellent job of telling the story of the Civil War era.

United States on Sep 18, 2016

Mike Powers: I recently finished reading the second volume of Shelby Foote’s masterful Civil War trilogy. “The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2- Fredericksburg to Meridian” covers the pivotal year 1863. This year marks the war’s great turning point, when Union forces finally begin winning more often than they lose on all fronts. “Fredericksburg to Meridian” describes some of the key engagements of 1863, including Fredericksburg (actually fought in late 1862), Stone’s River, Chancellorsville, Champion Hill, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga.

In 1863, momentum on the battlefield slowly begins to shift in the Union’s favor. Although the year begins with overwhelming Confederate victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville in the east, Union forces are more successful in the west. Beyond the Appalachians, Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman win a string of significant victories over their Confederate foes.

On July 1-3, 1863, the Union’s Army of the Potomac, now commanded by General George Meade, defeats Lee’s Confederate forces at the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The Union victory at Gettysburg is the first half of a...

United States on Aug 09, 2016

M. M. Bennett: This is an easy choice: Shelby Foote writes a narrative, not a dry history - this is a thick volume and is actually physically heavy to read. But, the style continues from the first volume & is of a similar high quality. He tells the story from both sides of the conflict - analyzing as he proceeds - if you want to read about the American Civil War and understand it - read this. You will need more: to read about Lincoln for example, but the progress of this first modern war is encapsulated in this three volume epic.

United Kingdom on Oct 26, 2014

José López Jara: Ya había leído el primer volumen de esta serie y he de decir que la continuación no desmerece en absoluto. Un libro que no defraudará a los interesados en este periodo histórico.

Spain on Oct 12, 2014

margot: Generally speaking, this is the best of the three volumes of my all-time favorite book. Hell, I like anything with Vicksburg. But I just noticed something...

It wasn't till I tried to read Volume 2 on Kindle that I saw the Faulkner influence on Shelby. Somehow this never came through on Audible ("Blackstone Audio presents: The Civil War, a Narrative, by Shelby Foote. Volume 28, Chickamauga to Chillicothe. Chapter 17...") or in the big paperbound or cloth editions.

Foote never uses three sentences when one long one, often with a long intermediate clause offering a fascinating parenthetical backstory about the character or event under discussion, can be strung together. This is stately and Ciceronian in book form, but the wide Kindle aspect, with as many as thirty words marching across each line, makes it all difficult to read.

I went back to the Audible version and it flows very smoothly. The intermediate clauses sound conversational. Foote wrote for the spoken voice and pre-Kindle reader.

Proceed at your peril. Otherwise, five stars for all of this three-volume narrative.

United States on Jul 03, 2013