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Donnybrook: The Battle of Bull Run, 1861
written by David Detzer
Studio : Harvest Books
by Harvest Books
Publisher : Harvest Books
Released : 2005-09-05
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780156031431
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 11 reviews)
List Price : $16.00
Our Price : $0.98
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Product Description |
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In April 1861, Confederate artillery blasted Fort Sumter into surrender. Within weeks, the Confederacy had established its capital at Richmond. On May 24, Lincoln ordered troops across the Potomac into Virginia, only a few miles from the Confederate military base near the hamlet of Manassas. A great battle was inevitable; whether this would end the war, as many expected, was the only question. On July 21, near a stream called Bull Run, the two forces fought from early morning until after dark in the first great battle of the Civil War. America would never be quite the same.
Donnybrook is the first major history of Bull Run to detail the battle from its origins through its aftermath. Using copious and remarkably detailed primary source mate-rial-including the recollections of hundreds of average soldiers-David Detzer has created an epic account of a defining moment in American history. This new paperback edition includes additional maps.
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The paperback has several maps! |
This is the fourth or fifth account of a specific battle or campaign that I have read. Until now, my high water mark for a narrative of this sort has been The Beleaguered City by Shelby Foote. Donnybrook is now the book against which all others must be judged. Using amazing details and clear descriptions in the service of driving the narrative forward, Detzer has produced a masterpiece. He gives us insights into the rank and file of the embryonic armies stabbing at each other, the personalities leading those armies, and, ultimately, into ourselves.
I read several reviews complaining about the lack of maps, but the paperback version I just finished had at least 6 useful maps of the wider area and the specific battlefield, one (ostensibly) in McDowell's own hand. Wonderful for the Civil War or history buff, and appealing to someone with *NO* CW background at all. |
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Very good read |
Detzer has written one of the better overviews of the campaign and battle of First Manassas or Bull Run. Detzer succeeds with this book for several reasons. First, the book is very easy to read and is broken down in manageable chunks. Detzer further broke the book down with the events before and after the battle. This allows the reader to take everything in and not get too overwhelmed. Second, the mini-biographies of all the players and participants are a good intro to many differing personalities. Third, Detzer has used many, many resources in bringing this book together. Fourth, Detzer does something that few military historians do--he explains to the reader what things like caissons are, how the armies were divided up, and introduces the reader to military jargon and ranking systems. While this may be boring for those with more military knowledge, novices will find this refreshing and helpful. Fifth, Detzer has cut through the legends surrounding this battle and gone right for the truth. He admits that sometimes only conjecture can be applied due to lack of resources, but cuts through many legends and debunks them. Finally, Detzer humanizes the battle. Many military historians tend to just talk about troop movements, casualty lists, and the high ranking commanders while passing over the common soldier. Detzer does not make this mistake. In fact, Detzer argues, very convicingly, what a role such things as heat, dust on a march, lack of water, and lack of food could play on commanders' overall schemes as often times soliders could not, or would not, carry out grand ideas for tactics due to fatigue or hunger, something often overlooked by other military historians. Detzer also, refreshingly, talks about how ludicrous it is to dismiss any battles as minor (as some historians have done with Manassas) due to a lack of casulaties. As Detzer points out, 1 dead soldier leads to many broken hearts.
However, there are a couple negatives. First off, as many others have already pointed out, there are no maps. Books about battles should always have maps. Detzer tries to explain the topographical elements as best he can, but maps are needed. Also, Detzer does seem to have a slight anti-Southern bias and while that doesn't keep him from giving kudos to Southern soldiers and leaders, he does sometimes seem overly harsh or petty when writing about the Confederates. Finally, Detzer's writing style is unique (he adds lots of little tidbits in parentheses, just like this) and takes some getting used too.
Overall, this ranks amongst the best military history books I have read and is certainly one of the best on Manassas. A good read for a novice or hardcore military history buff. |
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Agreed, no maps but... |
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the writing style is superb. Consult the West Point Atlas if maps are needed. I was initially put off by the lack of maps, but after a few pages I was quite engrossed. Detzer is the Hemingway of contemporary Civil War history. There are plenty of military theorists out there, and lots of pseudo-military theorists. Sounding like a US Army War College staffer seems to be the trend these days. Detzer has a unique, and cogent style: he's a worthy successor to Shelby Foote, maybe--perish the thought--even better! |
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Like A Martini with No Olive |
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This is just an excellent telling of the first battle of Manassas. The facts are accurate and the sequence of events is near perfect. Mr. Detzer clearly explains the positions of both armies throughout the book. BUT THE BOOK HAS NO MAPS. This makes it nearly impossible to relate to the author's information. How a book this good could not have maps is an author's and publisher's unacceptable omission. If the reader cannot constantly visualize the stone bridge, The Henry house hill, Matthews hill and other important locations, this will be a most frustrating read. To force the reader to have additional maps and go back and forth between reading and viewing makes the book totally unenjoyable for a reader that does not have a clear understading of the topography. The book is a 10. No maps pulls the rating to a 3. What a shame. |
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Slanted views |
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Good details but a challenging read without the maps for ready reference. Unit and battlefield movement are difficult to follow and the antique map within the book is difficult to read easily so as to be useless in tracking the action of the story. Commend the author on the research for specifics behind actions on both Blue and Gray units. Suggest that the distain for the Southern side is a bit too obvious and this discolors the author's objectivity as a story teller of this event. Even to the casual observer, the incompetence of both sides with this battle is obvious. To paint the South in general and the Confederates in particular as a group of buffoons is to waste the reader's time if the objective is to understand what the motivations and dynamics of the battle were. |
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