Terrible Swift Sword
The Centennial History of the Civil War, Vol. 2
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Narrated by:
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Nelson Runger
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By:
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Bruce Catton
About this listen
Terrible Swift Sword (Vol. 2): The dismissal of George McClellan and the rise of Ulysses S. Grant.
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-
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Operating in the vast and varied trans-Appalachian west, the Army of Tennessee was crucially important to the military fate of the Confederacy. But under the principal leadership of generals such as Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and John Bell Hood, it won few major battles, and many regard its inability to halt steady Union advances into the Confederate heartland as a matter of failed leadership.
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Alas, alas
- By Charles on 08-07-20
By: Larry J. Daniel
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Almost a Miracle
- The American Victory in the War of Independence
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gripping chronicle of America's struggle for independence, award-winning historian John Ferling transports listeners to the grim realities of that war, capturing an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. As Ferling demonstrates, it was a war that America came much closer to losing than is now usually remembered. General George Washington put it best when he said that the American victory was "little short of a standing miracle."
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Dramatic Backstory of The War for Independence
- By Amazon Customer on 11-22-15
By: John Ferling
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The Road to Guilford Courthouse
- The American Revolution in the Carolinas
- By: John Buchanan
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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This brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles highlights just how crucial these individuals were in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of the American Civil War.
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Amazing Book
- By Anthony S. on 04-01-21
By: John Buchanan
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Crossroads of Freedom
- Antietam
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Through historical newspaper accounts and the personal letters of soldiers, the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself are stunningly recreated. You will enter the mind of Robert E. Lee as he makes the fateful decision to cross the Potomac River and take the offensive. You will feel the frustration of Abraham Lincoln as he struggles to convince George McClellan to fight. And you will stand side-by-side with foot soldiers as the peaceful Maryland countryside explodes.
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Far beyond the scope of the battle
- By A. McDonald on 01-26-04
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Revolutionary
- George Washington at War
- By: Robert L. O'Connell
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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From an acclaimed military historian, a bold reappraisal of young George Washington, an ambitious if reckless soldier destined to become the legendary general who took on the British and, through his leadership, defined the American character.
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Interesting
- By Shielding C on 06-25-22
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Revolution on the Hudson
- New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence
- By: George C. Daughan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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No part of the country was more contested during the American Revolution than the Hudson River. In 1776 King George III sent the largest amphibious force ever assembled to seize Manhattan and use it as a base from which to push up the Hudson River Valley for a rendezvous at Albany with an impressive army driving down from Canada. George Washington and other patriot leaders shared the king's fixation with the Hudson.
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Tough Criticism But Fair
- By Blue on 03-15-21
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The American Civil War
- A Military History
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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For the past half century, John Keegan, the greatest military historian of our time, has been returning to the scenes of America’s most bloody and wrenching war to ponder its lingering conundrums: the continuation of fighting for four years between such vastly mismatched sides; the dogged persistence of ill-trained, ill-equipped, and often malnourished combatants; the effective absence of decisive battles among some two to three hundred known to us by name.
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A Novel Approach (As Opposed to Novelistic)
- By margot on 11-18-12
By: John Keegan
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1777
- The Year of the Hangman
- By: John S. Pancake
- Narrated by: Robert Thaler
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A revisionist view of the Revolution's most crucial year...it explodes many of the myths surrounding Burgoyne's Canadian expedition and Howe's Pennsylvania campaign. There is a wealth of fascinating detail in this book, including information on arms and supplies, rations for women camp followers, and even the numbers of carts (30-odd) carrying Burgoyne's luggage.
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Very Good
- By William on 08-22-16
By: John S. Pancake
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A Savage War
- A Military History of the Civil War
- By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Williamson Murray
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 24 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Civil War represented a momentous change in the character of war. It combined the projection of military might across a continent on a scale never before seen with an unprecedented mass mobilization of peoples. Yet despite the revolutionizing aspects of the Civil War, its leaders faced the same uncertainties that have vexed combatants since the days of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War.
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A Book about Conclusions
- By Terry Masters on 10-18-17
By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, and others
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Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life
- By: Albert Louis Zambone
- Narrated by: Tom Taverna
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 17, 1781, at Cowpens, South Carolina, the notorious British cavalry officer Banastre Tarleton and his legion had been destroyed along with the cream of Lord Cornwallis’s troops. The man who planned and executed this stunning American victory was Daniel Morgan. Once a barely literate backcountry laborer, Morgan now stood at the pinnacle of American martial success. When George Washington called for troops to join him at the siege of Boston in 1775, Morgan organized a select group of riflemen and headed north.
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Good Book
- By Rob K on 04-08-20
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Very poor reader with great material
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Great so detailed
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This Hallowed Ground
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This audiobook is the classic one-volume history of the American Civil War by Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton. Covering events from the prelude of the conflict to the death of Lincoln, Catton blends a gripping narrative with deep, yet unassuming, scholarship to bring the war alive in an almost novelistic way. It is this gift for narrative that led contemporary critics to compare this book to War and Peace, and call it a "modern Iliad." Now over 50 years old, This Hallowed Ground remains one of the best-loved and admired general Civil War books.
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Still one of the best!
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A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's acclaimed Civil War history of the complex man and controversial Union commander whose battlefield brilliance ensured the downfall of the Confederacy. Preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton narrows his focus on commander Ulysses S. Grant, whose bold tactics and relentless dedication to the Union ultimately ensured a Northern victory in the nation's bloodiest conflict.
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Riveting history with a great narration
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For a person seeking a single volume to serve as a captivating introduction and a dependable guide through all the maze of battles and issues of the Civil War, this is an audiobook without parallel. Bruce Catton understood the Civil War - its participants and battles - and he unfolds it with skill and simplicity.
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good book, fair sound
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Very poor reader with great material
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Still one of the best!
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Riveting history with a great narration
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good book, fair sound
- By Paul on 12-16-02
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From the opening shots to General George Pickett's ill-fated charge, Bruce Catton tells the dramatic story of the battle that resulted in more than 51,000 Union and Confederate casualties and changed the course of the war.
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A very good, short narrative
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Fantastic Book
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In depth
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor tells the riveting story of a war that redefined North America. In a world of double identities, slippery allegiances, and porous borders, the leaders of the American Republic and the British Empire struggled to control their own diverse peoples. Taylor’s vivid narrative of an often brutal—sometimes farcical—war reveals much about the tangled origins of the United States and Canada.
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A proper history of an obscure epoch
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In this revelatory, dynamic biography, Benson Bobrick, profiles George H. Thomas, arguing that he was the greatest and most successful general of the Civil War. Because Thomas didn't live to write his memoirs, his reputation has been largely shaped by others, most notably Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, two generals with whom Thomas served and who diminished his successes in their favor in their own memoirs.
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Nutshell: Grant, Sherman bad – Thomas good
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Terrible Swift Sword
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Alongside Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan is the least known of the triumvirate of generals most responsible for winning the Civil War. Yet, before Sherman's famous march through Georgia, it was General Sheridan who introduced scorched-earth warfare to the South, and it was his Cavalry Corps that compelled Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Sheridan's innovative cavalry tactics and "total war" strategy became staples of 20th-century warfare.
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Full of history but just a little long
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On to Petersburg
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On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not - as often supposed - to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chain.
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Important to understanding the Overland Campaign
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War on the Waters
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Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war’s naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy’s blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war’s early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports.
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From Offshore, This War Looks Completely Different
- By John on 04-30-21
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Combat: The Civil War
- By: Don Congdon, Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 29 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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There are many, many studies of the Civil War. Books have been written on its economic effects, its political causes, its relationship to western expansion. But the real fascination of the war is the story of combat, men in battle. Combat: The Civil War tells this story in the words of men who actually marched into battle. We share their experiences, their fears, and their moments of bravery at Vicksburg, on board the Monitor, at Gettysburg, and at the bloody battle of Antietam. These eyewitness accounts are interspersed with brief commentaries by some of our most respected historians....
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Could Have Been Better
- By Amazon Customer on 07-06-13
By: Don Congdon, and others
What listeners say about Terrible Swift Sword
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-22-15
It's Catton!
This is from his over all military history of the Civil War. His OTHER trilogy was about t Union eStern army. the Army of The Potomac.
My Dad was deeply effected even as a boy when Union Veterans who were neighbors would tell of the war as they sat and rocked on a porch next door to the house where Dad's family lived. There eager reverence for comrades AND enemy soldiers lot Dad's eyes and ignited a devotion to Civil War history.
Bruce Catton had the same good fortune. In lectures my father gave and in Catton's writing that eager devotion to the people of America and their stories was evident.
Catton wrote with strict adherence to principles of reporting. Facts. And both he and Dad ALSO had a warm feeling for the individual soldiers and their families. The combination of Journalism ethic and Human carding makes for electrifying,,, and trust worthy,,, reading and listening.
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2 people found this helpful
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- J
- 01-13-18
Incredible narration by Nelson Runger
didnt think I would get into this book... I was absolutely wrong! now I have to finish the series.
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- Grumpy 63
- 03-24-21
Classic
Narrator was excellent and concise. Still holds up despite its age. A classic. Terrific book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Petroglypher
- 02-21-18
A decent trilogy with good information
The three books are filled with good information which may not be well known. I find the "clicking sound the narrator makes annoying.
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- Bryan
- 07-12-11
No Better History of the Civil War
I have enjoyed Bruce Catton's trilogy of the Civil War since it came out in the 1960's. I still have the dog-eared paperbacks (priced $1.25 so you know how old they are) and am always tempted to pick them up and re-read this shining historian.
This is the middle of the three covering the major battles and strategies following the opening battle of Bull Run, which is detailed in "The Coming Fury". Mr. Catton covers all the different theaters of the war - including the stratgies of both North and South in dealing with the one major power of the time - Great Britain.
Mr. Catton is a master of narrative and story. We all know how this issue was resolved in the end, but the details and personalities of some of the players who have faded into the mists of our collective memory come alive in his expert hands. The growing influence of George McClellan and his ultimate hold on the Army of the Potomac, the battle-tested drinker U.S. Grant, the almost ubiquitous Benjamin Butler - all these major and minor characters come to life in this wonderful history.
This is America's defining moment of the 19th Century and Bruce Catton describes the hardships and heartaches and heroism that our country experienced in this cataclysm.
This isn't some boring history of "just the facts". This is a great read, a wonderful story, and a master of history. I can't recommend it highly enough.
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17 people found this helpful
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- PW
- 09-04-18
Bruce Catton in a league of his own.
Great narrative about critical time in US history. Catton brings to life the story and the characters. Brilliant story telling. Hard to turn off.
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- J.B.
- 11-22-17
Fuitless Battles, Many Dead, Emancipaiton or Not
Terrible Swift Sword: The Centennial History of the Civil War, Vol. 2, by Bruce Catton, Narrated by Nelson Runger. This compilation is a mid-1960s, deep and rewarding dive into the pre, contemporary and post-civil war political milieu. In this, the second part of the three-book series, Mr. Catton provides an understanding of the early Civil War, the war’s objectified purpose, its initial skirmishes and battles, and the war’s effect upon American society.
This book provides a lot of information on the weak and infrequently purposeful personalities that conducted the Civil War. In addition, the manner in which the story is told; ever so easily captures your attention and keeps you - considering - what was this war really about?
Terrible Swift Sword teaches: Men, who participate in this world, have a duty to partake. Partaking is assessing and then letting go into action. Those are the men with the purposeful personalities, i.e. A. Lincoln and R. E. Lee. Then there are those who fail to assess and fail to go out and only procrastinate, i.e. such as self-proclaimed genius general G. B. McClellan. One of the truly great fools of all time.
As a result, you can read the trials and tribulations of our 150 years ago politicians and military commanders and get a broad understanding of how the generals conceived of, prepared for and managed their battles, and the politicians the affairs of state. What you learn you can apply to today’s happenings and understand the incompetence and callowness of today’s leaders by thinking back to our past leaders acts and undertakings. Yet, again, you can learn of true competence and strong courageous leadership as well.
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- lanny kaufman
- 09-08-11
The Civil War gets under way (Shelby Foote)
Where does Terrible Swift Sword rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?
Catton is a master story teller. This book is right up there with all of the Civil War books. The best is Stillness at Appomattox which I wish Audible would get. I think I heard it a number of years ago from Books on Tape. Of course, Shelby Foote is more thorough, but the military maneuvers in Foote's books are just too compliacated for me. Catton also loses me in some military strategy but he returns to the politial scene often enough. Catton writes extremely well, and if you want more of the same read the Army of the Potomac series, which as I mentioned in passing, Audible should get hold of if they are available. I''ll admit that I am a Civil War buff and have dragged my wife to several battlefields despite her protestations. On a recent car trip I tried to stop at Spottsyvania but was overruled. If you can't get to some of the battlefields listen to audible with these type of books.
What other book might you compare Terrible Swift Sword to and why?
Of course it is part of the series with The Coming Fury and Never Call Retreat, and if you liked one you will like the other, though The Coming Fury doesn't have the battle drama, because it is an introduction to the Civil War. Shelby Foote's trilogy is also outstanding and is available on audio, though more lengthy. I also bought Battle Cry of Freedom but didn't have a chance to listen to it yet. I am sure that I will enjoy it. In short, Bruce Catton is a master story teller of the Civil War, so get started and enjoy.
What does Nelson Runger bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?
Nelson Runger and Kate Reading are the best narrators that I have ever heard. I love the way Nelson Runger intones his reading. I loved his First American (Franklin) reading and heard him on Books on Tape on Eisenhower and an abridged version of Adams. I wish Audible could get him on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Every word of his is a delectable morsel. I hope to get his other books on American histroy and biography. Sometimes, I feel a little saturated with American history, but I just can't enough of Runger. I am even going to listen to another Benjamin Franklin biography. Some of you may think he is too slow, but I love his slow intonation which has a little surprise and sarcasm mixed in. Could anyone persuade him to read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? I could then turn into an ancient history scholar at the drop of a hat.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I am always chuckling at the machinations of the Civil War generals, though Shelby Foote is a downright humorist when it comes to this. Of course, I am glad to fight the Civil War in my armchair at the distance of 150 years. Looking back, it is easy to see the mistakes of Maclellan, Burnside and Hooker, but imagine the thousands of lives over which these men were responsible for. As of today I have fought the Civil War about 50 times and can never get tired of the drama, issues, and importance of that conflict. Catton manages to bring it alive for the 50th time for me. Deep down I have to cry for the 600,000 boys who lost their lives both North and South. I wish the slavery question could have been resolved in the times of Franklin and Washington. But alas!
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26 people found this helpful
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- C. Jay Robbins
- 11-03-24
Quality of the narration
Excellent voice coupled with a well written popular history. A definite listen to. Detailed but not mind boggling.
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- TRM002
- 01-05-23
Great listen
Anything by Bruce Catton is great. The narrator is excellent. The only issue I found is that I think this is an older recording and the volume and clarity seemed to come and go. I got used to it eventually but it was a little bothersome early on. Would still recommend this.
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