The Most Glorious Fourth: Vicksburg and Gettysburg, July 4, 1863

by Duane Schultz

Overview

"Duane Schultz has crafted what is likely to be termed the best Civil War book of the year."—Civil War Times Illustrated
The story of the Independence Day that turned the tide of the Civil War. July 4, 1863, was a glorious day for the Union cause. It saw the surrender of Vicksburg and the retreat of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after a crushing defeat at Gettysburg. In interweaving the narratives of these two storied battles, Duane Schultz has presented a compelling blow-by-blow account of what is arguably the most pivotal point of the entire conflict. All the players are brought to life here, whether it is Lincoln agonizing in the telegraph office while he waits for news from Generals Grant and Meade, General Pete Longstreet trying to cajole Lee into revising his plan of attack, or the women of the towns of Vicksburg and Gettysburg coming under fire and tending to the legions of wounded. We see a nation in the midst of its greatest convulsion, and we see that, while the "Glorious Fourth" dashed the greatest hopes of the Confederacy, the war was far from over.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393323818
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/17/2003
Pages:	468
Sales rank:	437,736
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Duane Schultz has a Ph.D. from American University. He is the author of two novels and several military histories including The Dahlgren Affair: Terror and Conspiracy in the Civil War and The Most Glorious Fourth Vicksburg and Gettysburg, July 4, 1863.

Editorial Reviews

Not a work of ground-breaking revisonism...a splendid retelling of a crucial period in American history.

State

Duane Schultz has crafted what is likely to be termed the best Civil War book of the year.

Civil War Times Illustrated

Danger junkies rejoice! The Perfect Storm king returns with no, not a new booklength narrative, but a collection of previously published magazine articles. Junger spent the last few years documenting some of the world's toughest places: Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, as well as nonmilitary hot spots like American wildfires. His reporting on wartime atrocities for Vanity Fair is well known, and his wilderness stories for adventure magazines like Outside and Men's Health have brought him an enormous extra-book readership. Junger's newest can be considered a sort of early Greatest Hits volume, wherein Junger's disaster-zone reporting will whet the appetites of risk voyeurs everywhere. Consider his interview with Afghan guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud ("After we'd spent half an hour ducking the shells, the commander said he'd just received word that Taliban troops were preparing to attack the position, and it might be better if we weren't around for it"), or his Kosovo klatch with Serbian paramilitaries ("The men grinned broadly at us. One of them wasn't holding a gun in his hands. He was holding a huge double-bladed ax."). But Junger is more than a dispassionate adventure-monger; he is an observer awed by the courage of "people confronting situations that could easily destroy them." Whether describing the trials of airborne forest firefighters or the occupational hazards of old-fashioned harpoon-and-rope whale hunting, Junger challenges readers to reconsider their fondness for ease: "Life in modern society is designed to eliminate as many unforeseen events as possible, and as inviting as that seems, it leaves us hopelessly underutilized. And that is where the ideaof `adventure' comes in." (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Sometimes fate delivers more drama in real life than anything Hollywood has ever dared. One such moment came on July 4, 1863 when the Union, steadily losing the Civil War up to that point, suddenly turned the tide with two immense victories, at Gettysburg and Vickburg. For the Confederacy, everything went downhill after that one day. Quite simply, this is one of the best popular Civil War books I have ever read. Author Duane Schultz is a storyteller in the tradition of Bruce Catton a generation and more ago. The war situation in June 1863 is lucidly explained, and the action then proceeds to alternate back and forth between the two campaigns. There are adroit biographical sketches of all the major figures that will leave the reader with a lasting impression of each personality. Like any good writer, Schultz loads his narrative with plenty of anecdotes and good stories that illustrate the battles and the times as much as reams of factual detail will do. There have been any number of excellent histories of the Civil War written since Catton's day, most especially by Shelby Foote and Bruce McPherson, that are detailed and highly readable. This one, however, has an appeal all its own. Even people who aren't much interested in history should find it a compelling read, and it will be excellent for introducing YAs to the great conflict that still marks their world today. KLIATT Codes: SA*—Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Norton, 447p. illus. notes. bibliog. index., Puffer

KLIATT

Perhaps one reason the American Civil War continues to hold such attention among readers and publishers is that people like to hear the same stories again and again, rehash the same debates, ask the same questions, and offer the same answers. That, at least, must be the rationale behind this book, which shuffles over well-traveled ground in contrasting the surrender of Vicksburg and retreat from Gettysburg, each on July 4, 1863; Schultz (The Dahlgren Affair), who has written skillfully on more neglected topics, is reduced to stitching together a series of well-known stories while introducing more than a few factual errors (such as confusing divisions and corps). There's precious little evidence of research into sources not readily available at a good public library, some of the repeated stories (notably Grant's being drunk at Vicksburg) have long since been discredited, and Schultz's forays into more recent scholarship are rather limited, although at least he incorporates the experience of civilians in his narrative. However, only those who value completeness in their Civil War collections will miss not having this volume on their shelves, although it may delight someone who has not read anything on the Civil War. Not recommended. Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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