The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road
by Bruce Catton

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Book Reviews of The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road

Book Review: The fall and rise of the Army of the Potomac: 1862-1863
Summary: 5 Stars

Catton's source material for this 1952 book is drawn primarily from dozens of Regimental Histories (the Third Indiana Calvary, the 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, the 8th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, etc.) as well as Soldiers' Reminiscences to go along with autobiographies, biographical studies, memoirs, and military histories. The result is an attention to the human details. Within these pages you meet: the New York businessman who as a soldier wrote the mournful bugle call "Taps"; Clement Vallandigham, the Copperhead candidate for Ohio governor; Annie Etheridge. the army laundress who brought hot coffee and hardtack to the men on the front lines; John C. Robinson, who had the well deserved reputation as the hairiest officer in the entire army; Private Patrick Maloney, who captured a Confederate general with his bare hands.

"Glory Road" is divided into six sections: (1) "Deep River" tells the story of the insane advance up Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg; (2) "All Played Out" covers the dark days following that disaster at the Army's bitter mud marches and winter encampment; (3) "Revival" depicts the new hope that fueled the army when Hooker was appointed; (4) "On the Other Side of the River" relates Lee's strategic masterpiece at Chancellorsville; (5) "Lincoln Comin' Wid His Chariot" sets the stage, politically as well as militarily for the final turning point of the war; and (6) "End and Beginning" details not only the three days of battle at Gettysburg, but offers an absolutely lyrical conclusion to the book as the President attends the dedication ceremony for the national cemetery and begins to speak from two little sheets of paper in his hand. It is perhaps Catton's finest section, with an understated elegance that makes it clear that as a writer Catton owes as much to Homer as he does Herodotus. This is history that aspires to, and achieves the level of, literature. Catton might have received the Pulitzer prize for the final volume in his history of the Army of the Potomac, but "Glory Road" is the high water mark of the trilogy.

Summary of The Army of the Potomac: Glory Road

Civil War Books

• Subjects > History > Americas > United States > Civil War
• Military