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Savannah (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 9) written by James Reasoner Studio : Cumberland House Publishing by Cumberland House Publishing Publisher : Cumberland House Publishing Released : 2003-05-01 Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days Number of Items : 1 EAN : 9781581823288 Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 4 reviews)
List Price : $22.95 Our Price : $2.75
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Product Description |
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Cory Brannon, who is bitter over the failure of the Confederate army at Chattanooga, takes part in a series of battles as the Army of Tennessee retreats slowly toward Atlanta during May and early June. By the end of August, Atlanta is lost and the Confederate retreat continues. Meanwhile, the Brannon family farm in Culpeper County, Virginia, is now behind enemy lines. Titus is fighting in the Shenandoah Valley with Mosby's Rangers, the great Ebersole plantation house at Mountain Laurel is in ruins, and Henry has been removed as sheriff of Culpeper County. To everyone's surprise, Cordelia is courted by one of the Union officers. She hates the Yankees but is unable to hate this Yankee in particular, much to her dismay. When Henry kills a Union deserter who attacks Cordelia, he flees to the Confederate lines in Tennessee and arrives in time to participate in Gen. John Bell Hood's disastrous campaign. At the same time, Cory is trapped in Savannah, surrounded by Sherman's marauding hordes. The Union army lays siege to the city, much as it had at Vicksburg. When Gen. William Hardee realizes that defending the city is hopeless, he abandons Savannah and heads toward the Carolinas, hoping for the chance to fight another day in another place. Sherman's March to the Sea is now complete, and despair grips the Confederacy. Fractured and defeated at every turn, the nation asks itself how much longer it can continue to fight. |
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Closing the of War |
Cory is at Atlanta trying to hold back the force of Sherman's army of one hundred thousand. Then he is at Savannah. We find Henry in Tennessee after leaving his home in a hurry. Reasoner ties-up and few loose ends with some of the characters. Reasoner's focus is the ending of the western campaign. The war is coming to an end. This book will not gather dust on your shelf. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"
Sins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersWriting as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War |
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Savannah |
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Being a Civil War fan, this novel followed history very close. the story line continued with the series and left you ready for the next book in the series. |
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The Brannons and the end of the Civil War in the West |
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"Savannah," Book 9 in The Civil War Battle Series by James Reasoner says true to the earlier volumes in that the titular battle serves as the climax for the narrative. Ironically, Reasoner probably spends more on what happened at Savannah in December of 1864 more than he has for the final battle in previous volumes, even though the encounter boils down to the Union army under William Tecumseh Sherman getting ready to start a siege and the Confederates evacuating the city. More time is spent on Sherman's efforts to capture Atlanta and the doomed foray by a Confederate army under John Bell Hood to recapture Tennessee. It has been too easy in many of these volumes to dismiss the proceedings as being more the Civil War Soap Opera series, but with the death of Duncan Ebersole and that entire convoluted plotline along with the war coming to an end, the battle sequences easily outweigh the relationship entanglements. In terms of the Brannon family "Savannah" focuses primarily on Cory, who is with the troops defending Atlanta and then Savannah, and Henry, who ends up with General Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee after fleeing the family farm in Virginia. That is because the one soap opera element this time around involved young Cordelia and a Yankee lieutenant. We touch base a bit with Pie and Rachel, as well as Lucille, out on the Texas frontier, while Nathan Hatchers ends up in the Dakotas fighting Indians, but these are minor episodes in the novel. The main focus is on what is essentially the end of the Civil War in the West. All that is left is Charleston to fall to Sherman as he moves north to join up with Grant's Army of the Potomac, which will move on Appomattox in the final volume of the series. From the dearth of reviews of "Savannah" and the last couple of Civil War Battle Series books by Reasoner I assume that readership has fallen off. Certainly there is no reason to pick up Book 9 unless you have gone through the rest of the series. I have to admit that I was actually rooting for one of the Bannon brothers to get killed simply because it was getting to be a bit much with the entire clan surviving so long into the war; although I appreciate the narrative necessity of having enough brothers to cover the key aspects of the Civil War in both the Eastern and Western theaters. The whole business with Polly Ebersole, her father, and the Bannons was probably the biggest flaw in Reasoner's grand design because it came off as some sort of twisted Shakespearean tragedy that distracted from the more real issues of fighting and surviving the war. But on the other hand, I had to keep reading the series at least until somebody put Duncan in the ground. Now all that is left to be buried in this series is the Confederacy and which ever Brannons fall in the last months of the Civil War. |
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From Bad to Worse |
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SAVANNAH, the ninth book in James Reasoner's The Civil War Battle Series, concerns itself mainly with the two youngest of the surviving Brannon brothers, Cory and Henry. Cory, now with General Hardee's troops, takes part in the long, fruitless struggle to save Atlanta from the advancing Federal troops under General William Tecumseh Sherman. With Atlanta falling, Cory finds himself forced to march to Savannah, Georgia, even further from his beloved wife Lucille. Meanwhile, Cory's best friend, and former comrade-in-arms, Pie Jones and his wife Rachel, find themselves near the Brazos River in Texas, where they have fled to avoid Rachel's former owner, Grat. Beset by Confederate deserters, they are rescued by a troop of stalwart Texas Rangers. Riding with the Rangers for protection to the troop captain's ranch, Pie soon finds himself, along with the Rangers, in the midst of a fierce battle with raiding Comanches. Cory's wife Lucille befriends an English blockade-runner, then, along with her aunt, Mildred, finds herself forced to flee to west Texas, hoping against hope Cory will find her once he's free from service in the Confederate Army. And, back home in Virginia, at the Brannon farm, Cordelia finds a new beau. When Henry defends his sister from an attacking Yankee , killing the assailant, he, unaware the man has deserted the Union army, and believing he will be executed for killing a Federal soldier, flees, to join up with the Confederate Army, the last Brannon son to head to war. As were the previous eight volumes, SAVANNAH is a gripping tale of one family's struggles during the Civil War. Mr. Reasoner's research continues to amaze me (he incorporates many real-life minor characters, such as Elizabeth Caldwell, a wife who marches with her husband Patrick, a former Confederate soldier now a galvanized Yankee, across Dakota Territory), and the stories are all richly detailed, and geographically accurate. I highly recommend the entire Civil War Battle Series. The tenth, and final, volume, APPOMATTOX, will be released sometime this fall. Don't miss it. |
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