Review: "The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864" By Gordon C. Rhea

Like two titans, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee locked armies and ferociously grappled with each other over two days in early-May 1864 in a dense forbidding patch of terrain and landscape in northern Virginia known as "The Wilderness".  At the conclusion of these two days of some of the most severest fighting of the entire Civil War, the two armies had lost a combined total of nearly 29,000 men killed, wounded, or captured.

Gordon Rhea's account of Grant's first battle as the Union Army Commander-in-Chief, is a well-written and very thorough description of The Battle of the Wilderness.  Grant was determined to maneuver the Union Army of the Potomac between Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate capitol in Richmond, and in The Wilderness he very nearly succeeded.  He started three extremely powerful Union Army Corps eastward down the Orange Plank Road and the Orange Turnpike and ran headlong into two Confederate Corps commanded by A.P. Hill and Dick Ewell.  Unfortunately for the Federals, as the fighting started the corps and brigade commanders just couldn't maintain effective coordination and communication as the assaults progressed, and the out-numbered Confederate corps were able to beat back most of the Federal attacks at great cost to both attacker and defender.

The woods were so dense and disorienting that the attacking troops couldn't see but just a few yards in any directions, and unit movements became fragmented and went off-track almost immediately.  The firing of muskets and artillery actually started numerous forest fires, which flared up among the troops as they moved through the woods, or lay wounded on the forest floor.  The fighting was pretty much a unconstrained brawl between the two armies and just raged back and forth and up and down the turnpike and plank roads.  Finally, after two days, the major fighting slowly sputtered out and the two armies were largely back in their original starting positions and just scowling at each other. 

Rhea assesses the result of two days of battle in The Wilderness as, at best, a tactical victory for Lee and the Confederates, but a strategic victory for Grant and the Federal army.  The bottom-line was that Grant was not going to leave--not even after nearly 18,000 Federal casualties--but was going to latch onto Lee's army like a pitbull, and not let up up until the war was over.  This attitude for prosecution of the war was a sea-change compared to all of the previous commanders of the Union Army of the Potomac.  Grant, in The Wilderness, tried to exercise the use of power in attacking Lee's army, as he did so successfully in his campaigns in the western theater.  The problem was that his subordinate commanders (i.e., Meade, Hancock, Sedgewick, Burnside, et al.) and the Army of the Potomac just weren't up to the challenge yet.  Both Grant and the Army of the Potomac needed to learn how to fight differently and fight 'together', and this first step in The Wilderness was clearly part of that learning process. 

I can't begin to relate how much I learned about Grant's leadership qualities and The Battle of the Wilderness in this excellent book by Gordon Rhea, and how much I am looking forward to reading the next three books in his series about the Overland Campaign.  The maps included in the book are truly quite superb and make much of the complicated maneuvering of the units during the battle much easier to follow and comprehend.  As usual, I wish there were even more maps, but that's a common litany of mine.  Every serious Civil War buff ought to have this book on their shelf.

***

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864
By Gordon C. Rhea
Hardcover, 512 pages
Louisiana State University Press, 1994

Reviews: "Midnight Tides" and "House of Chains" By Steven Erikson

You're getting a 'two-fer' with this review.  I am on a roll right now reading Steven Erikson's "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" series of epic high fantasy, and I am presenting my review of the fourth and fifth novels in his ten-volume series.  What I am really trying to say is that you can't stop reading these books, and I am ever-so-thrilled that I still have five to go!

House of Chains is the fourth volume in Steven Erikson's monumental ten-volume series entitled, "The Malazan Book of the Fallen."  This book follows the first three in continuing to flesh out the world and characters that Erikson has so brilliantly created.

The first quarter, or so, of the novel tells the back-story of a character that we briefly met in the second book in the series (Deadhouse Gates)--that of the 'Toblakai' or as we come to find out, the great Teblor warrior, Karsa Orlong.  Again, it bears repeating that Erikson's professional training as an archaeologist and anthropologist has infused his characters and the fictional landscapes with a scent of authenticity that one rarely, if ever, encounters in fiction.

Following the fascinating recounting Karsa's story in the northern wilds of the continent of Genibackis, Erikson then focuses much of the remaining book on the Malazan 14th Army's efforts to defeat 'Sha'ik's Whirlwind' in the 'Holy Raraku Desert' on the continent of 'Seven Cities.  This is some epic military fiction, told from the perspectives of the Army Commander herself down to the squad-level grunts themselves.

The last two-hundred pages, as is typical for Erikson, proceed at break-neck speed, the action and pacing just relentless.  I am learning that Erikson is a big believer in 'convergence.'  When s**t starts happening, more and bigger s**t starts happening; and the next thing you know there are just major events leaping off of every page.  I truly defy any reader to set one these books down with anything under two-hundred pages remaining, it simply ain't possible.

Finally, one must always keep the 'First Eriksonian Law' firmly at the forefront as one reads--"Pay very close attention to every word read and event described."  The 'Second Eriksonian Law' is equally applicable--"Every word read and event described has meaning that may not be initially understood."  Those conversations, or actions of characters, or puzzling events that seem a little odd or inexplicable always seem to reappear as a 'light-bulb' moment later on when all then becomes clear (at least for that moment).  The bottom-line is that Steven Erikson really is an enormously clever writer, and his authorial use of the craft of foreshadowing is some of the best I've run across.  There just ain't anybody writing fiction like this guy!  House of Chains is a very worthy addition to this magnificent series.

***

Okay, now having read the fifth volume in Steven Erikson's "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" series, Midnight Tides, I think Erikson has the set pieces all in place on the board now.  In finishing this novel I have to say that it truly feels like we have now been exposed to the landscapes, and most of the characters; and it now seems that the plot lines are all starting to slowly begin spiraling toward some form of a mega-convergence in the remaining four novels.  I, for one, can hardly contain myself and my excitement at what is to come!

Midnight Tides is set on the continent of Lether and tells the story of a major war that breaks out between the Tiste Edur (The Children of Shadows) and the Letherii peoples.  This is the first novel to address these peoples and this continent, and none of the characters from the previous novels, with the exception of just a few of the Elder Gods, are even present.  It doesn't matter a bit though.  Within 50 pages, the reader is completely enthralled with the new lands and the characters.  I would be completely remiss in not mentioning just a few of my new favorite characters; including Seren Pedac, Trull Senger, Brys Beddict, Shurq Elalle, Kettle, Iron Bars, and my absolutely most favorite characters in the series to date, Tehol Beddict and his 'man-servant' Bugg.  Oh Lordy, you will just salivate with joy at each and every appearance (and there are plenty, trust me) of Tehol and Bugg.  Seriously, some of the funniest stuff written!

The story of the 'world war' between the Tiste Edur peoples and the Letherii Empire is loaded with pathos and drama.  Tears will be shed.  Also, there are some very powerful explicit and implicit moral messages within this story that have application for all of us in our lives today, regardless of what country we live in.  This story does tend make the reader stop and reconsider what patriotism means, and how it should be applied.

While at first blush it might be easy to question Mr. Erikson about the relevancy of this tale within the larger arc of "The Malazan Book of the Fallen", as we are on a completely new landmass with completely new characters--none of which has the slightest thing to do with the Malazan Empire.  Having said this though, the careful reader will continually ferret out clues and new information associated with issues and events that have been encountered in previous novels in the series.  In other words, I am suggesting that this is not only an incredibly well-written novel and engaging story in its own right, but is a very important portion of the larger 'Malazan' canvas that Erikson is carefully painting.

And did I tell you how much I love the characters of 'Tehol Beddict' and 'Bugg'?  Just thinking about these two will bring a smile to my face for the rest of my life!

***