by Daniel A. Masters.
El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie, 2024. Pp. xiv, 655.
Illus, maps, order of battle, notes, biblio., index. $39.95. ISBN: 1611217121
An Overlooked, Hard-Fought CampaignStones River marked a turning point for Union fortunes in the Western Theater, and this fresh and original study sets forth the hefty cost of securing that victory for the Union. Earlier treatments of the campaign were top-down military and political studies, heavily focused on the generalship and high-level commanders rather than the men in the ranks. In contrast, Masters, who’s written extensively in Civil War history, argues that Stones River was the quintessential soldiers’ battle, that is one won by the tenacity and skill of the common soldiers rather than brilliant leadership. He reconstructs the battle from the ground up, concentrating on the experiences of the front-line troops, drawing from hundreds of archival materials and numerous first-hand accounts, many of which have never been published before. These enabled Masters to weave together numerous accounts by men from both sides, cutting back and forth across the field, at times in 30 minute-by-minute slices.
Masters makes some important points about the campaign. He contends that neither general made effective use of their forces. In addition, Union resistance, and artillery fire, was critical to the outcome of the battle. Finally, he argues that despite having great success at a critical moment, the Confederacy’s Braxton Bragg fell back, leaving the field. Thus, arguably a draw, the battle became a victory for the Union’s William Rosecrans.
And, despite very heavy losses, it was an important victory for the Union as it came in the wake of bitter defeats at Fredericksburg and Chickasaw Bayou, “with frustration, and war-weariness gripping the North” (p. 221).
Hell By the Acre consists of 20 readable chapters plus a Postscript, with an Order of Battle, some detailed maps and many illustrations. The title comes from Colonel James Neibling of the 21st Ohio who, while walking the lines to encourage his men during the fight for the Slaughter Pen, told them to "Give 'em hell by the acre, boys, hell by the acre!"
Covering the campaign from November 1862 through January 1863, Hell by the Acre is fair and balanced to both sides. Well-researched, comprehensive, and analytical, it will appeal to scholars and armchair students of the Civil War.
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Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, A Fine Opportunity Lost, The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, The Limits of the Lost Cause on Civil War Memory, War in the Western Theater, J.E.B. Stuart: The Soldier and The Man, The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg, All for the Union: The Saga of One Northern Family, Voices from Gettysburg, The Blood Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Creek, June 17-18, 1864, Union General Daniel Butterfield, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, All Roads Led to Gettysburg, The Traitor's Homecoming, A Tempest of Iron and Lead, The Cassville Affairs, Holding Charleston by the Bridle, Chorus of the Union, and The Maps of Second Bull Run.
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Note: Hell by the Acre is also available in e-editions.
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