Product Description

This is a main selection of the History Book Club. "Expertly renders the furious ebb and flow of the two-day battle, capturing both the evolving strategies of each side and the horrendous experience of the fight...[This book] is built upon a bonanza of primary research, with the author having combed hundreds of diaries, letters, memoirs, interviews, official reports and regimental histories. The individual voices and the rich experiences they represent are unforgettably presented here." - "New York Times Book Review".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298758 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Review
"Expertly renders the furious ebb and flow of the two-day battle capturing both the evolving strategies of each side and the horrendous experience of the fight... [This book] is built upon a bonanza of primary research, with the author having combed hundreds of diaries, letters, memoirs, interviews, official reports and regimental histories. The individual voices and the rich experiences they represent are unforgettably presented here." -- New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews

Attention to detail to the max
This is the most detailed retelling of the battle of Chickamauga I have ever read. This may be good, it may be bad. It took me about 100 pages to get used to Cozzens style, and even after that I was still overwhelmed with detail. Was it the 23rd Tennessee in Brock Field or the 19th Illinois at Snodgrass Cabin? You will know for sure after reading this book.

The problem is that Mr. Cozzens pounds you with such detail that you might miss some of the best parts of the book. Early on, Gen. George Thomas has sent Col John Croxton to flush a Rebel brigade. Croxton runs headlong into Forrest's cavalry, then is attacked by Claudius Wilson's Georgians. He wires Thomas "Which of the four or five brigades in front of me should I flush out"?

And Cozzens portrayal of Bragg as a mind-numbed leader and Rosecrans as a ranting lunatic is somewhat off-base. And while this was truely a soldier's battle, Cozzens frequently ends up giving short shift to the generals.

If you want to read this book, here's how to get through it. Download the entire series of maps of Chickamauga from www.loc.gov. As you are reading the book, study the maps. Also buy Chickamauga:A Battlefield Guide by Steven Woodworth as a study guide. You'll make it through it. I did.

History that reads like a novel
This history of the battle of Chickamauga moves with a pace and a style that is reminiscent of Solzhenitsyn's August 1914. It chronicles the Union Army's plunge forward into the woods of northwest Georgia, to find that a Confederate Army that had been fleeing was not only no longer fleeing--it was counterattacking and was now larger than its erstwhile pursuers.

The descriptions are the most vivid and the telling of the story the best that I have ever read in 40 years of reading Civil War material. By the time one is finished reading, one has come to know almost as personal acquaintances not only the great figures of the battle--Bragg, Rosecrans, Longstreet--but others one might not otherwise have known. Hans Heg in particular, the Norwegian immigrant from Wisconsin whose brigade was left virtually alone to face the onslaught of Longstreet's attack, becomes such a sympathetic character that I became misty-eyed as he met his death. Union generals Lytle,Wilder and Willich are likewise memorable figures, as are on the Confederate side Helm and Liddell. Less sympathetic figures are future president James Garfield, political observer Charles Dana and Confederate general Billy Bate, who emerge as pompous, self-promoting blowhards.

This battle, and the failure of the Confederates to exploit their partial success, may have been more of a turning point of the Civil War than was Gettysburg. It was not at Gettysburg but at Chickamauga that the First Corps, best in the Confederate Army, made its last great attack, and it succeeded only to watch Braxton Bragg fritter away success. This is the best account of that battle that you will read.

Great, super-detailed story of an epic battle
To those reviewers who criticized Peter Cozzens' writing: What, exactly, were you reading? Cozzens does a marvelous job of bringing history to vivid life. "This Terrible Sound" is well-written, well-organized and reveals marvelously complete research. Yes, it is detailed, but the book is 675 pages long! What did you expect? Admittedly, there are times in the middle of the book when the story is confusing, and a few photos of the participants certainly would have been welcome, but overall this is the kind of Civil War history I love. I want detail. I especially love the many quoted sources here; I want the participants to tell the story as much as possible, and Cozzens allows that. This is a big step forward from the still-good "No Better Place to Die." But read on; "The Shipwreck of their Hopes" is better yet.