Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864

It is hard to find books on Grant's 1864 campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia, and this book fills the void admirably. The book is very well-written, and it held my attention throughout. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the American Civil War.

By 1864 the Civil War was one big stalemate. Originally thought by both sides to be a short, somewhat glorious affair, after three years it had turned into a meat grinding war of attrition. The stunning casualty lists of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Stones River, Chancellorsville, Antietam and Gettysburg had eliminated all thoughts of either glory or short. Both sides maintained battle hardened, smart, professional armies but with its manpower limited, the South's only hope was war weariness in the North. Neither side realized that with Grant's promotion to the command of all Federal forces, his strategy of all out war would change the conflict to the point where the terrible carnage had only just begun. For the North the campaign shifted from holding strategic sections of land and/or cities to nothing less than the annihilation of the South's armies, and of the South's ability to feed, maintain and support those armies. For the South, it was do or die. Having destroyed the South's offensive capability at Gettysburg, all that was left to Robert E. Lee was defense. In the process his focus also became annihilating Union armies in the hope that the butcher's bill in terms of casualties created enough war weariness in the North to force the conflict to the peace table. By 1864 then, the war shifted from conquering and holding territory to inflicting so much damage to each other's army that it destroyed the enemy's will to fight. As the author states, in the end the places themselves, the battle grounds, meant nothing. All that was important was death. Bloody Roads South is the story of the first steps in the North's change in strategy. It pits the South's best general and army against the North's best general and worst army. Lee once stated that to be successful, a general had to risk killing the very thing he loved, his army. In Sam Grant, he met the embodiment of those words. This is a quite excellent work, one that will shake your core.

Good, concise overview of the very bloody (84,000 casualties in approximately 40 days of continuous battle)Virginia Overland Campaign between Robert E. Lee and U. S. Grant in May and June of 1864. Actual battle narrative is relatively brief and to the point. The strength of Mr Trudeau's book comes through his excellent use of personal anecdotes and observations. To hear the actual participants describe the scenes, smells, sounds, and pathos of the battles gives one a better understanding of the horrors of those grisly conflicts. The time of chivalry was over; TOTAL WAR was afoot. As Mr. Trudeau points out, Grant knew how to win, but could his men withstand the gruesome sacrifice during almost 40 days of constant battle? Lee also knew that this was the ultimate crucible and he must use every trick he could to defeat this foe. But, in the end after Cold Harbor and a combined 84,000 casualties, of which only 30,000 were Confederate, who was the victor? Lee knew that he could never replace his valiant fighters, but, Grant knew that he had an almost inexhaustible supply of soldiers and with each battle they were getting better and better. So in the end Grant, "The Butcher" as he was called behind his back, literally ground Lee and his army to dust. One inexcusable flaw in this otherwise good Civil War history was the lack of battle maps. To discuss a battle without a good map makes if very difficult to follow the action even for a good civil war buff. I have no clue as to why Mr. Trudeau did not include any good maps in his book. Therefore, I highly recommend that you get several good maps to follow along with his otherwise excellent description of the battles.

One of the biggest difficulties authors of war-history are confronted with is keeping the imparitality. Even if you read books about the Roman wars you can read between the lines the admiration for the technical perfection of the invaders or the sympathy for the brave Gauls fighting against all odds. As a rule Civil War historians succumb to the same problem. This book is a wonderful exception. That may be because of the structure of the presentation: It is a day-by-day-account, the standpoint, the decisions and the events of either side separated in own phrases. If you are interrested only in the Confederate point of view, you can read the respective phrases and then you only know, what they saw, thought and did. Even between the lines there are no polemics. And the told stories are not only the generals' view but also testimonies of officers, non-commissioned officers and common soldiers. The only thing I missed badly were appropriate maps. With the included ones you will get a rough overview, but a lot of the mentioned places you won't find in that book. That's a pity, because otherwise it would have been a perfect one.

This first book of Noah Andre Trudeau's trilogy covering the final stages of the Civil War offers an excellent account of the fighting in the Wilderness and at Cold Harbor between May - June 1864. The personal accounts of the soldiers experiences during the fighting are well presented. The action scenes are well written and the book flows along quite well. An enjoyable book to read for anyone interested in this period of time.