Rebels Resurgent:
Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville

The Research Shelf: Book Review

by David Parham and T P Schweider

Written by William K. Goolrick
Time-Life Books, 541 North Fairbanks Court, Chicago, IL 60611
Hardcover, 176 pp., 74 black and white photos, 45 illus., 10 maps (high detail)
Bibliography, index
ISBN 0-8094-4748-7
Audiences: historians, wargamers, collectors

Part of the continuing series by Time-Life on the Civil War, this volume examines the attempt by the Federal forces to capture Richmond in late 1862 and the subsequent bloody battles in Northern Virginia. Impatient for action after twenty long months of war, President Lincoln approved the plan by his new General of the Potomac, Ambrose E. Burnside, to drive on the Confederate capital even as its Army of Northern Virginia, under the redoubtable Robert E. Lee, prepared to advance. Overcoming cold winter weather, the armies confronted each other near Fredericksburg.

The resulting battle, marked by individual heroics and disastrous lapses in leadership on the Union side, set the stage for the later conflict at Chancellorsville. There, Lincoln's new commander, Joe Hooker, hesitated ' then retreated before a Confederate army numerically inferior and split into three parts. Lee was again victorious, but he had lost too many veteran soldiers, including the great leader, Stonewall Jackson.

Each of the epic meetings, as well as the maneuvering of troops before and after, are presented with a combination of chronological narrative, highly detailed maps, and contemporary photographs and illustrations. The growing importance of the railways in war and new signal communications are also explained. Special attention is given to exploring the personalities and the motives of leaders on both sides, plus the participation by common soldiers, civilians, and camp followers. Color photographs of the actual weapons, insignia, and flags used in the campaigns and depictions of military life between battles impart a personal flavor to the historical account. Quotes from the combatants, generals and privates alike, remind us that these gallant armies were composed of men who sensed they were making history, however uncertain they might be of their own places in it.

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