A Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War

Being a fan of T.A. Dodge's works on ancient generals, I was anticipating reading his account of the war in which he was involved. Having not read much on this subject, I found this work to be an excellent over-view of the conflict without being over-bearing in details. As usual, Dodge gives his unique perspective on the main characters and opinions on some controversial subjects. However, if one is well-versed concerning our civil war, then this work is not worth reading for it is too general. But, for the initiate such as myself, it is a superb starting point for further reading. The only fault I found is that the maps of the various regions and even some of the battle areas were in too minute of detail and therefore difficult to read. This fault however does not detract significantly from the work and is but a minor nuisance. I look forward to reading the newly released novel on his journal as part of the Army of the Potomoc.

Theodore Dodge was one of the most astute military historians and critics of his era, roughly the 1890s through the early 1900s. His books on "The Great Captains" of all ages from Alexander through Napoleon continue to do well in reprints. As a participant in the Civil War, he had some insights not available to other scholars. As Dodge's preface indicates, this book was pitched at high-school level students who wanted to learn more about the military aspects of the war and who were likely to be confused by the profusion of self-justifying post war accounts of pariticipants. But understand that high school level in the 1890s, unlike today, did not mean you had to feed the kids politically correct and dumbed-down pap. Dodge manages to give highly analytical yet very succinct accounts of the campaigns. He does not waste time in challenging one or the other post-war accounts of this or that action, but gets right down to describing and analyzing the combat and the leadership. The 6 theater maps and 42 battlefield maps are a good indication of the level of critical discussion. A glossary of military terms was appended because his readership was expected to be mostly civilians. However even the military service man or woman of today would need this glossary as many of the terms are antiquated or have different meanings today.This is one civil war book that has not lost its value despite tens of thousands of subsequent accounts.