Good Book about the Army of the Tennessee

[Joe Meyer]

Steven E. Woodworth's Nothing But Victory, The Army of the Tennessee, 1861 - 1865, is a very well written history of the AoT. The book was published in 2005 by the Alfred A. Knopf Company, New York. Woodworth is no stranger to writing about Amercian Civil War history, having written six previous titles including, Six Armies in Tennessee and Jefferson Davis and His Generals.

His book on the AoT has been criticized for not having enough maps. This is certainly true as the book is very sparse in its use of maps of any kind, be they operational, campaign or battle maps. Yet Woodworth's grasp of the army's history and his excellent writing style tend to impart a comprehensive story in which his descriptions more than suffice for the lack of maps! This is especially so for the experienced Civil War reader or those already familiar with the Western Theater.

Try as he might, though, Woodworth cannot completely hide his unabashed appreciation of Grant, which sometimes manifests itself as biased criticism of Grant's personal and professional enemies. Woodworth is both casually dismissive and adroitly critical of both Halleck and Rosecrans, officers who unfortunately crossed Grant's path. But he attempts, in the early sections of the story, to point out some of Grant's own missteps and mistakes in at least something of a refreshing and illuminating manner.

Throughout all of the book Woodworth makes good use of individual soldiers' and officers' personal accounts, which gives the narrative that distinctive immediacy and realism that eludes so many other poorer attempts of this nature. He is able to continually take his reader from the high level designs of strategy and operational planning to the off-hand comments given around the campfire, salting his text liberally with basic, earthy life of the AoT foot soldiers who slogged on through so much discomfort, pain and death. His descriptions of the depressing winter of 1862-1863 are particularly poignant and go far in establishing the soul and character of the army.

As such good books go, the reader is left with a desire to re-explore and re-visit portions of the Army of the Tennessee's history to get an even better understanding of what occurred and why.

[cruces]

Finally broke down and bought it from Amazon used department. I have found a ton of quality civil war books at very fair prices at the site.

Col. Elkin