Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg- The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War - Hardcover

Bearss, Edwin C.; Hills, J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1426205104 ISBN 13: 9781426205101

Publisher: National Geographic, 2010

Synopsis

It’s a poignant irony in American history that on Independence Day, 1863, not one but two pivotal Civil War battles ended in Union victory, marked the high tide of Confederate military fortune, and ultimately doomed the South’s effort at secession. But on July 4, 1863, after six months of siege, Ulysses Grant’s Union army finally took Vicksburg and the Confederate west.

On the very same day, Robert E. Lee was in Pennsylvania, parrying the threat to Vicksburg with a daring push north to Gettysburg. For two days the battle had raged; on the next, July 4, 1863, Pickett’s Charge was thrown back, a magnificently brave but fruitless assault, and the fate of the Confederacy was sealed, though nearly two more years of bitter fighting remained until the war came to an end.

In Receding Tide, Edwin Cole Bearss draws from his popular Civil War battlefield tours to chronicle these two widely separated but simultaneous clashes and their dramatic conclusion. As the recognized expert on both Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Bearss tells the fascinating story of this single momentous day in our country’s history, offering his readers narratives, maps, illustrations, characteristic wit, dramatic new insights and unerringly intimate knowledge of terrain, tactics, and the colorful personalities of America’s citizen soldiers, Northern and Southern alike.

About this title

About the Author:

Edwin Cole Bearss is America’s premier battlefield historian and the historian emeritus of the National Park Service. Author of 13 books, he has also served as a consultant on numerous documentaries and films, including Ken Burns’s The Civil War.

From Booklist:

Among Bearss’ many roles over decades of activity in the Civil War arena—as author, field excavator, and preservationist—is that of battlefield guide. His perambulating commentary was converted to print in Fields of Honor (2006), a tour of the 14 clashes between the Blue and Gray, and this sequel does the same for Bearss’ excursions to Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Set in the present tense, Bearss’ text plunges readers into the flow of unfolding events, from Confederate leaders pondering strategic options after Lee’s spectacular victory at Chancellorsville in May 1863, to generals’ orders to their units, to soldiers North and South clashing in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. Wounded in WWII, Bearss imparts the look and emotion of combat so that his reader can imagine, for example, Johnny Reb’s feelings as he steps off on Pickett’s Charge. Bearss’ presentation lacks only the author’s growl and quasi-mystical storytelling manner—but the audience will conjure those, too, as Bearss was one of the historian-stars of Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War. For buffs, Bearss’ book hits the bull’s-eye. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1426205104
• ISBN 13: 9781426205101
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400