4 comments about Letters from Tommy J.: A Marine's Story - 1966-1967.

1. I've already ordered the book from you and we have read it. It was wonderful. I knew Tommy, not well, but we were casual friends. I have unresolved guilt about the war. I don't think I supported our guys as I should have. I personally made no sacrifice, except losing friends to the war. I've never been to the monument in Washington, but I have seen the traveling wall several times. I lost three friends from Okeefe in the war, including Tommy, and I always look them up and pay my respects. Thank you for the book and your family's sacrifice.
   Diane Johnson



2. This book was written from the heart. It was a "labor of love" so to speak. I feel I've brought Tommy J. home every day for the last year . . . unfortunately he died every day too. I hope everyone that reads this book is touched as much as I was by this very emotional project. Thank you to any one that chooses to take part in Tommy's short life.
   
   Terri Walker



3. Marine PFC Thomas J. Holtzclaw, Jr. wrote near-daily letters to his family and friends in Atlanta while in heavy combat in Vietnam. Snatching moments under the jungle canopy by day and by candle light in sweltering bunkers he wrote from when he landed in Vietnam in late December 1966 until his combat death less than four months later. Tommy J, as he was called since childhood, was three days shy of his 19th birthday when he was struck down in an ambush near Da Nang, South Vietnam. Twenty-seven other Marines from Holtzclaw's regiment were killed that terrible day.
   
   Tommy J enlisted in the Marines in 1966 at age 17 upon graduating from O'Keefe High School in Atlanta. He was an honor student in the top 10% of his class who lettered in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Upon hearing of his death, less than one year from graduation, his football coach wrote he was "...a 125-ponder with the heart of a 250-pounder.. the kind who never missed a practice or an assignment."
   
   Tommy J wrote nearly a dozen people. Parents, grandparents, friends, and neighbors received his words from Vietnam that described his life in the field. He wrote of booby traps and punji stakes: his fears and how he felt having to kill someone. "It is an awful feeling."
   
   Of the future he said, "One day this will all be a dream but I hope I don't dream about it."
   
   His requests for necessities from home: "I'm not telling you to send them ... take the money from my account."
   
   Conditions: "I am really feeling like a tramp. I can only wash from a canteen... the sergeant killed a big rat in our bunker."
   
   His Dad: "Tell Daddy not to work real hard, I would like to have a hand in building some nice places. (Here) I have to build everything I need."
   
   His thanks to a neighbor lady for sending bible verses, for Tommy J was a regular church-goer who tithed.
   
   To a pal he wrote how he had become an automatic rifleman with a weapon "...that could put out 700 rounds per minute. A lot of lead, right? Don't worry about my health. Unless the VC have a bullet with my name on it, I'll be OK. I don't think they can spell my name."
   
   This book contains many photographs of Tommy J and his buddies in the field and displays the conditions under which they lived and fought. His nieces, Terri Walker and Connie Hughes, compiled his letters and have incorporated pertinent clippings from the Pacific Stars and Stripes that depict the war from a larger perspective as Tommy J writes from the trenches. They also include poetry, both poignant and bitter, written by GIs in the field.
   
   Letters from Tommy J should be required reading for all politicians who have never served.
   
   George Orwell wrote: "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." It isn't always rough men who take up the call to arms. It is mostly the kid next door.
   ............................
   Reviewer Mark Berent served three tours in Vietnam with the Air Force as a fighter pilot. He is the author of five Vietnam combat books as seen at [...]



4. You must read this book! The photography is amazing and the book is almost entirely primary sources. It is a remarkable first hand account of the Vietnam War that the reader expirences through the letters that this soldier sends to his friends and family. A MUST READ!!!

4 comments about Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and His Legend Since 1945.

1. John Ramsden wrote a book of uneven quality about Winston Churchill's legend since 1945. Ramsden clearly does not target readers with no prior, in-depth knowledge of this towering presence. In some chapters, Ramsden gets bogged down in detail that, over time, annoys readers. Ramsden should have written shorter chapters about Churchill and his relationship with countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Enumerating a large number of streets, pubs, parks, etc. named after Churchill in these different countries does not add much to the narrative. Ramsden is at his best in Part One when he focuses on the controversial personality of Churchill. Churchill understood very well that he had to write his side of the story to mold the minds of his contemporaries and remain relevant to future generations. Churchill has outshined most other memorable men and women in this enterprise. Many people around the world still want to claim a piece of Churchill by quoting him in a wide variety of settings. The ultimate power of Churchill lies in the richness of his parley and writings which can still stir emotions when reason fails to mobilize for decisive action.



2. Notwithstanding Time magazine's famous judgement, I think Winston Churchill was the man of the last century. So does John Ramsden, who has written a book that will be deeply appreciated by those with a lively interest in Churchill's impact on politics and culture following World War II and up to the present. The text is somewhat uneven in that the author meanders between quite keen insights on important issues, such as Churchill's role toward what became the EU, and the more dubious, such as listing the various streets named for the great man in Australia. While a first time reader on Churchill should read a good biography like that of Sir Roy Jenkins, this book will be worthy of purchase by any true acolyte of this great, and still relevant, figure of history.



3. THis is not a biography of Winston Churchill. This is something new and fascinating. Here we have a text that seeks to examine Churchill the legend, the man, the history of him and his relationship with the english speaking world since 1945. Chapters include investigations of Churchills funeral, 'operation Hope Not' and Churchill 'failure' to lose World War Two, the Finest Hour. Here we learn of Churchill's FUlton speech and also his famous relationship with America, as an honorary citizen no less.
   
   Most interesting are chapters on Churchills relationship with Australia and Canada as well as new anecdotes about why Castro and Guliani, who agree on nothing, both are admirers of Winston. This book also examines the many biographers of Churchill, including Manchester, Gilbert and Jenkins.
   
   THe conlusion is that Churchill is not simply the 'man of the century' but perhaps of the next one as well. This is a tour de force and every Churchill admirer must read it, in fact anyone interested in histiography or in the western egnlish speaking world since 1945 will enjoy this. Every conceivable person stars in this cast, from Isiah Berlin to Dean Acheson and Robert Menzies. The English speaking world will enjoy this book about one of its greatest champions.
   
   A last note, the chapter on Churchill and Europe and Churchill and the Irish are extraordinary in their new takes on the British and their relationship with these two neighboors.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



4. Sir Winston Churchill had no shortage of admirers among the generation that knew, or saw, him during his Finest Hour, 1940-1941. And they have remained legion among later generations. But in the wake of the September 11 attacks, many people -- and especially many politicians in need of stirring rhetoric -- have turned to WSC again, attracted to his reputation, perhaps, more than to the strict details of his long and eventful life.

   John Ramsden's fascinating book is an analysis of how Churchill's reputation was born, was consciously shaped by the man himself, and how it has evolved in the years since his death. The bulk of the analysis focuses on the five English-Speaking nations, though Europe is included as well. Another large section looks at the famous "Iron Curtain" or "Sinews of Peace" speech at Fulton, Missouri, in 1946, and how it -- precisely as WSC intended -- transformed the world's view of him from heroic-but-passé war leader to very-much-active statesman, politician, and geopolitical strategist.

   A final section, which I found the most interesting, analyses many of the key Churchill biographies written over the years, from Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert's official biography, to Lord Moran, to Manchester, to Roy Jenkins' "Churchill: A Biography" (2001), which Ramsden predicts will remain "the authoritative single text for years to come" (p. 545). Ramsden also seems to have counted every Churchill memorial statue, street, pub, and park bench in the world. And while a catalog of these things could easily become tiresome, this author skillfully keeps it from doing so.

   This is no small accomplishment. People who write about Churchill are forced to deal with the sheer immensity of his life. Many respond by being prolix, or trite, or they oversimplify, or caricaturize, or fall into either blind hero-worship or equally unnuanced destructiveness. Ramsden does none of these. One way he manages this, of course, is by being fairly sparing of the details of most of WSC's life. Thus, this book will make a lot more sense to someone who already has a fairly good understanding of who the man was, what he did, and when. Another way is by filling his text with stories about, and insights into, Churchill and his contemporaries that are nearly all some combination of fascinating, entertaining, and memorable. Thus, while he's dealing with some Grand Themes, the author surrounds them with a bodyguard of anecdotes that in and of themselves almost guarantee this will be a fun read for any Churchill student or fan.

   Significantly, Ramsden is not an *uncritical* admirer of Churchill, though he is clearly an admirer. The Winston we encounter here is not sugarcoated, and some of his unattractive features do come through. That and the mountainous research on display are two signs of Ramsden's chops as a historian.

   Finally, as a many-year member of The Churchill Centre and its preceding organization the International Churchill Societies, I should note and commend Ramsden's coverage of this worthy organization. Far from the worshipful society of star-struck fans it is sometimes painted to be, Ramsden shows the CC to be a reputable and respectable association of clear-eyed admirers of the man of the century, warts and all.

   I am always amazed at the new aspects or corners of Churchill's life and impact that people can find to write books about. This one, no question, was a book that needed to be written. And for any Churchill student or fan, it's one that needs to be read.

1 comments about Fiddlers And Whores: The Candid Memoirs of a Surgeon in Nelson's Fleet.

1. It's not really about fiddlers and whores, despite the title. It is an extended letter from Dr. Lowry to his brother explaining to him what he did while he was away from home for 7 years. Lowry left his home in Ireland to go to medical school in Scotland. Upon graduation, just as physicians do today, he needed further training before being able to set up his own practice. Not being able to find a mentor to take him in, he joined the navy as an assistant surgeon...and the adventure begins! What follows is a fascinating description of life in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of a young officer, including commentary on the other cultures he encounters in the Mediterranean, navy life, health, war, medical training, and (ah, yes) his attempts to meet women. He also describes his adventures as a tourist and amature naturalist, including his tour of a Roman house of pleasure in the newly-excavated Herculaneum, and his attempt to keep an ostrich on board the ship. His writing style pulls you along through his adventures, and his observations are astute and witty. I absolutely loved this book, and I particularly recommend it for any Aubrey-Maturin fan suffering from Patrick O'Brian withdrawal syndrome.

2 comments about Winfield Scott and the Profession of Arms.

1. Who cares about Winfield Scott? After reading this excellent biography, you will.
   
   If you have read anything about American history from the War of 1812 to the Civil War, you have undoubtedly read of Winfield Scott. He was a major supporting character in the Indian Wars, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Trail of Tears, and in the early days of the Civil War. Additionally, he was a presidential candidate plus a friend or foe to every president from Madison to Lincoln. While his most important contribution to the United States was creating the Professional Military, his influence goes much deeper.
   
   I began reading this book not really caring about Winfield Scott. I added it to my reading list because I unexpectedly enjoyed Peskin's book on Garfield so much. In telling the story of Winfield Scott, he not only tells what Scott did and why they were important, he also tells the story of the "average Joe" and what he thought of what Scott was doing. The life of Scott is an up and down journey that in itself is interesting. The story is all the more enjoyable because Peskin's writing style is so enjoyable to read and he seems to have an uncanny ability to hit just the right level of details - I did not feel that important information was being left out nor was I bored by details.
   
   This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend to anyone interested in American History. It is a captivating story and a quick read. Regardless of your interest in Winfield Scott, I am certain you will enjoy this book - I certainly did.



2. Winfield Scott And The Profession Of Arms is the true story of Winfield Scott (1786-1866), who is perhaps best known for his role in bringing professionalism to the U.S. Army during his long military career (1807-61). He served his duty as general in the War of 1812, commanded U.S. forces in the final campaign of their war with Mexico, and was the general in chief at the beginning of the Civil War. History professor emeritus Allan Peskin draws upon research in the National Archives to unearth a comprehensive portrait of General Scott as a visionary managerial officer, who anticipated drastic changes in technology and business principles for the military and adapted in response. An in-depth, balanced biography of a remarkable figure and his lasting legacy.

5 comments about A Sniper's Journey: The Truth About the Man Behind the Rifle.

1. It takes a special brand of courage to operate as a sniper in combat - but Gary Mitchell displayed greater courage in telling his story. This book is absorbing and is the first 'real' portrayal of post traumatic stress syndrome that I have read. Every war produces many unsung heroes - Gary Mitchell is one of them.



2. In "A Sniper's Journey" Gary Mitchell (with Michael Hirsh) lays out a supposed story about a small-town Texas youngster, new to the Army, who is pulled into the Phoenix covert program as a sniper in Viet Nam. In fairness, the reviewer is far more familiar with the Marine's program, but this overall story simply did not seem to ring true to a real sniper's techniques and mental processes from that long-ago time.
   
   Possibly as much as a third of the book deals with Mitchell's domestic problems with his wives and for filler, outlined a primer on PTSD. All this was "part of his journey" I suppose, but of marginal interest to outsiders.
   
   We should thank Mr. Mitchell for his 24-year service to our country, but in respect for the fine Army snipers, the great Carlos Hathcock and other 'Corps "One Shot-One Kill" shooters from the past, I cannot recommend this book.



3. I had great hopes in enjoying a book about the sniper's world as pertains to the CIA and its contracting out shooters from the ranks..having met a few through my years overseas. As it was I found the copy more of a recollection of events that are lost to history and emotional blocking: it was way too convenient memory-wise to have the first two kills both have scars above the eye--the officer and the woman...please!
   
   Still, I can recommend this book, as I found it to have a similar PTSD section to my own memoir that is also available on Amazon. I like the variety in letter responses from different PhDs specializing in the recognition of PTSD and treatment...which is what I can see resulted in Mitchell's book...considering the topic I sure wish I could give it more stars, but this was very thin in description and clarity of rememberance...a very far departure from Valentine's co-written pieces.
   
   I would suggest getting this book, as I did, to read the PTSD and then resell it on Amazon, which is what I'm preparing to do right now...the 3 stars are mainly for the PTSD section.



4. Whenever I see a veteran start to opine about his PTSD, it sends up a red flag for me, especially when mixed with assassination stuff.
   
   The book deals with a guy who was selected for a very short sniper school while in Vietnam, and he then is sent into the field in order to basically assassinate people. He also claims the word "sniper" was never once used during his training.
   
   As I read on, my suspicions were confirmed when he described being assinged to the "2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry", (in the 1st Cav Div), which he also described as "the Garry Ownen battalion". Now those two gaffes right there show me he's a poseur. And I don't think you can hang that one on his ghost writer, who also allegedly was in VN.
   
   He also slipped up later, when he described being shown a photo of his intended target, who had a scar over his eye. After dispatching that guy, a couple missions later he looks through his scope and identifies a female he is supposed to snipe, and he recognizes her by a scar over her eye. Oops! The other thing is: you can not expect me to believe that he could just be given a photo to examine for a few seconds. That's ridiculous.
   
   Yeah, the book is a joke and the last half of it has a bunch of useless filler about PTSD etc.



5. Having worked with snipers in Viet Nam, I can assure you that this book doesn't have any relationship to the real thing.
   Reader's Digest condensed version would read - Served in the Army, collected some war stories, wrote a book with a grabber title (and little else), made money.
   This guy is right out of "Stolen Valor".

No comments about Sisters in War.

3 comments about Guderian: Panzer Pioneer or Myth Maker (Brassey's Military Profiles).

1. This very short but well balanced biography of Heinz Guderian is long overdue!
   
   Historian Russel Hart has succeeded admirably in his goal of presenting a balanced picture of Hitler's leading Panzer general. Hart proves convincingly that Guderian, willingly assisted by British historian Liddell Hart, succeeded in mythologizing his own contributions to Nazi Germany's panzer force and World War II victories, while at the same time, hiding his own personal dedication to Hitler and his Nazi regime and his deficiencies as a combat commander. Guderian thus succeeded in creating a legend that has endured to this day.
   
   It is true that there is little here that is really new for those who read widely on the German Army of World War II. For example, it has long been known that Guderian "shopped" around in Eastern Europe for an estate worthy of his contributions to the Third Reich and had no qualms about seizing such a prize from its Jewish owners. The same is, in fact true, of most of Nazi Germany's senior military leadership during the war.
   
   But Hart has succeeded in bringing together a number of different sources and presenting in a succint manner a profile of the German panzer leader that will force historians to reassess all of Hitler's senior commanders in a new light and against a new standard. For that, he is to be commended!
   
   It is time we stopped mythologizing the World War II German Army and its commanders.



2. This succinct summation of Heinz Guderian's career is a deliciously iconoclastic account of the man who was once viewed as the "inventor" of blitzkrieg. Over the past thirty years scholars have questioned this interpretation piecemeal. Hart summarizes and synthesizes this literature, bringing it together in one convenient place.
   
   Guderian in Hart's formulation was one of a group of officers associated with the development of the German armored force in the 1920s and 1930s. He was very much a junior partner in this effort--his chief contribution being a flair for publicity and self promotion. (In the Cold War he used this latter skill to write more influential innovators out of his memoirs--and largely out of the conventional historical wisdom.) In the 1939 and 1940 campaigns argues Hart, Guderian exhibited a genuine skill in offensive tactics--when his opponents were technologically overmatched--but he had little sense of the operational or strategic context of his actions. Most of all, he profited from being in the right place at the right time. In the Russian campaign of 1941, he demonstrated that he "was simply not a very effective defensive commander." (Page 79.) Hitler was quite right to relieve him when he proved unwilling to conduct a positional defense. Given the state of the German Army in the winter of 1941-1942, any other course was an invitation to disaster.
   
   Guderian was, if anything, a survivor. Hart's account of his maneuvering to hold a high position in any successor government to the Hitler regime while at the same time covering his tracks if the coup attempt failed is a masterpiece of historical reconstruction. The author is equally successful in stripping away Guderian's various evasions of his knowledge of and complicity in Nazi mass murder.
   
   In Hart, Guderian has obtained the biographer he has long deserved. Guderian: Panzer Pioneer or Myth Maker is an outstanding entry in Potomac Books' Military Profile series edited by Denis Showalter.
   
   Edgar F. Raines, Jr.



3. This is a much-anticipated, but ultimately disappointing new profile of Guderian. The author has done very little in the way of original research and has ignored some very important, easily accessible sources. He has basically taken Macksey's biography of Guderian, stripped out the positive elements, and tossed in some negative elements from the recent works of other historians. This isn't a biography, it's a hatchet job and from all the poor writing it contains - overloaded adjectives and repeated cliches - it's a very rushed hatchet job at that.
   
   Guderian deserves better than this. If a biographer chooses to re-examine Guderian's life and perhaps deflate his legend along the way, he should do so using all available sources, such as Guderian's personal papers at the German military archives and the interrogation reports and unit records easily obtainable at a number of archives, including the US National Archives. Anything less than that is not worth the paper it is printed on.

2 comments about Reaper Leader: The Life of Jimmy Flatley.

1. I thought there was going to be a lot more air-to-air combat. Instead, although there was some, it dealt with the career of James Flatley. P.S. I do not live in Rock Hill, SC, any longer but live in Denton, TX. Amazon doesn't take my update seriously.



2. After six decades as a superpower, it may be hard for Americans to remember what a terribly small band of warriors stood between the United States and those wishing to do us harm in 1941.
   The entire Navy then had fewer than a thousand fighter planes, some of them useless in modern combat, and only a cadre of pilots. Fortunately, although the military had been starved of men, machines and money, the American system was flexible, expandable and resilient. Among its few superb leaders was Jimmy Flatley.
   He didn't look intimidating. Overwork and cigarettes kept his weight down to 120 pounds for most of World War II. But he was a thinker, a fighter, a teacher and a leader. When he led his aviators into combat -- his most famous group was the Grim Reapers -- they were a team.
   Though outnumbered, in the early days, by the superbly trained and greatly experienced Japanese aviators, the Americans proved superior overall, in large part because of their political and moral system.
   While the Japanese created difficulties for themselves, the Americans were notable for working their way around difficulties placed in the way by others. In Flatley's career, the notable example was his debate with the other great fighter leader of the Pacific war, Jimmie Thach, over the four-plane or six-plane interceptor division.
   Although the difference may appear to be trivial, aerial combat was a matter of thin advantages, and Thach's idea -- the famous "Thach weave" -- proved vital, especially during the period when the Americans flew slower, less handy planes.
   Flatley initially doubted Thach, but, in what biographer Steve Ewing says was characteristic of his moral courage, once persuaded, he admitted he had been wrong -- very publicly wrong -- and worked to educate the rest of the Navy.
   Flatley was a positive man in every way. He once wrote a friend that he had "some very definite ideas and . . . the confidence of my own convictions."
   He was right more than he was wrong, but his promotion to admiral was delayed because some brass hats thought he talked too much.
   In the early '50s, when the Navy was struggling to adapt to the jet age, it was Flatley who changed the Navy's attitude to aviation safety. As a result, deaths dropped from one every 18 hours to one every 18 weeks.
   Ewing says some other officers considered Flatley had saved naval aviation and that his peacetime safety leadership was even more important than his wartime heroics.
   At every turn, Ewing emphasizes not Flatley's exciting battles but the qualities that allowed Flatley to lead his men successfully through them.
   Flatley's outlook was conventional, a walking version of the Boy Scout oath. He was intelligent but not much of a standout in the classroom, steady, honorable. Nobody ever thought him profound.
   To the public, he was one of the best-known naval aviators, a tireless speaker and writer.
   His career as a publicist portrayed the defects of his virtues. A sort of premature McCarthyite, his frequent lectures on geopolitics were half-baked. Ewing attributes his opinions to "reading prominent newspapers," but he must have picked up many of his ideas from Roman Catholic sermons, more bellicose in those days than what we hear today. Flatley was a Holy Joe, and Ewing says his men, even if not religiously inclined themselves, respected him for his forthright preaching.
   Flatley made an appealing personality -- tireless, a genuine war hero, a faithful and sober family man, he was what the bishops were looking for but didn't get when they adopted Joe McCarthy. There is little doubt that he would have been offered help to a national political career after retirement from the Navy -- which would have placed him on the stage at the height of John Kennedy's popularity -- but the cigarettes caught up with him when he was only 52.
   A gentle man personally, and adopted as a surrogate father by many sailors when he rose to command ranks, Flatley never flinched from the violence of his calling. He was the ultimate professional, at a time when his country needed professionals more than anything else.
   As Ewing says in summing up, "Anyone who knew Jimmy recognized he was always at war."

1 comments about Soldier Stories: True Tales of Courage, Honor, and Sacrifice from the Frontlines.

1. Soldier Stories, compiled and edited by Joe L. Wheeler, has been a very difficult book to review, primarily because every time I set it down, someone else made off with it. My son has cited some of the quotations on war that Wheeler included. My daughter-in-law kept one eye on the little ones and one on the book, as she told me, "This is a good book."
   
   Wheeler compiled accounts from World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the War on Terror. Subjects vary from a World War I ace, to homing pigeons, to the Rickenbacker party lost in the ocean on life rafts, to escorting home the body of a dead soldier from the Gulf War, to Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan. Wheeler includes sixteen moving accounts and an equal number of quotations.
   
   Styles vary with the writer. Ernie Pyle's "The Lost Fortress" is direct and straightforward while William Slavens McNutt's "The Yanks Go Through" is highly descriptive, almost poetic. Some are deeply personal, such as Lt. Eric Lomax's "Beyond the River Kwai" and Sergeant Sidney Stewart's (with Joe Wheeler) "Give Us This Day."
   
   Each account tells of courage in war, though "The Dresden Inferno" is by a victim of the fire bombings rather than a soldier. Whether a victim, a soldier, a prisoner of war, or a writer, each account exemplifies courage and honor. Some of the accounts encourage, others sadden, and others inspire.
   
   The book was not what I had expected. I had expected stories like Sergeant Alvin York's taking a battalion single-handedly in battle. Wheeler includes some of that but it is less of a "hero" book than a "human" book, as the reader experiences almost every human emotion while reading it. The people in the accounts come alive as they confront fear, courage, challenge, victory, and sorrow.
   
   A couple of things stood out to me. One is the difference in attitude of these writers from today's journalists. Ernie Pyle holds his breath hoping the lost bomber can make it to base across the African desert, while McNutt cheers and prays for the safety of Red Cross workers trying to evade machine gunners in World War I. These writers were unabashedly pro-American. I can't say that of some of today's journalists.
   
   The second is that this book will appeal to both men and women. I can picture my seventy-something father enjoying it as well as my twenty-something daughter-in-law. It would also be useful for history classes in public, private, and home schools. Not all of the accounts are overtly Christian, but they all are good. Would students understand the Betaan death march better from a textbook or by reading a first-person account here? There's no question.
   
   You can approach the book in several ways. You can read straight through it as I did or skip around to the accounts that interest. Whichever you do, Soldier Stories is worth reading. - Debbie W. Wilson, Christian Book Previews.com

2 comments about American Civil War Commanders (2): Confederate Leaders in the East (Elite).

1. This is another in the Osprey Publishing series on the Civil War. The focus here is on 30 generals serving with the northern forces in the East. Each general receives brief coverage and either a photo or other rendering of his likeness. So, if you want an in-depth analysis of the likes of Phil Sheridan, George Meade, Winfield Scott Hancock, Joseph Hooker, or George McClellan, forget about it. However, if you want a quick and dirty examination of each--plus an introduction to many lesser known generals--this does a nice job.
   
   The book begins by noting the obvious--the standing military of the United States at the outset of the Civil War was tiny. The largest functional units were regiments--and these were largely broken into companies to serve on the frontier or in other postings. There were relatively few professional officers--and 1/3 of these went south. There were only four generals in the army--Winfield Scott, David Twigg, John Wool, and William Harney, the latter the only general under 70 and who had NOT served in the War of 1812!
   
   What I find especially interesting about this book is learning a bit about some of the lesser known generals, such as Darius Couch (How many know that he was acting commanding general at Chancellorsville of the Army of the Potomac?), William French, Andrew A. Humphreys, Fitz John Porter, James Ricketts, Edwin Sumner, and so on. There is just enough on each to give a sense of the person and broaden the knowledge base of people who have not read deeply on the Civil War.
   
   As with all Osprey volumes (in this and other series), the book is rather short (58 pages of text). However, it does provide a useful service in exposing people to a fair amount of basic information in a short work.



2. This title was somewhat above my expectations. While many Osprey books run toward the shallow side, Philip Katcher is one of their better writers with a wealth of knowledge about the Army of the Potomac. The biographies of well-known generals like McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, and Meade are competently done but with little that is new. Where this book stands out is its biographies of lesser generals like William French, Darius Couch, and Philip Kearny, about whom serious information is harder to find. I was pleased to learn that Couch was something of an intellectual with an interest in nature, and that William French tried to manipulate a New York Herald reporter to cover his mistakes after Mine Run. Katcher makes fine use of eyewitness personal accounts to depict people by those who knew them. All in all a small but useful work of research by an interesting writer.