A fire in the wilderness : the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

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Title:

A fire in the wilderness : the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

Author:

Reeves, John, 1962- author.

ISBN:

9781638080688

Edition:

Center Point Large Print edition.

Physical Description:

407 pages (large print), 12 pages of plates : illustrations, maps, portraits, table ; 23 cm.

General Note:

Regular print version previously published by: Pegasus Books.

Personal Subject:

Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.

Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885.

Subject Term:

Wilderness, Battle of the, Va., 1864.

Geographic Term:

United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.

Genre:

Illustrated works

Local Subject:

Large print editions.

Summary:

"In the spring of 1864, President Lincoln feared that he might not be able to save the Union. The Army of the Potomac had performed poorly over the previous two years, and many Northerners were understandably critical of the war effort. Lincoln assumed he'd lose the November election, and he firmly believed a Democratic successor would seek peace immediately, spelling an end to the Union. A Fire in the Wilderness tells the story of that perilous time when the future of the United States depended on the Union Army's success in a desolate forest roughly sixty-five miles from the nation's capital. At the outset of the Battle of the Wilderness, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia remained capable of defeating General Grant's Army of the Potomac. But after two days of relentless fighting in dense Virginia woods, Lee was never again able to launch offensive operations against Grant's army. The impenetrable forest and gunfire smoke made it impossible to view the enemy. Officers couldn't even see their own men during the fighting. The incessant gunfire caused the woods to catch fire, resulting in hundreds of men burning to death. The alarming casualties do not begin to convey the horror of this battle, one of the most gruesome in American history." --

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	LP 973.736 REE	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	LP 973.736 REE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In the spring of 1864, President Lincoln feared that he might not be able to save the Union. The Army of the Potomac had performed poorly over the previous two years, and many Northerners were understandably critical of the war effort. Lincoln assumed he'd lose the November election, and he firmly believed a Democratic successor would seek peace immediately, spelling an end to the Union. A Fire in the Wilderness tells the story of that perilous time when the future of the United States depended on the Union Army's success in a desolate forest roughly sixty-five miles from the nation's capital.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Reeves (The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee) delivers an exhaustive and intermittently riveting account of the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness. Interweaving high-level strategy with the perspectives of frontline soldiers, Reeves recounts how Union Army commander Ulysses S. Grant planned to cross Virginia's Rapidan River, pass through the heavily forested region known as the Wilderness, and attack Gen. Robert E. Lee on his right flank before capturing Richmond and ending the war. The odds were overwhelming in Grant's favor (120,000 Union soldiers vs. 65,000 Confederates), but the dense woods neutralized the North's advantages. The fighting began on May 5, when Union troops, launching an attack, stumbled onto Confederate defenses. Over the next several days, wadding from paper cartridges ignited the underbrush, turning the battlefield into a "raging inferno" and contributing to heavy losses on both sides. Grant eventually moved his troops to the nearby town of Spotsylvania Court House, where some of the heaviest fighting of the war again produced no clear winner, but contributed to the steady attrition of soldiers that would eventually doom the South. Reeves has a firm grasp of the subject and skillfully draws from firsthand accounts, but often stops the action for long-winded asides. This deep dive is best suited for Civil War completists. (May)

Kirkus Review

Documenting the first clash between two of the Civil War's most iconic figures. "Not since Napoleon fought the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo in 1815," writes historian Reeves, "had two such celebrated commanders faced one another in the field." The author sets the scene in the spring of 1864, when the Army of the Potomac, huge and well equipped but not terribly confident after three years of mostly painful experiences at the hands of Robert E. Lee's smaller Army of Northern Virginia, began the year's campaign. Perhaps the North's principal advantage was its commander, Ulysses Grant, who understood that wars are won by resources and persistence, both of which he possessed. He faced a very aggressive commander who focused on battlefield victories when preserving his army might have been a better idea. Marching south in early May, Grant's army entered the Wilderness, "a tangled forest of underbrush and thickets." He hoped to pass through quickly, but the Army of the Potomac did nothing quickly, and Lee attacked the following day. Thick brush restricted visibility to a few yards, and copious rifle smoke restricted it even more. Units became lost or panicked or attacked into the unknown with suicidal results. Communications were worse than usual; messages were delayed or lost, units attacked piecemeal. At the end of the second day, the advance seemed stalled, and the Union had suffered greater losses. But instead of imitating his predecessors by retreating north to recover, Grant continued on toward Richmond. Another year of fighting remained, but Lee's shrunken army never attacked again. Reeves offers visceral descriptions of the fires that spread through the dry forest, burning to death hundreds of wounded soldiers, as well as vivid accounts of movements, battles, debates between commanding generals, and a generous helping of anecdotes from individual soldiers. He has clearly absorbed the confused geography of the Wilderness, but the maps could use improvement. Readers should keep a Civil War military atlas on hand. An expert account of a particularly horrific Civil War battle. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

1 The Ghost of Stonewall Jackson	p. 17
2 Private William Reeves	p. 52
3 Confederates on the Turnpike	p. 72
4 The Elephant Appears	p. 92
5 Raging Fire at Saunders Field	p. 113
6 Confederates on the Orange Plank Road	p. 136
7 Nighttime in the Wilderness	p. 166
8 Lee to the Rear	p. 209
9 High Noon on the Orange Plank Road	p. 224
10 Robert E. Lee's Enticing Opportunity	p. 246
11 Grant's Night March	p. 271
12 "The Great Army of the Wounded"	p. 300
13 The Bloody Angle	p. 317
14 Arlington	p. 340
15 Gen. Wadsworth's Body	p. 356
16 Fathers and Sons	p. 371
Acknowledgments	p. 387
Selected Bibliography	p. 393

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Summary

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Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

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