Free Downloads Bruce Catton's Civil War (Mr. Lincoln's Army/Glory Road/A Stillness At Appomattox)
Bruce Catton's Civil War collects the author's three outstanding works on the Civil War into one volume; a sensitive recounting of that bloody struggle filled with immediate detail, written with human warmth and careful historical research and reporting.
Hardcover: 730 pages
Publisher: Fairfax Press (December 12, 1984)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0517447711
ISBN-13: 978-0517447710
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #206,492 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #9 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War > Regimental Histories #13 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War > Campaigns & Battlefields > Appomattox #216 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > Civil War
Bruce Catton's Civil War is his trilogy (Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, A Stillness at Appomattox) about the Army of the Potomac. Eloquently written, gripping, a masterpiece of popular history. Scholars may frown at his style, but Catton had a feel for history that brings the reader right to the battlefield to smell the smoke, and hear the roar of the cannon. A must read for any Civil War reader. Highly recommended.
"Bruce Catton's Civil War" is his superb trilogy on the Army of the Potomac, first published in sequence 1951-1953. It is a throwback to an earlier era of historical writing, which emphasized an epic narrative style in the retelling of great historical events. Catton, a journalist by trade, was old enough to have grown up among Civil War veterans, and brought a keenly-honed sense of people and politics, along with a well-developed writing style, to his extensively researched history.The Army of the Potomac, the Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War, had the misfortune to be rushed unready into combat at the Battle of First Bull Run in 1861. Its defeat in this first major battle of the war would begin the revolving door of command that lasted until the appointment of U.S. Grant as head of the Union Armies in 1864. The Army of the Potomac suffered under the handicap of being too close to Washington politics for too much of the war, and the daunting challenge of facing Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia as its principal opponent from the Richmond Campaign to Appomattox. Its trials are portrayed by Catton as a microcosm of the larger Union struggle.Half a century on, Catton's scholarship is mildly dated, but his trilogy remains an astonishingly good reading experience, focused on the big events, major and supporting personalties, and the nuanced feel of changing tides in the conduct of the war. It is very highly recommended to fans and students of the Civil War, even in used condition.
Bruce Catton was a legendary Civil War writer and contained in this volume are some of his absolute masterpieces. The Army of the Potomac is brought back to life to march the dusty roads of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The first book 'Mr. Lincoln's Army' ends with a stunning depiction of one of the most devastating days in American history- the Battle of Antietam. With Catton you are in the thick of that fighting.'Glory Road' contains a magnificent depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg. The heroes that saved the days for the Union at that battle are depicted in all their humanity.'Stillness at Appomattox' has the devastating account of the Overland campaign, the Petersburg campaign, Shenandoah campaign, and Appomattox. This particular book is one of the finest ever written about historical events in any part of American history.Catton's depictions of the larger than life commanders is spot on: McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and finally Grant.In the end though it is the soldiers of that luckless army who suffered defeat after defeat but in the end won the final victory that Catton does true justice to. There is something very American in this story and the way Catton tells it.A+++
I'm re-reading Bruce Catton's classic set after twenty years or so. I bought this compilation of the three books because I realized that the separate volumes I bought years ago have become relatively valuable. I have read a couple of regimental histories in the meantime, and realize even more than the first time that you just can't beat Catton's anecdotal porthole into what happened on the small unit level. What I had forgotten is how well he translates the big-picture events into insights that make sense of actions and motivations even one hundred and fifty years later (not to mention forty years after publication). I often read some of the more marvelous sections of this aloud, to share with my wife (as big a Civil War nut as I).
In my opinion Catton covers the history of the Civil War better than all others except perhaps for The World on Fire written from the UK vantage point. If you read both you have a lot of information. This Catton addition is the trilogy and the letters are a bit small. If you prefer larger print buy them separately.
Read the first of the three books and am into the second. Beautifully written. Best battle descriptions of the civil war I have read. Focusing on details of one aspect of the whole makes the fights more personal. Tracing the stories to their origins and finding the root causes of the blame/credit takes more work but is so much more satisfying and brings closure. The accounts of missed opportunities and bad decisions when viewed in retrospect makes me wonder how much bad intelligence (Pinkerton) and communications always seemed to plague the Union and not the Confederacy. Until Jeb Stuart"s fiasco at Gettysburg.Definitely looking forward to reading the rest of the volume. Bruce Caton deserves the accolades which he has garnered.
Best Civil War book I've ever read, hands down. If you want to learn about the Army of the Potomac, how it came to be and what happened to it during the course of the war, this is your book. Very enjoyable read.
Bruce Catton's Civil War (Mr. Lincoln's Army/Glory Road/A Stillness at Appomattox) The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln's Army / Glory Road / A Stillness at Appomattox The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln's Army; Glory Road; A Stillness at Appomattox, 3-Vol. Set The First Republican Army: The Army of Virginia and the Radicalization of the Civil War (A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War Era) Bruce Lee Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living (Bruce Lee Library) Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox (Civil War America) From Bull Run to Appomattox: The Recollections of a Confederate Army Trooper of Company 'a, ' Sixth Virginia Cavalry During the American Civil War The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 3: Red River to Appomattox (Vintage Civil War Library) Photographic History of The Civil War: Vicksburg to Appomattox (Civil War Times Illustrated) (v. 2) Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army (Civil War America) Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front (Civil War America) Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War (Civil War Sesquicentennial Edition) (Civil War Sesquicentennial Edition (University of South Carolina Press)) Stillness at Appomattox A Stillness at Appomattox The Songwriter Goes to War: The Story of Irving Berlin's World War II All-Army Production of This Is the Army Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy: The Original Manuscript Edition (The Knox College Lincoln Studies Center) The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road Union Cavalry in the Civil War, Vol. 2: The War in the East, from Gettysburg to Appomattox, 1863-1865 Four Brothers in Blue; or, Sunshine and Shadows of the War of the Rebellion: A Story of the Great Civil War from Bull Run to Appomattox
