"NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLERS
by
MICHAEL SHAARA and JEFF SHAARA
THE CIVIL WAR TRILOGY
GODS AND GENERALS
THE KILLER ANGELS
THE LAST FULL MEASURE
"Brilliant does not even begin to describe the Shaara gift."--"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"

The heartbreaking saga of the years preceding The Killer Angels

"SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY in the empathetic realm of psycho-history, where enemies do not exist--just mortal men forced to make crucial decisions and survive on the same battlefield. . . . [He] succeeds with his historical novel through fully realized characters who were forced to decide their loyalties amid the horrors of their dividing nation."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Based on meticulous research and told in the voices of characters from both sides, this novel is Shaara at his best, writing for his most avid readership. In April of 1862, Major General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union forces led his troops deep into Tennessee, setting up camp around a small log church called Shiloh. On the morning of April 6, Confederate forces led by generals Johnston and Beauregard launched a surprise attack on the Union Army encampment to prevent the Union advance into northern Mississippi. Though the Confederates held the advantage for most of the first day, Union reinforcements arrived as evening came and launched a counterattack on the morning of April 7, successfully forcing the Confederates to retreat and ending what had become one of the bloodiest battles on American soil to date.

"NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER
Continuing the series that began with "A Blaze of Glory, " Jeff Shaara returns to chronicle another decisive chapter in America's long and bloody Civil War. In "A Chain of Thunder, " the action shifts to the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. There, in the vaunted "Gibraltar of the Confederacy," a siege for the ages will cement the reputation of one Union general--and all but seal the fate of the rebel cause.
In May 1863, after months of hard and bitter combat, Union troops under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at long last successfully cross the Mississippi River. They force the remnants of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army to retreat to Vicksburg, burning the bridges over the Big Black River in its path. But after sustaining heavy casualties in two failed assaults against the rebels, Union soldiers are losing confidence and morale is low. Grant reluctantly decides to lay siege to the city, trapping soldiers and civilians alike inside an iron ring of Federal entrenchments. Six weeks later, the starving and destitute Southerners finally surrender, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces on July 4--Independence Day--and marking a crucial turning point in the Civil War.
Drawing on comprehensive research and his own intimate knowledge of the Vicksburg Campaign, Jeff Shaara once again weaves brilliant fiction out of the ragged cloth of historical fact. From the command tents where generals plot strategy to the ruined mansions where beleaguered citizens huddle for safety, this is a panoramic portrait of men and women whose lives are forever altered by the siege. On one side stand the emerging legend Grant, his irascible second William T. Sherman, and the youthful "grunt" Private Fritz Bauer; on the other, the Confederate commanders Pemberton and Joseph Johnston, as well as nineteen-year-old Lucy Spence, a civilian doing her best to survive in the besieged city. By giving voice to their experiences at Vicksburg, "A Chain of Thunder" vividly evokes a battle whose outcome still reverberates more than 150 years after the cannons fell silent.
Praise for "A Chain of Thunder"
" Jeff] Shaara continues to draw powerful novels from the bloody history of the Civil War. . . . The dialogue intrigues. Shaara aptly reveals the main actors: Grant, stoic, driven, not given to micromanagement; Sherman, anxious, high-strung, engaged even when doubting Grant's strategy. . . . Worth a Civil War buff's attention."--"Kirkus Reviews"
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"Searing . . . Shaara seamlessly interweaves multiple points of view, as the plot is driven by a stellar cast of real-life and fictional characters coping with the pivotal crisis. . . . A] riveting fictional narrative."--"Booklist"
"Shaara's historical accuracy is faultless, and he tells a good story. . . . The voices of these people come across to the reader as poignantly as they did 150 years ago.""--Historical Novels Review"
"The writing is picturesque and vibrant. . . . an] engrossing tale.""--Bookreporter"

The American Revolution is brought to life with this saga of the men who forged the destiny of a nation. This BOMC and History Book Club Selection reveals how philosophers became fighters, how ideas became their ammunition, and how a scattered group of colonies became the United States of America.

"BRILLIANT DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE SHAARA GIFT. THANK GODS AND GENERALS THAT IT WAS PASSED FROM FATHER TO SON."
--Atlanta Journal & Constitution

"LIVELY, FAST-PACED . . . A worthy companion to The Killer Angels . . . Shaara brilliantly charts the war, the exploits of the combatants and their motivations. He also concisely shows how the early parts of the campaign unfolded. His accounts of the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are exciting. . . . Though the story of the Civil War has been told many times, this is the rare version that conveys what it must have felt like."
--Chicago Sun-Times

"SHAARA'S BEAUTIFULLY SENSITIVE NOVEL DELVES DEEPLY into the empathetic realm of psycho-history, where enemies do not exist--just mortal men forced to make crucial decisions and survive on the same battlefield. . . . [He] succeeds with his historical novel through fully realized characters who were forced to decide their loyalties amid the horrors of their divided nation."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"The battle of Gettysburg featured a cast of characters dramatically and poignantly portrayed in Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. This new novel by his son Jeff Shaara describes the interconnected paths that brought these men together at this crossroads of our history. Readers of The Killer Angels won't want to miss Gods and Generals."
--James McPherson, Author of Battle Cry of Freedom