The Saturday Morning Post (No.61)

 

Back to the American Civil War this week, with a second novel by Jeff Shaara. This time covering the events leading up to a single battle in that war in the west.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Smoke at Dawn by Jeff Shaara   B

I enjoyed this installment of Jeff Shaara's American Civil War books more than the first one I read, Gods and Generals. I think it was because of its focus being narrower, on just one battle, or rather the events leading up to a battle. The battle itself was perhaps the last 15% of the book, and given my disinterest in the chorography of a soldier's view of the battle, this focus on events and characters other than the battle itself made it a more enjoyable book for me. 

The book recounts the months after the Union defeat and rout at the battle of Chickamauga Creek and their retreat to the city of Chattanooga followed by the halfhearted Confederate siege of the city by General Braxton Bragg, General Grant's arrival, and then the battle of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Hill several months later that breaks the siege and sends the Confederate army running. 

Like in the book before, the novel uses real historical people as characters. We have as viewpoint characters General Grant, and Sherman, as well as General Thomas, and a private in the Union Army. On the Confederate side, we have General Braxton Bragg, the commander of the Southern army - a man who easily  made enemies of everyone he met, including his subordinate generals - and General Patrick Cleburne. The novel offer a fictionalized glimpse of the problems and hardships both armies faced in the field due to poor weather and the lack of food, as well as an imaginary re-construction of the main characters thoughts and relationships. I'm quite sure Mr Shaara did all the research he could on the battle and personalities from original source material. However, not all of the characters left memoirs to draw upon, so that there is always an element of fiction in these historical characters. But that said, this is the way I like to learn about history - well researched novels like Shaara's, and Fraser's Flashman books.

The next and last book in this series, A Fateful Lightning covering Sherman's March to the Sea, was available, so I picked it up as well. Its review is on tap for next week.