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Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle
written by John M. Priest
Studio : Oxford University Press, USA
by Oxford University Press, USA
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Released : 1994-01-20
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780195084665
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 21 reviews)
List Price : $24.95
Our Price : $7.50
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Product Description |
On September 13, 1862, in a field near Frederick, Maryland, four Union soldiers hit the jack-pot. There they found, wrapped carelessly around three cigars, a copy of General Robert E. Lee's most recent orders detailing Southern objectives and letting Union officers know that Lee had split his
Army into four vulnerable groups. General George B. McClellan realized his opportunity to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia one piece at a time. "If I cannot whip Bobbie Lee," exulted McClellan, "I will be willing to go home." But the notoriously prudent Union general allowed precious hours
to pass, and, by the time he moved, Lee's army had begun to regroup and prepare for battle near Antietam Creek. The ensuing fight would prove to be not only the bloodiest single day of the entire Civil War, but the bloodiest in the history of the U.S. Army.
Countless historians have analyzed Antietam (known as Sharpsburg in the South) and its aftermath, some concluding that McClellan's failure to vanquish Lee constituted a Southern victory, others that the Confederate retreat into Virginia was a strategic win for the North. But in Antietam: The
Soldiers' Battle, historian John Michael Priest tells this brutal tale of slaughter from an entirely new point of view: that of the common enlisted man. Concentrating on the days of actual battle--September 16, 17, and 18, 1862--Priest vividly brings to life the fear, the horror, and the profound
courage that soldiers displayed, from the first Federal cavalry probe of the Confederate lines to the last skirmish on the streets of Sharpsburg. Antietam is not a book about generals and their grand strategies, but rather concerns men such as the Pennsylvanian corporal who lied to receive the
Medal of Honor; the Virginian who lay unattended on the battlefield through most of the second day of fighting, his arm shattered from a Union artillery shell; the Confederate surgeon who wrote to the sweetheart he left behind enemy lines in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that he had seen so much death
and suffering that his "head had whitened and my very soul turned to stone."
Besides being a gripping tale charged with the immediacy of firsthand accounts of the fighting, Antietam also dispels many misconceptions long held by historians and Civil War buffs alike. Seventy-two detailed maps--which describe the battle in the hourly and quarter-hourly formats
established by the Cope Maps of 1904--together with rarely-seen photographs and his own intimate knowledge of the Antietam terrain, allow Priest to offer a substantially new interpretation of what actually happened.
When the last cannon fell silent and the Antietam Creek no longer ran red with Union and Confederate blood, twice as many Americans had been killed in just one day as lost their lives in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American war combined. This is a book about battle,
but more particularly, about the human dimension in battle. It asks "What was it like?" and while the answers to this simple question by turns horrify and fascinate, they more importantly add a whole new dimension to the study of the American Civil War. |
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Eyewitness accounts and loads of maps |
In "Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle," author John Michael Priest tells the story of the American Civil War's bloodiest day using a compilation of eyewitness accounts. The book also includes no less than 72 sketch maps of the battle. Between the plentiful maps and the chronologically-arranged accounts, the reader can easily follow the ebb and flow of the battle.
The book contains surprises, such as a mention of Gen. Robert E. Lee harassing Confederate stragglers, the soldiers' nearly universal dislike of shelling and occasional acts of cowardice or outrageous bravery. It's astonishing how close together opposing units were when they fired at one another. The author claims that Confederate defenders of the Bloody Lane fired at Max Weber's Union brigade at a range of 60 feet!
My favorite vignette concerns the half-crazed Swedish commander of the 20th New York Regiment, Col. Von Vegesack. When a Maine colonel helpfully suggested that the 20th's colors be lowered because they were drawing too much Rebel fire, Vegesack ranted, "Let them wave. They are our glory."
While many historians write about Antietam in broad strokes, this book gets into the details. For example, every student of the battle knows that Gen. John Sedgwick's Union division got ambushed and cut to pieces in the West Woods. Priest's book shows exactly how this disaster unfolded and where each unit was positioned. Most historians criticize the clumsy commitment of Col. William Irwin's VI Corps Union brigade. Yet, this unit -- which included the 20th NY -- defeated a Confederate thrust that threatened to retake Bloody Lane.
It's easy for armchair strategists to say that the Union commanders should have done this or the Rebel commanders should have done that. But, the general impression from reading this book is how difficult it must have been to impose any sort of control on a large battle like Antietam. This book should serve as a handy and useful reference for students of the battle.
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Terrific read |
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I can't say enough good things about this book. Prior to visiting the Antietam battlefield, I read Sear's Landscape Turned Red to get an overview. But then after seeing the battlefield I was eager to read more. Priest's book was just what I wanted. It is a compilation of first person accounts that puts you right in the middle of the action. You'll feel the shells and bullets flying all around. I've now read this book at least ten times, learning and understanding more with each read. I've also recently revisited the battlefield to help me put everything together. |
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Outstanding, gripping first person accounts |
Terrific book. Unique in its approach of using first person accounts to describe in detail one of the most horrific fights of the ACW. Priest puts you in the thick of the action. Contains numerous great maps as well.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys military history, and consider it one of the best written on the Civil War. |
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Deja vu |
John Michael Priest " Antietam: The Soldier's Battle" is like deja vu. The Minnie balls are fast and thick and the double canister cut down your men. Of the 226 men you led into the cornfield (1st Texas) that warm day of 17th of Sept 1862, only 40 men came out.
This book reads just like you were there. AWESOME and highly reccomended. The research is impressive and for those looking for who shot whom up on one of the most bloodiest days of the war, this book is it.
My research was also in to try to identify what battery fired the U.S. 12lb Sperical Shot recovered at Sharpsburg Pike near the prison at Antietam that I own.
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Impressive work, the effort shows |
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I agree with a previous reviewer that Priest's book works best with a general Antietam book like Sears's. My approach to understanding Antietam was to (1) read Sears's Landscape Turned Red; (2) visit the battlefield (this is key to understanding the numerous references in Priest's book to "Mumma's swale," "the high ground 600 yards south of the Dunker Church," etc.--with a mental picture everything fits together better); (3) buy a topographic battlefield map, such as the one by Trailhead Graphics (for sale at the Battlefield's Visitor Center); and (4) read this book. My only criticism of the maps is the lack of a small-scale "finder" map that shows the battlefield and the area around Sharpsburg. As for the author's large-scale "handdrawn" maps, I found them very useful, and they are placed well, usually never more than a page or two from the action they refer to (I read the original 1992 edition, so I'm not sure if the maps are placed as well in this 1994 edition from a different publisher). As for the text, it's wonderful: well edited and even well indexed. The emphasis on the more "minor" actions on September 17, 1862 that a more general book would breeze over or ignore because of space limitations is appreciated. |
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