Appomattox; Closing Struggle of the Civil War
New York: Harper and Row, 1963. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. The format is approximately 5.5 inches by 8.25 inches. xiii, [3], 167, [13] pages. Illustrations. Order of Events. Dramatic Personae. Bibliography. Index. The previous owner's bookplate is inside the front cover. Part of the dust jacket pasted to fep. Decorative front cover that has some wear and soiling. No dust jacket present. Ex-library with usual library markings. Burke Davis earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He worked for the Charlotte News for ten years, beginning in 1937 as a sports reporter and editor. Then followed a four-year tenure as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and almost ten years as a columnist for the Greensboro Daily News. In 1960 he became special projects writer for Colonial Williamsburg Inc., where he worked until 1978. Davis’s first novel, Whisper My Name, was a thinly disguised portrait of a prominent Charlotte businessman. Davis soon turned his attention to historical subjects: The Ragged Ones and Yorktown showcased his sharp eye for detail and his ability to re-create the personalities of historical figures. Beginning with They Called Him Stonewall, Davis focused mostly on historical nonfiction for the rest of his career. He applied his narrative skill and eye for detail to bringing to life Confederate luminaries such as Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and J. E. B. Stuart, and published accounts of the Appomattox Campaign and General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous march to the sea. Other subjects included the American Revolution (1775–1783), a biography of U.S. president Andrew Jackson, and southern industry. Derived from a brief Kirkus review: Excerpts from the documentary record and the many volumes of personal recollections as well as newspaper accounts contribute to the sense of immediacy and the reader tension that is produced by this book. Everyone knows who won the Civil War, but the story of how the peace was made is brought to life in this retelling. Shifting between the camps of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, and climaxing in the simple farmhouse where the dignity of the defeated general and the humility of the victor produced "one of the great peace settlements of history", the author never loses control of the story or its huge cast as he moves steadily toward the mood of the final great moment and its immediate aftermath. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Edward Alexander, Appomattox Station, Army of Northern Virginia, George Custer, Fitzhugh Lee, Charles Marshall, Philip Sheridan, Petersburg, Horace Porter, John Gordon, James Longstreet
[Book #91843]
Price: $17.50