"Certain to be an enduringly valued and appreciated contribution to the growing library of American Civil War histories, The Vicksburg Assaults, May 19-22, 1863 is an extraordinary and exceptionally well presented compendium of five erudite and informative studies. . . . [It is] a critically essential and core addition to the personal reading lists of Civil War buffs, as well as both community and academic American Civil War collections and supplemental studies curriculums."—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
“It is hard to beat Steven Woodworth and Charles Grear for collecting talented historians, including themselves, to write in-depth, up-close pieces about aspects of great Civil War battles. They have done it together for the Tennessee Campaign and the battles of Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Shiloh. Now they have done it again in this volume on the assaults at Vicksburg, yet another top-level contribution to Civil War scholarship.”—John C. Waugh, author of The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox; Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Brothers
“The Vicksburg assaults have always been overlooked, coming as they did between Ulysses S. Grant’s brilliant land campaign and the actual siege itself. But they were extremely important. The Vicksburg Assaults packs wonderful analysis and insight into a fitting volume dedicated to some of the Vicksburg campaign’s most important actions.”—Timothy B. Smith, author of Shiloh: Conquer or Perish and The Decision Was Always My Own: Ulysses S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign
“As a follow-up to The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29–May 18, 1863, The Vicksburg Assaults, May 19–22, 1863, picks up where the previous collection left off by carrying the action to the very gates of the Gibraltar of the West. The essays provide detailed explanations of military events without miring down in the Mississippi mud while also offering insightful analysis of the decisions and their implications. Newer students of the campaign looking for a way into Vicksburg will find these essays invaluable, while longtime students will find new ways of understanding familiar events.”—Chris Mackowski, coeditor of Turning Points of the American Civil War
“Woodworth and Grear offer five carefully crafted essays that provide a detailed examination of four pivotal days in the horrific combat at Vicksburg in May 1863. Ranging from Union and Confederate command decisions that shaped the fighting to assessments of how the press, politicians, and ordinary citizens in the Midwest reacted to news of the dreadful Union losses, this work offers a new and unique assessment of the Vicksburg Campaign.”—Charles W. Sanders Jr., author of While in the Hands of the Enemy: Military Prisons of the Civil War
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