With his third book, To the North Anna River, Gordon Rhea resumes
his spectacular narrative of the initial campaign between Ulysses
S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in the spring of 1864. May 13 to 25, a
phase oddly ignored by historians, was critical in the clash
between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia.
During those thirteen days -- an interlude bracketed by horrific
battles that riveted the public's attention -- a game of guile and
endurance between Grant and Lee escalated to a suspenseful draw on
Virginia's North Anna River. Rhea skillfully sets the stage at dawn
May 13 and from there lends every imaginable perspective -- from
mental interiors to sweeping panoramas to scholarly retrospection
-- on the ensuing hours.
From the bloodstained fields of the Mule Shoe to the North Anna
River, with Meadow Bridge, Myers Hill, Harris Farm, Jericho Mills,
Ox Ford, and Doswell Farm in between, grueling night marches,
desperate attacks, and thundering cavalry charges became the norm
for both Grant's and Lee's men. But the real story of May 13-25 lay
in the two general's efforts to outfox each other, and Rhea charts
their every step and misstep. Realizing that his bludgeoning
tactics at the Bloody Angle were ineffective, Grant resorted to a
fast-paced assault on Lee's vulnerable points. Lee, outnumbered two
to one, abandoned the offensive and concentrated on anticipating
Grant's maneuvers and shifting quickly enough to repel them. It was
an amazingly equal match of wits that produced a gripping,
high-stakes bout of warfare -- a test, ultimately, of improvisation
for Lee and of perseverance for Grant.
From unprecedented research into more than 550 published and
unpublishedsources, Rhea produces an exciting new take on this
overlooked passage in the Civil War. He discovers a surprising
similarity in military temperament between Lee and Grant, whom
historians traditionally contrast. He also presents the first
detailed recounting of Philip Sheridan's dramatic battle to save
his cavalry corps in front of Richmond; the story of the novice New
York and New England heavy artillerists drawn down from Washington;
the specifics of Grant's forlorn attack of May 18 at Spotsylvania
Court House; and the full picture of Lee's ingenious inverted V
formation on the North Anna. The most accurate, not to mention
enthralling, account to date of this next phase in Lee and Grant's
opening match, To the North Anna River is a worthy sequel to Rhea's
earlier acclaimed works.
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