Overland The Overland Campaign

(Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor)

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"One hundred and fifty years ago this spring, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant launched the campaign that marked the beginning of the end of the American Civil War. For over a month, he and General Robert E. Lee were locked in a remorseless struggle that took their armies across the woodlands and farm clearings of central Virginia on the road to the Southern capital of Richmond."

http://history.army.mil/news/2014/140500a_overlandCampaign.html

http://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-12/cmhPub_75-12.pdf


Dave
 
Good info at the Crossroads blog this past week in case you might have given up on Mr Simpson due to his "flagger" obsession. Check it out.
 
Bloody Angle to me will always be the 1 scene in the war that speaks to how much the war changed between 1861 and 1864. The war went to an entirely different level at that point that nobody that possible when volunteers went marching off post Sumter.

The first hand descriptions of it just are jaw dropping. I cannot imagine what they would've been like to live through. talk about PTSD.
 
I'm sorry if this has been asked before; but what is the best book on The Overland Campaign? I want something that goes into detail, but keeps the flow of the book going. I know the general history, but need to become more versed in the details. Thanks in advance!
 
I'm sorry if this has been asked before; but what is the best book on The Overland Campaign? I want something that goes into detail, but keeps the flow of the book going. I know the general history, but need to become more versed in the details. Thanks in advance!

Personally, I have the 4 overland books of Gordon Rhea that I would recommend.
 
The most important fact of the campaign, was that it was the beginning of the end of the war. eleven mo's later the war was effectively over.
That the AoP could fight hard was really never the question. That question was almost always about its commanders.
 
As for best book on the Overland Campaign there is Trudeau's book "Bloody Roads South" but I would read Gordon Rhea's four (and someday hopefully soon) five volume series.

There are other good books on various aspects of the campaign out there.
 
I'm sorry if this has been asked before; but what is the best book on The Overland Campaign? I want something that goes into detail, but keeps the flow of the book going. I know the general history, but need to become more versed in the details. Thanks in advance!

A bit dated, but Catton's "A Stillness At Appomattox" is still a good read. It won't bore you, and will serve a primer for more detailed reading.
 
An older one from the Southern perspective I enjoyed is Lee's Last Campaign by Clifford Dowdey, which covers the Wilderness to Petersburg. Another detailed examination I own, probably the first on the subject, is E. Steere's The Wilderness Campaign which despite its title actually only covers the battle of that name and is not really a campaign study at all.
 
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