Book Review: A Stillness at Appomattox

Just finished up Bruce Catton’s A Stillness at Appomattox.  It was, if my count is correct, the 22nd book I’ve read over the past three years concerning the American Civil War.  Go figure.  Anyway, what did I think of it?

Well, let me answer that by way of this.  Of those 22 or so books, what would I put in my Top Five?

Hmm.

How ’bout –

5. Gods and Generals (1996) and The Last Full Measure (1998) by Jeff Shaara (tie)

4. Manhunt (2006) by James L. Swanson (about the last 12 days of J. W. Booth’s life)

3. The Red Badge of Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane (the 1951 movie is highly recommended, too!)

2. Tried By War (2008) by James McPherson

And finally (you knew it was coming)

1. A Stillness at Appomattox (1953) by Bruce Catton

I am looking forward to reading, over the next few years, the three or four (can’t remember the exact amount he published) of the books he’s written on this terrible, tragic, and ultimately redemptive war.

Note 1: I actually commit sacrilege by omitting The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara in favor of his son’s two works of historical Civil War fiction.  No agenda; just my gut feeling.  Enjoyed all of them.  Elder Shaara’s book would be number 6 or 7. 

Note 2: Some one-volume histories, like Harry Hansen’s Civil War: A History and John Keegan’s The American Civil War I exempted from consideration because they need a re-read now that I have a basic platform of knowledge to draw upon.