By Jim Woodrick. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (November 3)

In his second inaugural address, delivered in March 1865, Abraham Lincoln expressed his hope that “this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away” but also allowed that it might yet be God’s will that “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”

As it happened, the war would finally draw to a close a little more than a month later, but the nation could hardly have paid a steeper price in blood than had already been shed in the final, horrific year of the Civil War. Lincoln himself would, of course, be among the war’s last victims at the hands of an assassin.

Author S.C. Gwynne, who has previously written an acclaimed biography of Stonewall Jackson Rebel Yell, offers a fast-paced and engaging look on the last year of the Civil War in Hymns of the Republic. In his book, Gwynne focuses initially on Grant’s Virginia campaign which evolved into a series of battles that produced long lists of Union casualties but made little headway in winning the war.

The stalemate in Virginia, along with William T. Sherman’s struggle to capture Atlanta, gave renewed hope in the South that an increasingly war-weary North would turn against Lincoln in the November elections and choose someone willing to let the Confederacy go. But it was not to be.

With the fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, the war took a dramatic turn. Not only had prospects brightened for Lincoln, but a new style of warfare emerged. Sherman, who the author describes as a “restless, nervous, fidgety, kinetic” man, would use his army in the subsequent March to the Sea and into the Carolinas not to take and hold territory but to destroy the Confederacy’s ability to wage war, and, perhaps more importantly, to destroy the South’s will to continue the struggle.

In Virginia, Phil Sheridan slashed and burned his way across the Shenandoah Valley with similar goals. Caught in the crossfire were countless civilians, both slave and free.

Gwynne’s military narrative closes with a compelling account of Appomattox and explores a number of long-held myths about the surrender of Lee’s army. Throughout, Gwynne pays particular attention to the increasingly important role of African Americans as Union soldiers and as a political and moral force in shaping the outcome of the war.

Gwynne is perhaps at his best in bringing to life the main characters in the unfolding drama. While he is fairly critical of Grant’s tactical skills, or lack thereof, he draws a parallel between Grant’s ability to overcome setbacks, both personal and professional, with his determination to keep up the pressure on Lee in spite of a chorus of critics in Washington.

Robert E. Lee, meanwhile, is presented as a somewhat tragic figure who sacrificed everything for a cause and country that could no longer be sustained. Lee, he writes, was a man increasingly burdened by “sadness, frustration, unhappiness and loss.”

Yet Lee, like Grant, seemed to understand that the game had to be played out, even if it resulted in thousands more lives sacrificed on Virginia’s blood-soaked fields. Readers will also gain fresh insight into Sherman’s character, along with Phil Sheridan, Clara Barton, John Singleton Mosby, Salmon P. Chase and, of course, Lincoln.

There are certainly more in-depth studies on the campaigns of 1864 and 1865, most notably Gordon Rhea’s multi-volume work on the Overland Campaign, but Gwynne’s book includes just enough detail on the movements of the armies to satisfy military historians and appeal to those who might not otherwise read a book on the Civil War. Hymns of the Republic is a riveting and beautifully crafted story and would be a valuable addition to any library.

Jim Woodrick is the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at MDAH, the author of The Civil War Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, and a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Vicksburg National Military Park.

Lemuria has selected Hymns of the Republic its November 2019 selection for its First Editions Club for Nonfiction.

By Jim Woodrick. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (October 27)

On May 1, 1863, Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River on a flotilla of steamboats, gunboats and barges and landed on Mississippi soil at Bruinsburg. It was the largest amphibious landing by an American army in history and would remain so until World War II.

More importantly, it was the culmination of months of hard campaigning by the Federals; not the end of the campaign by any means, but certainly the beginning of the end. As Grant would later relate in his memoirs, “All of the campaigns, labors, hardships, and exposures” to that point were for the accomplishment of “this one object”–the capture of Vicksburg and the reopening of the Mississippi.

In his new one-volume history of the Vicksburg Campaign, Donald L. Miller brings the reader to this dramatic moment–and many other twists and turns–not merely as an observer but as a participant through his elegant prose.

Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign That Broke the Confederacy is first and foremost an in-depth look at U.S. Grant during this critical period of the Civil War. Grant, of course, has been the subject of a great deal of attention from biographers of late, especially Ron Chernow’s celebrated work, and Miller’s book is a welcome addition.

In an almost intimate fashion, he brings Grant to life without heaping too much praise for his military successes or being overly critical of his personal and professional failings (of which there were many) and he ably handles the most controversial aspect of Grant’s character—his reported affinity for alcohol. Along the way, the author introduces a host of interesting characters who played their own parts, both large and small, in the drama that unfolds.

In addition to the increased interest in Grant, there has been, in recent years, a renewed focus on the Vicksburg Campaign, a focus that is both well-deserved and long overdue. For those who wish to delve deeply into the complexities of the movements of armies and logistics, there are many excellent choices available, including Edwin C. Bearss’ monumental three-volume study and the late Michael Ballard’s one-volume treatment.

For the casual reader, however, Miller’s book provides a good overview of a very complex campaign without getting lost in the details and places the Vicksburg story within its proper context. Rather than focusing on minutiae of individual battles, the author uses a wide-angle lens for his campaign study and includes the earliest efforts by Union military authorities to reopen the Mississippi, beginning with a dramatic account of the capture of New Orleans in 1862.

From there, Miller describes Grant’s single-minded focus on achieving his goal of capturing Vicksburg, from his overland march in north Mississippi to the failed expeditions in the twisted bayous of the Mississippi Delta. Throughout, he pays particular attention to the critical role played by the U.S. Navy, an aspect of the Vicksburg Campaign which is all too often overlooked.

Once Grant’s army lands at Bruinsburg, Miller’s prose quickens as the action and the urgency of the campaign swells to a bloody crescendo at Champion Hill, which Miller argues—and convincingly so—was the most decisive engagement of the Civil War. All along the way—whether in the malarial swamps of Louisiana or the hot and dusty trenches at Vicksburg—Miller’s poetic descriptions of the sweeping landscape adds to the reader’s experience.

In the acknowledgements, Miller relates that he first began research on the Vicksburg Campaign in 1997 and, due to circumstances of life and other research projects, did not return to working on the book until 2013. We are indeed fortunate that he kept at it, as the result is a magnificently written and thoroughly readable account of what is arguably the most significant and complex campaign of the Civil War.

Jim Woodrick is the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at MDAH, the author of The Civil War Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, and a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Vicksburg National Military Park.

Lemuria has selected Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign That Broke the Confederacy its October 2019 selection for its First Editions Club for Nonfiction. Signed first editions of Vicksburg are available in our online store.