The Fall of Chattanooga

River of Death: The Chickamauga Campaign, Volume 1

De: William Glenn Robertson

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

The Battle of Chickamauga was the third bloodiest of the American Civil War and the only major Confederate victory in the conflict's western theater. It pitted Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee against William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland and resulted in more than 34,500 casualties. In this first volume of an authoritative two-volume history of the Chickamauga Campaign, William Glenn Robertson provides a richly detailed narrative of military operations in southeastern and eastern Tennessee as two armies prepared to meet along the "River of Death." Robertson tracks the two opposing armies from July 1863 through Bragg's strategic decision to abandon Chattanooga on September 9. Drawing on all relevant primary and secondary sources, Robertson devotes special attention to the personalities and thinking of the opposing generals and their staffs. He also sheds new light on the role of railroads on operations in these landlocked battlegrounds, as well as the intelligence gathered and used by both sides.

Delving deep into the strategic machinations, maneuvers, and smaller clashes that led to the bloody events of September 19-20, 1863, Robertson reveals that the road to Chickamauga was as consequential as the unfolding of the battle itself.

©2018 The University of North Carolina Press (P)2019 Tantor

Excellent account of the Chattanooga Campaign.

This was an important audio read for me. It gave me insights into the logitics, functions, and complexities involved in the movement of both armies: The Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Tennessee. The major issue I had was the lack of illustrations and maps attached with the audio; however, supplemental maps from other sources should be available. Occasionally I would have tore-listen to a chapter to comprehend the content due to the lack of attatched maps. All in all a valuable experience I would highly recommend this study.

Where is Volume 2?!

Don’t leave me hanging, Dr. / Mr. Robertson! I’m at the end of the book. Chattanooga is empty of Bragg’s army, the Federals are scattered, the Confederates are massing, and...and... Sigh.

In the beginning, thought I might quit; did I have to know every officer above captain and a lot of the captains, too? Do I have to know all the brigades, all the divisions, and where every single one is located over two weeks? And where is Tracy City, anyway? (Found it eventually.) Across the river , almost every soldier goes touristing in that cave? (Whoops; lost another one down the crevices in the floor! What a way to become a Cvil War casualty: fallen while touristing.) And there’s Rosecrans crawling out of the cave mouth on his hands and knees, all sweaty!

I ended up really, really liking the book. The battle is in the detail. Minutiae that seem forced and repetitive when I started became more and more what is making the battle. So the generals are squabbling with each other in their battle commands; so what? So here’s the text of fifteen different communications in a row; why is that? Nobody’s really even fighting yet.

Then Chickamauga starts to loom and the penny drops: generals squabbling, communications crossing each other, orders phrased and rephrased, Rosecrans exploding at people more and more and tearing them down publicly. All narrowing down to one order, one response to that order, one unseen army getting ready to attack. And Death walks onto the field.

Refreshing

Someone estimated that there’s been an average of one book published every day about the American Civil War since it ended - and sometimes it feels as if I’ve read most of them.

If like me you’ve grown tired of circular referencing and want to learn something new, look no further.

Still, the magic of this book is that if you know little and care less about the War I think you will nevertheless find it engrossing. It is more than anything a story about people and the author has gone to heroic lengths to place the reader in the shoes, if they have shoes, and often in the heads of the participants. He does this far more with facts than conclusions which is always refreshing.

Worth the Wait!

In depth research provides a more complete analysis and understanding of this complex campaign and the men who fought it. Many of the primary sources that William Glenn Robertson so effectively uses in this masterful work will either have you questioning some aspects of earlier accounts or adding significant and critical depth to others as to shed new light on them or perhaps both. One thing is for certain, Robertson leaves few stones unturned when it comes to the description of a campaign and you will feel like you have been on the journey. One warning though, this volume ends in a cliff hanger and if Volume 2 is not available you may be left in some angst.

Highly Detailed Account of the War in the West

This book is for a serious reader of civil war history, it shouldn’t be your first; if you don’t have a dozen or so civil war book under your belt you’d probably do well to find a book with a more flowing narrative. The book’s filled with facts and is quite interesting but a little dry in spots, especially with the lists of names. It seems as everyone over the rank of major is listed at some point and every general officer has a detailed biographical entry. It is amazingly well researched with mountains of facts, quotes, names and detailed examples of most of the major personalities in both Braggs and Rosencrans’ armies. What this book doesn’t have is a smoothly flowing narrative. It’s heritage as an army war college ride around course book is quite apparent as one listens to it. Frankly, it’s a course I’d love to take, especially while “riding around” at the turn of the 20th century. Due to the scope of the material covered and extreme level of detail, this book almost isn’t suitable for publication as an audiobook, and the omission of a PDF to accompany it is a serious oversight. This book is best experienced with maps showing battlefields, & historical photos I found myself listening to it in pieces with an iPad so I could research references. That said, I’m kind of irritated that Tantor Audio hasn’t issued the second half.
The narrator is excellent, his tempo and diction are perfect for the material and he has the gravitas required for this type of book . He actually knows how to pronounce both place & peoples names which has been a problem in some history books,