The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1953. Presumed First Edition, unknown Printing. Hardcover. x, [2], 438, [6] pages. Bibliography, Notes. Index. Previous owner's bookplate inside the front cover. The dust jacket has some wear and soiling. This is the third volume of a three volume work. Each volume can stand alone. Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist who wrote books concerning the American Civil War. As a narrative historian, Catton specialized in history featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the facts, dates, and analyses. His books were well researched and included footnotes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1954 for his book A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), a study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia and third book in his Army of the Potomac trilogy. After serving briefly with the United States Navy during World War I, Catton became a reporter and editor for the newspapers The Cleveland News, the Boston American (1920–1924), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (1925). From 1926 to 1941, he worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a Scripps-Howard syndicate, for which he wrote editorials and book reviews, as well as serving as a Washington, D.C. correspondent. At the start of World War II, Catton was too old for military service. He accepted a position as Director of Information for the War Production Board, and later he had similar jobs in the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior. His experiences as a federal employee prepared him to write his first book, The War Lords Of Washington. In the early 1950s, Catton published three books known collectively as the Army of the Potomac trilogy, a history of that army. For Mr. Lincoln's Army (1951), the first volume, Catton recounted the army's formation, the command of George B. McClellan, the Peninsula Campaign, the Northern Virginia Campaign, and the Battle of Antietam. For the second volume, Glory Road (1952), Catton recounted the army's history with new commanding generals, from the Battle of Fredericksburg to the Battle of Gettysburg. For his final volume of the trilogy, A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), Catton recounted the campaigns of Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia from 1864 to the end of the war in 1865. It was his first commercially successful work and it won both the Pulitzer Prize for History and a National Book Award for Nonfiction. Derived from a brief Kirkus review: Third of a trilogy which includes Mr. Lincoln's Army and Glory Road, this is the story of defeat turned to victory in a grueling year following Gettysburg, 1863-64, when war became total war. The year when General Grant rebuilt the Army of the Potomac into a fighting force. The year when men like Sherman and Sheridan made their names. Once again Catton has told a many times told story with zest and drama, color and pace. He has made strategy and manoeuvre good reading. He has used anecdote where it points the issue. He has drawn vivid pen portraits, balanced his own opinions and conclusions with those of others, quoted from the records of fighting men and their officers. Many times the Army of the Potomac- and later the Army of the Shenandoah-rubbed elbows with catastrophe, but Grant and Sheridan never accepted defeat. There were new factors to be considered:-trench warfare, new weapons, artillery support, Negro troops, and Lincoln's gradual control of political factors. This series will stand up in years ahead as a sound contribution. Condition: Very good / Good.
Keywords: Civil War, Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Potomac, Francis Barlow, Ambrose Burnside, Jubal Early, Winfield Scott Hancock, George Meade, Petersburg Campaign, Philip Sheridan, Battle of the Wilderness, Gouvernour Warren, Horatio Wright
[Book #91844]
Price: $37.50