David A. Powell (1) (1952–)

This is more than just an appendix to the other two volumes of Powell’s magisterial Chickamauga trilogy. He covers the immediate aftermath of the battle, including a rebuttal of the myth that Bragg could have taken Chattanooga immediately following the battle. Appendices cover interesting aspects of the battle and the Order of Battle, combat strength and casualties analysis offers a fascinating insight into the historical process. If you enjoyed the first two volumes, this conclusion is well worth having.… (más)

Just so you know, this and Dave Powell’s accompanying volume in this series, “All Hell Can’t Stop Them” are a duplication of his “Impulse of Victory”, written for the “World of Ulysses S Grant” series. The three books even all use the same excellent Hal Jesperson maps. So buy these two or that one for the Chattanooga Campaign, but not all of them. There are only minor differences.

This volume is the expected excellent treatment from Powell. There are a few interesting appendices. A couple of well described auto tours, a fascinating Frank Varney discussion of whether things before Grant’s arrival were really as bad as has been portrayed in pro-Grant histories, and one on civil war tourism of lookout mountain.… (más)

Powell does his usual masterful job of laying out both the strategic overview and the tactical details in an engaging manner. The title reflects his perspective that while Sigel made mistakes, there is a lot more blame than just him to go around, from Grant on down to Sigel’s subordinates. The focus is on the command decisions of the Union side, as earlier books have primarily focused on the VMI cadets and other aspects of the Confederate side. (Ironic as Powell is a VMI graduate!). But Breckinridge, Imboden and others are featured with insight.

One star off because the editing is simply awful. Typos, incorrect capitalizations and even sentence fragments are found throughout the text. If you can overlook that, this slim volume (212 pages of text) is well worth your time.… (más)

I consider Dave Powell one of the leading current Civil War history writers. And I'm a Rosecrans fan and recognize the Tullahoma campaign as a great strategic achievement. The problem is, it just doesn't carry enough weight for 356 pages of text. You can only describe so many marches and rain and mud, with repetitive personal accounts. The cavalry actions - the triumphs of Wilder and Minty and the failures of Wheeler, Morgan and Forrest - are the most compelling parts. One problem seemed to be too much narrative and not enough analysis (until the final chapter).

It's interesting to compare similar maneuvering prior to Chickamauga as depicted in volume 1 of Powell's magisterial trilogy. There, the narrative is much more compelling, perhaps because the stakes seem higher, the possible destruction of Negley at McLemore's Cove plus we know it is leading to the big battle. With Tullahoma, it seems as if Bragg is hopelessly outclassed from the start and never has a chance. There's never even really much of a danger that he is going to be cut off and forced to fight. Just more retreat through the mud.

It's deeply ironic to give a review like this, since Rosecrans heard very similar complaints from Lincoln and Stanton in the light of the simultaneous victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Rosecrans retorted that he had captured all of Middle Tennessee, just without all the blood and glory. It's true...but 356 pages is just too much to tell the story.… (más)