Reviews
"Never before has there been such a finely detailed -- and objective -- rendering of this battle.... Future accounts of the Wilderness will stand on the shoulders of Rhea's book" -- Chicago Tribune "Both rich in colorful human incidents and provocative in its leadership assessments.... [Rhea's] book is now the first choice for anyone interested in understanding this critical battle." -- Blue and Gray "Through [Rhea's] well-constructed profiles of the Union corps commanders, we come to know the strengths and weaknesses of those who held the lives of thousands in their hands." -- Washington Times "Conventional military history at its best." -- London Times Literary Supplement, Rhea, a Virginia attorney, offers what will likely become the definitive account of one of the Civil War's most confusing engagements: the Battle of the Wilderness, the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, fought in Virginia. The author's reconstruction of the fighting highlights the difficulties of controlling troops once they had been committed to action. Grant's original plan was to maneuver Lee out of his defensive position along the Rapidan River, then crush his troops with superior numbers. Instead, Rhea notes, the Wilderness became a "soldiers' battle," with raw courage compensating for inadequate generalship on both sides. Grant relied too heavily on the Army of the Potomac's commander, George Gordon Meade, who failed to coordinate the movements of subordinates disoriented by the broken ground they fought over. Rhea also criticizes Lee for consistently taking the offensive with an army that could not afford the major losses it sustained in attacking. History Book Club main selection.
