books:

	• Mr Lincoln's Army Bruce Catton Smith Press, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

It amazes me how consistently interesting Catton's writing is. You would think that with all of the books that he has written on the Civil War that the inevitable overlap would cause some books to be less than fresh--but that is never the case. Above all, I enjoy Catton's writing because of the poignancy that he can convey when he describes a scene. Many a time have I been so moved while reading his books that I have had to pause to collect myself, and then I re-read the emotional scene in order to savor the enjoyment again.

Read this trilogy and you will find out what I mean.

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The first year of the Civil War vividly portrayed.

Catton describes the transformation of the Army of the Potomac from a collection of amateurs into an army of hardened veterans. He particularly brings out the "loss of innocence" at Antietam. His description of Antietam will make you shudder in horror. The fury of battle leaps off the pages as no other civil war author can do. Catton gets inside the head of Gen. McClellan and shows how he repeatedly failed to gain the crushing victory that was always just out of reach. I read the book in two sittings and could not put it down. If you can find a copy, snap it up!

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Mr. Catton's Army

Bruce Catton is largely responsible for the continuing Civil War publishing boom, with his publication in the early 1950's of his trilogy history of the Army of the Potomac. Catton's passion for the subject, combined with his journalistic talents, captured the essence of a fundamental of American mythology. As a boy in Wisconsin he idolized the veterans he came to know in his community and he became committed if not obsessed to learning about them and documenting what he learned. What he learned is one of the great stories in our country's history - the story of the common soldier in the American Civil War. It is not an attempt at applying the academic method, it is journalism - and first rate journalism., and great story telling. Yet, it is still historically relevant and significant. Catton was able to put the various complex subplots in the perspective of the maturation of the democratic nation and its institutions (for example, Indiana Governor O. P. Morton's wartime state dictatorship and the implications for states' rights in relationship to the national government). The famous figures are included, and humanized, but it is really the story of the rank and file. The common soldier, who suffered unmercifully under incompetent leadership, wasteful bureaucracies, political maneuvering, a multitude of physical hardships, bad food and medicine and every other handicap imaginable (including death and dismemberment in what was then a new and highly efficient killing field of warfare) - and yet somehow emerged victorious. It is not a romantic story, but it is a story full of praise for those who served their nation in one of its great defining moments. There isn't any sympathy for the opposing Confederates - neither is their any condemnation or hatred (because the soldiers themselves did not condemn or hate). For the hard core ACW armchair campaigner there is still much to be gleaned from a read or re-read of Catton's trilogy. For the casual reader, this work is a great starting place to understand the ACW - the conflict that, in Catton's view, framed and defined the unique history of the United States. There are a few misconceptions scattered about - but no matter, this is the stuff of legends. There are conclusions drawn that are not thoroughly supported - again, no matter. Catton told a great story greatly, and it has stood the test of time as a benchmark accomplishment.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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