Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground

Excellent book describing 10 of the most important battles of the Civil War where the battlefield can still be visited. The battles are listed chronologically, and are tied together to "offer some flow to the history of the entire war." Mr. Shaara's writing style is smooth and easy to read. He tells the overall stories of each battlefield, conveying the necessary information to understand its...more

Excellent book describing 10 of the most important battles of the Civil War where the battlefield can still be visited. The battles are listed chronologically, and are tied together to "offer some flow to the history of the entire war." Mr. Shaara's writing style is smooth and easy to read. He tells the overall stories of each battlefield, conveying the necessary information to understand its importance, as well as providing sufficient little vignettes that captures one's curiousity. In the introduction Mr. Shaara writes, "this book is intended not for the academic historian, but for the curious.." It is designed to "paint a portrait" of the battles and encourage one to visit the battlefields in question. He accomplished that for me. Of the battlefields listed I have only visited Vicksburg. This guidebook makes me want to each one, from the river banks of Shiloh, through to the round tops of Gettysburg, ending in the trenches of Petersburg. While Mr. Shaara is an excellent fiction writer, he shows he is accomplished as a non fiction writer as well with this book. By the way, a percentage of the sales of this book goes to "battlefield preservation groups whose responsibility it is to preserve and protect these invaluable [historic] sites." Often in the book Mr Shaara describes the threats to the battlefields, whether from encroachment by developers, or neglect due to lack of funding. These sites are national treasures and should be treated and supported as such.   hide