Terrible Swift Sword (Volume Two in the American Civil War Trilogy)

The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton is one of the best Civil War books that I've read, and the second volume in his American Civil War Trilogy, Terrible Swift Sword, is even better. I can understand why these books have continued to be popular almost 50 years from when they were first published. Terrible Swift Sword begins after the First Battle of Bull Run and runs through Antietam. With Bull Run, both sides realized that this was going to be a long-term, all out war and that there was no going back. Both sides also realized that they were woefully unprepared for what lay ahead. Catton is at his best in presenting not just the battles, but also the many other facets of the war (politics, leaders, etc.) in a way that is very informative yet easy to read. As for battles, Catton spends much time with Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, the Spring Campaigns of Kentucky and Tennessee, New Orleans and Second Bull Run. It is fascinating to read so much about the western campaigns. It seems that many Civil War books highlight the eastern campaigns (around Maryland and Virginia) at the expense of the western battles. Yet, it was the western campaigns that gave the Union a much-needed jumpstart in the war effort. While Catton gives us a good bit of information, his analytical skills in tying it all together is second to none. In describing the first battle between the ironclads, he writes "When morning came, ironclad would fight ironclad...and every navy in the world would have to rebuild." He also analyzes how the very principles that brought about the Confederacy attributed to its downfall. "The Southern people might in truth be all fire and ardor, but they were bound by the rigid limits of the theorem on which they had seceded." With two books down and one to go in The American Civil War Trilogy, I hate to see it come to an end. But Catton was prolific in his Civil War writing and I'll have to start reading some of his other Civil War works.

"Terrible Swift Sword" is the second volume of Bruce Catton's classic Centennial History of the Civil War. First published in 1963, the series remains highly worthwhile despite the inevitable advances in scholarship, thanks to Catton's superb presentation of the history of the Civil War as dramatic literature. Catton, a journalist and public official before becoming an historian, has a remarkable gift for capturing both the very human leaders trapped in the fog of war at the center of events and the grander themes that drove events. Much of the story arc of "Terrible Swift Sword" centers around the career of George B. McClellan, brought in to lead the Union Army of the Potomac after the fiasco of First Bull Run. McClellan rebuilds the Army and infuses it with spirit, yet proves reluctant to use it in battle. After much prompting from Lincoln, McClellan will take the Army of the Potomac south to Hampton Roads, there to begin a cautious assualt on Richmond from the East. The campaign eventually stalls before Richmond and the counterattack of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Army of the Potomac is ultimately withdrawn. McClellan will give way temporarily as senior Union General in the East to John Pope, who is promptly thrashed at Second Bull Run. McClellan returns to lead the Army of the Potomac to Antietnam in pursuit of Lee's Army. There, McClellan's lack of killer instinct allows Lee to escape with a tactical draw. McClellan's failure to use his superior numbers and position to destroy Lee or to pursue his battered army will finally take him out of the war. Against the background of the toils of the Army of the Potomac are the steadily hardening attitudes toward the prosecution of the war. The recognition, especially in Congress and in the Lincoln Administration, that this conflict must become a war to the death leads to the Emancipation Proclamation and to a weeding of the ranks of general officers. Those perceived not to have their heart in the fight are soon removed, and some are made an example. The investigation of Union General Stone after the fiasco of Ball's Bluff is manifestly unfair to Stone, as is his imprisonment afterward; it is meant to be a warning to other generals. It is in this context that General Grant's hard-nosed campaigning in the West is noticed in Washington, D.C. This book is highly recommended to students and fans of the Civil War. It continues to be a wonderful reading experience.

Just as Volumn 1, 'The Coming Fury' this is an amazing piece of work, Volumn 2, 'Terrible Swift Sword' that will capture you within its' pages. You will be taken through the escalation of the war. You will learn of the great as well as the poor decisions made by the governments of the Union as well as the Confederacy. You will learn just how close the war came to the involvment of the British government. This book ends around the last of the year 1862. You will not be able to put it down and the only consolation to finishing this work is the fact that you can now start on Volumn 3, 'Never Call Retreat.'

Nearly 40 years after it was first published, Catton's "Terrible Swift Sword", the second book of his Civil War Centennial history, remains fresh. As he would do in all three volumes, Catton deftly weaves together the military, political, and social aspects of the war in a fashion that is not only readable, but positively lyrical in his use of language. He is, IMHO, at his poetic best in descibing the seismic shift in war aims, from a conflict to restore the union to one waged for human freedom. Ably assisted by the research of E.B. Long, Catton makes good use of a wide range of sources in covering the period of the war from First Bull Run to just before the tragedy at Fredericksburg. While he doesn't break any new ground (that wasn't his intent), he provides the reader with a sweeping narrative of this critical period in our most traumatic conflict. Catton's trilogy is one of the best places to start if one is seeking an introduction to the Civil War. Buy it.