Wars Books

If you like military SciFi then Dan Abnett is a good choice. Darker than John Ringo or David Weber, his books are intriguing, riviting, and exciting. I would recomend them to anyone who enjoys the military SciFi genre.

Gaunt's Ghosts is the tale of the Imperial Guard from the viewpoint of the Imperial Guard. Dan Abnett throws the reader into the fray immediately, with no remorse or apologies, just the way war really is.

To get the experience of 40K in the thick of front line combat, look no further!

This is the first in the series but I read it second. It was backwards, but it was a great read. You learn were the Ghosts come from, how Gaunt got them, etc. It is a great set of books about people you will care about. Hell, I had a lump in my throat more than once after an especially emotional turn of events.

A collection of the first books in the Gaunt's Ghost's series, it is great book for any Warhammer 40K fan. It is also a great book for anyone who has an interest in the series but hasn't picked the right book out yet.

FIRST AND ONLY
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The first book in the Ghost's series, it tells the story of the Ghost's fight against an army of heretical troops. But along with the enemy facing them across the trenches, the Ghost's face an even greater threat: an ignorant military leader who is more than willing to throw troops to the meat grinder that is this war.

GHOSTMAKER
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A sequel-prequel-connector story, Ghostmaker works to tie the reader in to the story of the Ghost's current position. Fighting on a forest world against a dug in enemy, some Ghosts remember life before this fight. A collection of short fights and battles, along with some non combat situations, really flesh out who the Ghosts are. Whether they're fighting in city streets, dropping into Normandy-like beach fights, or just gambling with a group of rowdy soldiers, the Ghost's really start to grow on you.

NECROPOLIS
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Necropolis is the first of what I call "epic" fights in the Ghost's series. The Ghosts have been sent to stop a civil war between two giant industrial cities. The city is easy to defend, but treachery and back stabbing among bring down its shields and walls. The Ghost's fight enemies on all sides, and when the hour is dark, heroes will rise, and the fate of the city will be decided.

I started this book before being a fan of Warhammer 40K or the Black Library and it was still interesting and fun to read. You don't have to be a 40K expert to enjoy the story and the interesting characters. Dan Abnett is also great at keeping a series interesting and different by keeping the same characters and ideas, but writing with very different plots and styles. One thing I hate in a series is when it seems like the author follows a specific plot outline with every book and just adds new places and storys. The Dan Abnett books do not do this, and this keeps the books very interesting.
The characters are the best part of the books, they are not archetype characters that are either purely good or completely evil. The characters have depths and shades of gray.
Overall I would say this book is a great read, and I highly reccomend the other works by Dan Abnett.

Within a matter of days of the conclusion of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 -- July 3, 1863) photographers were on the scene to capture the Battlefield and its participants. These photographers included Alexander Gardner of Philadelphia, who began photographing the Battlefield on July 7 or 8, 1863, the famous Matthew Brady, the Tyson Brothers, portrait photographers who lived in Gettysburg, and others. Their photographs were arranged in series and sold in various formats to the American public which was eager to learn about the War.

Over the years, the photographs have been misidentified, placed out of sequence and, in some instances, forgotten. William Frassinto's "Gettyburg, a Journey in Time" (1975) was among the first books to recapture this photographic legacy, to study the scenes and the makers of the pictures, and to organize his material in a book for the modern reader. Mr. Frassinto has since published a number of sequels to this inital book as well as a study of photographers at Antietam.

The book consists of approximately 100 photographs, most of them dating from shortly after the battle in July, 1863 through 1866. There are also a number of photographs that Mr. Frassinto himself took dating from the late 1960s and early 1970s. These photos allow the reader to compare the original scenes with the current state of the Gettysburg Battlefield.

After a short discussion giving biographical information on the photographers and information on their visits to Gettysburg, Mr Frassanito presents and discusses the photographs themselves. His presentation is arranged in six groups: 1. the first day's battle (north and west of the town); 2. Cemetery Hill; 3. Culp's Hill; 4. Cemetery Ridge; 5. Little Round Top and Devil's Den; 6. the Rose Farm.

Mr. Frassanito introduces each group with a short description of the significance of the site. He then discusses each picture in detail, explaining when it was taken, what it shows, and its importance to the Battle of Gettysburg. The photographs are themselves eloquent and compelling and their effect is heightened by Mr Frassanito's commentary. I came away understanding the first day's battle and the fighting on Culp's Hill and Cemetry Hill on the Union right much better as a result of Mr. Frassanito's account and the photographs.

The most famous photographs in the book are probably those of the dead soldiers (in a few cases the photos were taken of live soldiers posing as dead for the photographers) on Little Round Top and on the Rose Farm. Most of these photographs were taken by Gardner because the dead were removed from the Battlefield relatively quickly after the battle. Gardner moved from south to north on the Battlefield and captured the few instances in which the dead had not yet been buried. The photos capture the terrible costs of the Battle.

Many of Gardner's photos have been erroneously identified over the years as originating from the first day's fighting on McPherson's ridge. Mr. Frassanito explains how he determined these photographs in fact originated on Rose Hill, on the southern part of the Battlefield. (The first day fighting was on the northenmost part of the Battlefield.) Yet misidentifications die hard. I have seen books which postdate Mr. Frassanito's which continue to attribute these photographs to the first day of the fighting.

The photos and the text in this book will give the reader a good sense of the tragedy and cost of this seminal battle. Mr. Frassanito's book remains essential for those interested in seriously exploring the Battle of Gettysburg.

Most history books, especially those written for the public, seek to make the events come alive in some way. The author did that in a completely unique way. Take the old photos and find the positions from which they were taken and show what the areas look like today. You can use these to walk to the very point where some photo was taken, and it really brings that history home. Also, the author works those photos into a discourse on the battle, while using his photoanalysis skills to shed new light on the contents of the photos. All in all, this book is endlessly fascinating, well worth the money, and deserving of a wider audience than it probably has.

If you visit the Devil's Den portion of the Gettysburg battlefield, there's a sign describing how a famous photograph came to be. The photographer claimed that it was a picture of a confederate sharpshooter who had been mortally wounded during the battle. The soldier evidently made himself comfortable before he died. The sign explains that the photograph was staged, the soldier was not a sharpshooter and that the body was dragged some 40 yards to the spot. The sign credits William Frassanito with having made this discovery after careful study of Gettysburg photographs.

This is the book that describes this and many other pictures of the Gettysburg battlefield, many depicting dead men or horses. Many of these photographs are famous in the sense that they are used frequently in civil books and now in documentaries. Frassanito demonstrates convincingly that several of these frequently used photographs are mislabeled, generally to make the photographs seem more interesting and therefore more saleable.

Frassanito was an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War and won the Bronze Star. I feel that only from a lot of practice analyzing photographs during the war could he have developed the skill needed to make the many clever observations in this book. Clearly, his wartime experiences left their mark in other ways as well. He frequently loses the detached air of a historian and reminds his readers of the horrors the subjects of the photographs must have experience. For example, he describes how rapid decomposition bloated the bodies immediately after the battle and how in some instances forced open the corpses' trouser buttons. "Thus the trousers on the soldier seen here were most likely open before his body was dragged to this position, the dragging action forcing them down below his hips. Here then was a young man who, only three days prior... full of life...But by July 5... was just another nameless corpse, his faced pressed against the earth, his exposed buttocks, once carefully hidden in accordance with the vanities of civilization, a sign of war's ultimate glory."

This book has the potential to make you feel like an expert on the battle of Gettysburg. If you read this book, you will recognize misidentified photographs in even some of the best documentaries. Further, you will be able to find the locations most of these photos with the aid of this book, even those in less frequently visited portions of the battlefield.

I would recommend all of Frassanito's books to Civil War buffs, but this one above all. The section on the Rose Woods photographs is brilliant, more so than even the passage that earned a marker at Devil's Den.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this is the book you should "read" about the Civil War. Certainly the goals of the book were well accomplished. I could have done without the numerous times the author explains in detail about the bloating of the bodies and how the bacteria cause it....it was brought up so many times I thought he must be a bit morbid. Nevertheless, it's not a book to entertain but to depict what was, and it does this very well.

this is a fascinating book for both civil war buffs and those interested in early photography. frassanito is an excellent writer and his detective work is unbelievably thorough. i can't recommend this book enough!

My parents bought me this book when i was just a kid probably 25 years ago. It's one of my treasured possessions and was a foundational part of my lifelong love of history. Like some of the other reviewers, I will NEVER let this book out of my possession. Even those with no appreciation for aircraft history (e.g. my wife) are blown away by this book. This truly is one of the most unusual books I've ever read, in that it effectively teaches thru unbelievable art. This is out there, but I think it's akin to looking thru daVinci's sketches on anatomy. The massive foldouts are worth the price alone. If you've got a WWII-era aviation buff around, this will forever put you in their good graces.

I think that everything has been said if you read the other reviews but it was not possible for me not to tell my happiness when I discover it in reality. I was relly surprised about the beautiful illustrations and the size of this book, it's simply HUGE !
A must-have for any aircraft enthusiast.

I'm a WWII airplanes enthsiast, and this book has filled all my expectations. The text, the scaled drawings, the fold-out panels, everithing is exceptional in this complete guide of WWII airplanes. The drawings of this book are incredibly detailed, and if you're meticulous, you'll never find a book like this. My grandfather was a WWII pilot and became nostalgic when he saw the plane he had flown.

I bought this book new from the Smithsonian Museum bookstore when I was just a kid. Now some 20-odd years later it still sits on the shelf right behind my desk, and I still frequently comb through its pages with the same enthusiasm I had when it was new. I will never let this book out of my possesion.

It's so valuable to me I had to find another copy for my business partner and fellow R/C fanatic so that he wouldn't have to keep borrowing mine! ;D ...that's why I decided to drop my 2-cents in here.

If you are an airplane buff, or more importantly, if you have any passion for the top planes of WWII, this book is not optional. You MUST have it. Period. Once you open it, you will understand what I am saying.

If you enjoy WWII aircraft, and appreciate the breath taking detail and accuracy of Rikyu Watanabe illustrations, you must have this book. I found my copy 3 years ago at OshKosh, and have been offered (...)for it - no way was I parting with it. It is, without question, the finest piece of reference / art work on these 12 aircraft I have ever seen. Vet, IFR Priv. pilot, R/C aircraft modeler.

This is a great book. Very accurate, painfully so in many instances, especially considering the absurd restrictions placed on units operating in the field. Ironically, Moore's account of Special Forces operations in Vietnam is much more accurate than anything you'll ever get from the US government...even 40 years later.

Post Script: In the first Chapter, Moore writes about Capt. Steve Kornie, a larger than life Special Forces officer. Darn near everything Moore wrote was accurate! The officer's real name is Larry Allan Thorne (the "Americanized" version of his Finnish name - Lauri Allan Torni). He was a truly remarkable man by any measure.

Major Thorne was lost on a cross-border mission into Laos on 18 October 1965; but, at that time, and "for the record" he was classified as Missing In Action resulting from a helicopter crash 25 miles south of Da Nang (not even close).

A joint US-Vietnamese team found the wreckage in 1997, excavated the site in 1999, and collected the remains of Maj. Thorne and 3 Vietnamese (two pilots and a door gunner). A decision was made to do a joint internment at Arlington, since what little remained of the bodies was intermingled. Although positive identification, however, was made through Thorne's dental records and parts of the Swedish-K submachine gun that was his personal weapon.

The memorial stone is atypically large for Arlington; and the local Vietnamese community ensures that fresh flowers are maintained at the grave. I have provided additional information should you be in the neighborhood and would like to visit the site. Unless you have very specific information on dates of internment and the correct spelling of the name, you will not be successful in locating the site through the cemetery administration.

[...]

The new edition of Robin Moore's Vietnam War era classic "The Green Berets" is as timely and relevant today as it was when it was published over forty years ago.

What is amazing is that the problems faced by the Green Berets in Vietnam described by Moore are the very same problems faced by our soldiers today in the War on Terror. These include the problems of corrupt local soldiers, relegious differences and the ago old cultural clash between the coventional military mindset and the unconventional warrior.

The new edition also contains materials which were not in the original edition. It was also enjoyable to read the various stories which conributed elements to the John Wayne movie which was based on the book. The book is well worth your time.

I liked this book so much I bought an old paperback copy and added it to my personal collection. I believe that there's a picture of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, or someone that looks a lot like him, on the cover. The movie made in 1968 does NOT do Robin Moore's work justice. I found the short stories in this book to be very well written.

In 1965, when I first read this book, I believed most of it because I didn't know any difference. During Infantry OCS (Officer Candidate School), I read it again as a book-report (1966) and did not believe any of it...any at all. Then on the flight back, after spending 13 months in Southeast Asia as a Special Forces officer, I read it again. The book is true...completely true. As a-matter-of-fact, it actually left out some of the things we experieced and the "politics" we had to deal with, but what he told in the book was true. Robin Moore holds our respect for what he had to accomplish (at his age) in order to write this factual book. We loved the book and laughed at the movie.

Understand that Special Forces, at that time, were very different from Special Forces today. Remember, we were the most highly decorated unit in history for a reason. The ones today are great, but they built on our experieces. We were not the "quite professionals"...but we were the "movers and doers" of our time. I add this only because some authors today should recognize this hard-earned fact.

H. G. Kidd
Ex-Special Forces.

I was blown away that some people did not like this book! I absolutely loved it! Before you begin reading it you must put it in the context of the time it was written. This is a book written before any of our main troops were sent to 'nam and therefore the things we know now are simply hindsite and can not be applied to this book. This book, while called fiction, is the closest you will ever get to truly understanding our most well known and almost mystical special forces group. It details, with fake names due to govt regulations at the time, many Beret missions that were, until lately, highly classified. This book will take you on many missions that seem like they are straight off of a hollywood script...in fact these stories are what created most of those scripts. You will join the berets in battle, deep behind enemy lines and see how they fought before the days when rescue was an artillery shot away. You will love each chapter of this book and it will be a very quick read. Please do yourself the favor, if you have any interest in this subject, of picking up this important book and learning a bit about America's Green Berets!

Having had little information on the life of my great, great, great grandfather this book was facinating. I had no idea he had participated critically in so much of the civil war. Not only Warren's genius of analysis of conditions in battle, but his engineering skills were also very notable, indeed his accomplishment in cartography and engineering of the Rock Island bridge some could say eclipsed anything he did during the war between the states. The book is a facinating inside look at relationships between men of high rank and served to show that patriotism was not the sole factor in their decisions and exploits. Great leaders, sadly, usually have great egos and Warren was no exception. I also thought the final analysis of why Warren, though brillant, failed to achieve the greatness he was surely capable of achieving, to be profoundly accurate, in light of previous chapters of each battle. His broad understanding of the big picture came into direct conflict with men of lesser intellect, but higher rank, who had the "tunnel" vision to stay the course and simply overwhelm the enemy with shear numbers. I applaud this work of David Jordan and for taking so much time to research and write about a man the world did it's best to defame and hide in obscurity.

In "Happiness is Not My Companion," David M. Jordan performs his usual solid job in assembling a biography. Jordan is, as always, excellent when it comes to digging in primary sources and he does breathe a good deal of life into the rather obscure G. K. Warren. Best known for his role at Little Round Top, Warren led the 5th Corps of the Army of the Potomac during most of the Overland campaign before his removal at Five Forks. He also held a number of important staff assignments under Joe Hooker and George Meade. Jordan is able to offer an excellent account of Warren's Civil War career as well as his quest for vindication from being removed from command. Jordan also offers an excellent look at Warren's morose and often overly critical personality. There remain some problems in the book. Warren's role as an explorer is covered too quickly. The same can be said of his role as an engineer in the West after the war. Still, Jordan is excellent on Warren and the war. Anyone interested in the Union effort in the east would profit from this book about a leading and very unique general.

Solid bio on General Warren, like George Picket, known for Gettysburg and Five Forks, the latter in his casea great controversy. Warren was the opposite of the Confederacy's impetuous A. P. Hill, Warren was brave but detailed and thorough in his planning. Often thinking of his men's welfare, he frequently clashed with not only Meade but by war's end Grant and Sheridan. The author provides a healthy history of Warren's family and his time at West Point and his gallant service mapping the Black Hills among the Sioux before the war. The reader may be a little impatient to get to the Civil War and the controversy but you get there relatively quickly. Warren serves on McClellan's staff and stays as a staff officer as a topographic engineer through his famed role at Little Round Top. Warren then becomes a corps commander, although he seems ill suited personality wise for the task. His dispatches to Meade naively offer too much advice and seemimg less action than his superiors expect, which he never seems to fully appreciate. Jordan utilizes many primary resources such as reports and letters by Warren, his bombastic artillery Officer, close military friends, commanders and many other witnesses to give you a first hand perception of the man. Warren's was notable in refusing to attack Lee's fortifications at Mine Run, a little written about campaign that establishes Warren as a man considerate of his men yet suffering in the eyes of his his commander. Here the author could have offered more maps as the Mine Run campaign starts questions about Warrens propensity to inform and perhaps lecture. During the overland campaign, Warren alternately hesitates and attacks and the author describes the reasons for each, particularly the Confederate fortifications. Rhea, in his great series of books on the 1864 campaigns, probably describes best Grant and Meade's frustration with Warren but Jordan does well here in this 320 page book. Although aquiting himself well during the Petersburg siege, with some question at the Crater, Warren's 5th corps continues to actively pivot late in 1864 alternately with Hancock's 2nd to the western outside edges of Petersburg. A question worth asking here is why, if Grant and Meade already question Warren's timely ability to attack, did they not keep his corps east of Petersburg in a static position? This is not answered by Jordan but should have been explored. By late March 1865, he is ordered to maneuver around Lee's far right to support Sheridan that culminates in the battles of Dinwiddie Court House (a setback for Sheridan) and then Five Forks. This unusual collaboration between two Generals that mutually dislike each other is immediately antagonized by too many confusing orders from both Sheridan and Meade to Warren compunded by Grants independent control of Sheridan. Jordan points out well that Warren is succesful in his dificult manuevers in the face of the enemy yet Warren fails to report timely to Sheridan. Jordan covers the battle of Five Forks well, ironically Warren's best and most succesful attack, and the controversy of Sheridan sacking Warren after the battle was won. Jordan's reserach also notes Warren's colorful charge across the final breastworks with his troops happens just before his sack notice reaches him as opposed to what some historians describe as happening only after he learned he was sacked. Ed Bearss book "Five Forks" in the VA. series probably describes the battle best with an excellent map but Jordan does a fine job describing the battle. The latter parts of the book follow Warren's post war career and his unusual dedication as an military engineer refusing to leave the army for much needed income as a private engineer as he waits his day in court. Warren comes across as a festidious egineer more suited for that kind of work but his extended military career and his desire for a trial seem to aggravate his sensitive health. The trial, 16 long years later, is well covered as well as the political difficulties as Sherman, Sheridan and Grant act as roadblocks. Jordan paints Warren appropriately as a man of talent but lacking in perception that the war changed and that Grant and Sheridan were trying to bring the war to an end in a hurry, which contributed to the abrupt and disasterous decision by Sheridan ironically after the day at Five Forks was won. At Five Forks Warren was relieved not for his actions that were unknown to Sheridan at the time but for the reputation that preceded and sterotyped him in Sheridan's eyes. One of the last ranking officers who served with McClellan, it is unfortunate that Warren did not leave when Hancock did or at least recognize that Grant and Meade required less opinions but timely reports of action as did Sheridan. A sad end with a final victory, reversed court finding, coming too late as the book's title aptly professes, happiness was not be his his post war companion.

For Civil War readers, Gouverneur Kemble Warren is not an unfamiliar name. He is most associated for his slow response in the Wilderness campaign where he was dismissed without, as we read, justifiable cause. This action was driven more by spite and the ego issues of Phil Sheridan, who failed to understand the issues causing Warren's delay at Five Forks. And then there was U.S. Grant's rigid blind faith in Sheridan that led him to summarily dismiss Warren, also without knowing all the facts. Jordan does a good job of showing the many facets of a general who was not only competent but ethical in his conduct of the war. While admittedly cautious and slow at times, he was still able to win battles and not needlessly compromise his men's lives. As a psychotherapist, it was personally interesting to see the psychology of this complex man, from his highs to his rages and deep depression. He was without question, intelligent and with great courage. He did have issues that could compromise his "generalship" at times but then shine at others. Yet, his leadership of men was done with character and ethical responsibility and discipline. I highly recommend this book as not only a means to understanding an excellent civil war general but also as a way to see how circumstances create decisions, both good and bad. To see how incompetent leaders can manage to survive and highly competent ones fall, all in a flash. The book, from the early days of Warren, through his Civil War battles, court of inquiry trial and, ultimately, his lonely and sad death, is well written, easy to read and, like a complex movie, shows us pieces of the war and its many unseen still frames that are so easily missed. The reader will come away with a greater understanding of G.K. Warren as well as the civil war. David L Mazzola

Before I review this one, let me admit that I've never been into book length biographies, even when they concern Civil War era figures, so this is a bit of a new experience. Keep this is mind when reading these early attempts at reviewing biographies. I picked up this bio of Gouverneur Kemble Warren for two reasons. First, Indiana University Press was having an unbelievable sale, and I managed to find this one as a brand new hardback for only $6. Second, I'd been looking to get into the biography arena by looking at men who commanded at division level or higher during the siege of Petersburg.

"Happiness Is Not My Companion" takes a look at the checkered career of Gouverneur Kemble Warren, a man who was stripped of his command at the moment of his greatest triumph at Five Forks. Author David Jordan covers Warren's life in some detail, though I thought that a closer and more definitive work can probably be penned at some point in the future. With that said, I enjoyed this biography, especially the section dealing with the Petersburg Campaign. Jordan keeps the reader interested while moving the story along. The author argues that Warren was wronged by Sheridan at Five Forks, but he does candidly admit many of Warren's flaws, though I suspect he may not have gone far enough in revealing these.


Gouverneur Warren was an extremely intelligent man, but his main faults, according to author David Jordan, were his difficulty in following orders given to him while at the same time giving frequent unwanted "suggestions" to his superior officers. Jordan downplays somewhat Warren's nature to frequently act with great condescension, which is to me his greatest flaw. Warren was born on January 8, 1830 in upstate New York in the little town of Cold Spring, just a short distance from West Point. That Warren ended up at the Military Academy is hardly surprising given his birthplace and his prominent family. He graduated second in his class, and was awarded a spot in the coveted Corps of Engineers. In this role, Warren spent the better part of the 1850's on expeditions to the west, where he encountered friendly and hostile Native Americans, including the Sioux, and participated in his first military actions. Warren had accepted a position to teach mathematics at West Point by the time war broke out, but he soon became Lt. Colonel and then Colonel of the famous 5th New York, Duryea's Zouaves. He led the men of this regiment as a brigade commander in the Seven Days and at Second Bull Run, and was afterward promoted to Chief Topographical Engineer and then Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac. It was in this position at Gettysburg that Warren perhaps gave his greatest contribution to his country. Warren, while out scouting on the Union far left, noticed the importance of the Round Tops and the fact that Confederate infantry were approaching. He immediately found the nearest Union troops, the brigade of Colonel Strong Vincent, and sent them scurrying for the crest of Little Round Top. They barely beat the Confederates to the crest and managed to secure this vital area for the Union. Warren was promoted to Major General after the battle, and he was temporarily placed in command of the II Corps while Winfield Hancock recovered from his severe Gettysburg wound. In the Mine Run Campaign of November 1863, Warren called off an attack that he deemed suicidal on his own responsibility. Meade was at first furious that Warren had disobeyed, but he agreed with Warren's decision after taking a look at the Confederate entrenchments. This first instance of Warren questioning his orders as a corps commander was only the beginning. Meade and Grant would grow exasperated with Warren on more than one occasion during the Overland and Petersburg Campaigns. It was during this time frame, while commander of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, that Warren had his greatest problems as a commander. Meade and Grant were on the verge of relieving him several times for his continued questioning of orders, or in some cases, his outright disobedience of these orders. Jordan quotes the diary of Charles Wainwright, the V Corps Artillery Chief, quite often during this time period. Apparently Wainwright did not much like Warren and was constantly critical of his commander. All of this was leading up to Warren's greatest triumph...and his greatest disappointment. Warren was placed under Phil Sheridan during the attack on Five Forks. Grant, apparently having grown tired of Warren's tendency to question his orders, gave Sheridan the right to sack the v Corps commander at any point and replace him with any of the V Corps division commanders. Although Warren moved his men up in a satisfactory manner, and although the V Corps was able to flank and drive off the Confederates guarding Five Forks, Sheridan relieved Warren and sent him back to Grant. Jordan discusses Warren's unceasing efforts after the war in his quest to see a court of inquiry convened. It wasn't until the early 1880's that Warren was able to make this possible. He had known that while Grant or member of his circle were in power that his request would never be granted, so he had waited until Rutherford B. Hayes was President to press home his request. In my mind, Jordan demonstrates pretty conclusively that Warren was not at fault in any way at Five Forks, though Warren's peers who oversaw the court were rather ambivalent in their findings, perhaps to appease Sheridan, who now commanded the entire United States Army. Warren died before the findings of the court were made public. He deserved better, from Sheridan on April 1, 1865, to Grant in the intervening years concerning the granting of a court of inquiry, to the men who finally made judgments on his behavior.

As I stated in the introduction, this is a good but not great book. Jordan goes into considerable detail, but I couldn't help feeling that even more could have been done. He also seems to go a little easy on Warren in some cases, especially when it concerns Warren's difficulty in dealing with subordinates and superiors who he felt were not as intelligent as he was. One trait I dislike more than most in my fellow human beings is condescension. Warren was filled to overflowing with condescension for quite a few people, and I would have liked to see the author get into this in more detail. Other than that, I thought he tried to be impartial, as a good biographer always should. The maps that accompanied the text were solid, and really a bit of an unexpected bonus as far as a biography goes. Anyone interested in biographies of Civil War generals will not be disappointed in this one. Those interested in G. K. Warren or in the later campaigns of the Army of the Potomac will also want to give this one a look.

This engaging book fills the void that other Civil War histories leave, and that is an understanding of the everyday experiences of the foot soldier. "Hardtack and Coffee or the Unwritten Story of Army Life" by John D. Billings is an exhaustive and fascinating look back at the flesh, bones, and blood of those lines and arrows on the maps of Civil War battle strategies.

The book is filled with anecdotes, observations, and songs arising from the era. (I very much appreciated the introduction which details the election of 1860 and started the whole terrible tragedy that ensued over the next half decade.) The generous amount of illustration truly helps evoke the period. "Hardtack and Coffee" is a perfect companion to Bell Irvin Wiley's "Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union" and "The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy". And it is a perfect part of anyone's Civil War/American History library.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS

I am a Civil War reenactor, and this book has been an excellent source of ideas for first person scenarios and ideas for living history. It is an insightful, unique record of the soldier's life for living historians or students of history. I would highly recommend this engaging book.

This is the best book on the life of the Civil War soldier. The other reviews attest to this, so here is something different.
Charles W. Reed, the illustrator, was ALSO a Civil War veteran.
He served in the Ninth Massachusetts Battery and won the Medal of Honor at Gettysburg for saving his commanding officer, Captain
John Bigelow, who had been seriously wounded in the fight at the
Trostle Farm on 2 July 1863.
My favorite chapter was the one on the army mule.
Buy, read & enjoy this book!

Hardtack and Coffee provides an excellent picture of Army life in the mid-nineteenth century. The sketches illustrate the text superbly. This is a useful handbook for students and teachers as well as an intriguing introduction to the Civil War.

I'm one of those men with the "Civil War Itch" who can't get enough reading, can't get enough time on the battlefields. This book is hands-down one of my favorites in my extensive collection, re-read several times and dog-eared. It's something I always put in my bag for air-travel reading, because you can pick it up and put it down when you need to...the author and the illustrator both were participants in the Conflict, so you know it's accurate. The content is educational but not stuffy, since it was written to explain to soldiers' families what exactly Union Army life was like...and the humor still carries through to this day. After you've read the historical studies or walked a battlefield, THIS is the book you want to read to put yourself in the shoes of the everyday soldier--and it's easy to do with the author's skills. For me, the best chuckles are the chapters "Jonahs and Beats", and "The Army Mule". A must-read for those wanting more than just a general's biography or an order of battle.

I really liked the first half of this book. In fact I was saying to myself, "Boy, this is a GREAT book!" The second half I found boring.
I bought this out-of-print book because I had read the obit of Ernest Gordon and thus introduced to a bit of what occurred in the prison of war camp. It seems like if you get within an inch of death and manage to survive, then you get true religion. This phenomenon interests me and for some reason I like to read about a person's real experiences. I guess it lessens my fear of death. When Peter Sellers died and was revived, I recall that he said he would never fear death again. But when someone tries to extrapolate these experiences into some sort of philosophy it always -in my mind- seems to fall flat. The purpose of life is to get on with it, no matter how purposeless it seems, but near death experiences seem to help me deal with the getting on with it.

The book traces the transformation of the author's life and the life of the Japanese POW camp in which he was incarcerated. It is a beautiful book. The Japanese created an environment in which each prisoner lived for himself in a desperate struggle to survive. As a result, life was cheapened, prisoner stole from prisoner and many lost the will to struggle to live. Then, as if from no where, isolated acts of great courage and sacrifice arrested the camp's slide into hell. Men began to ask the question if there was some purpose to life beyond self. Groups formed to discuss the question. From that emerged groups who began serving others. The answer they discovered was that Jesus Christ had suffered much like they were suffering and yet was able to serve others and ultimately die for their sin. The camp was transformed. Men used their talents to serve their fellow prisoners. It is an incredible read.

Buy it!

An awesome book. Far more than just history. Read this book, it will change your life.

I was privileged to know the author of "Through the Valley of the Kwai", Rev. Ernest Gordon, for many years. Ernest Gordon died January 16, 2002. He has always been and will forever remain my hero. His story, first published in 1962, was republished in the 1980's as "Miracle on the River Kwai" and will enter its third printing February 2002 under yet another title, "To End All Wars". It is a powerful and moving first-hand account of how faith, love, fellowship, and the enduring human spirit transcended the unthinkable horrors and hatred of war and transformed the hearts and lives of men on both sides of the battle line. After recently attending Rev. Gordon's memorial service, we were presented with an unbelievable and sobering gift: a preview screening of a new movie, "To End All Wars", based on Ernest Gordon's book and scheduled for release around August 15, 2002. I would encourage every adult reader to see this powerful, disturbing, and ultimately victorious film. Just weeks before his death Rev. Gordon attended a private screening of the long-anticipated movie along with the movie's producer, Jack Hafer. After the screening, Rev. Gordon slowly approached the anxious producer and with strong emotion in his Scottish brogue proclaimed, "Jack, you caught the heart of it." Like his book, this movie has the power to change you! May the heart of it "catch" you, too.

The book--a true story--has incredible principles even though it is not well written. It was hard to put it down. The author showed how creativity could spring forth amidst horrendous cruelty, starvation, and isolation when military prisoners of war forsook their own selfishness and began help others. It not only saved their own lives, but because it gave purpose to their otherwise hopeless situations, an environment was fostered that gave true hope and purpose in their existing situations. TO BE RELEASED AS A MAJOR MOVIE DECEMBER 6TH 2002 IN LA.

A remarkable tale of Hasidic (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews and the miracles that happened to so many in spite of the ravages of the Holocaust.

A mix of prose and poetry, tears and turbulence, you'll want to read it from cover to cover.

One of the great pieces of literature related to one of the worst times in modern history.

Michael

As far as I know, this book was the first collection of Hasidic responses to the Holocaust to make it out of the "Jewish literary ghetto" and into the mainstream, where it remains a popular read in both Jewish and non-Jewish theological circles. It was also the first collection of stories about Jews who did NOT lose their faith during the Holocaust (most of them, anyway -- there are one or two exceptions in the book.) Prior to this, religious Jews in the Holocaust were portrayed by the media as as "cowards who didn't fight back" rather than the religious martyrs that they were. (Most typical of this anti-religious period is the infamous line from the movie version of Leon Uris's EXODUS: "The only god I believe in is a gun.") I won't go into the politics of it here, but, suffice it to say, the post-Holocaust Zionist movement was more interested in freedom fighters than saints.

The Hasidim, however, had a different view of their suffering during the Holocaust. God had not deserted them, even if He seemed hidden in a time of darkness. The Hasidim were telling their own Holocaust stories around the Sabbath table or at community gatherings but, because most of this telling was oral and in Yiddish, it was unknown to the general public. Enter Yaffa Eliach. As a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, she began hearing these tales from her students. Brooklyn College had/has a high percentage of Hasidic students and, through them, Eliach got to know their parents and other Holocaust survivors, including some of the Hasidic Rebbes. The result is a fine collection of true Holocaust stories that will forever change the way you view Hasidic Jews. Courage, as this book demonstrates, doesn't always mean grabbing a gun. It can also mean hiding a child, sharing your food when you yourself are starving, or meeting death with your human dignity intact. To maintain one's faith under such adversity, to continue studying Torah and doing the mitzvahs even in a concentration camp -- these were acts of true resistance that shine through every page of this book. I give it ten stars!

This inspiring book is one of the best books writeen on the Holocaust. I read the book every year on Tisha B'av, the Jewish day of national mourning and never cease to be amazed, inspired and touched by the myriad of stories in this wonderful book. This copy is being given as a token of appreciation o someone I wish to thank.

i must say that I am surprised that no reviews I have come across so far adress what appears to me this books most remarkable feature: Its power of inspiring faith. In fact, I would site this book as one of the most concrete proofs of the existence of God in print. Stories of the divine powers that are granted to the compassionate, the devout, and the faithful surpass all description. Please read this book, I treasure it like a scripture, and the courage, profound faith, and integrity of its characters burns in the heart like fire. i have never wept like I wept when I read these simple stories for the first time, and I continue to draw bittersweet emotional sustainance everytime I read and re-read its pages. There is too many brilliant anecdotes to choose examples, But as I write I remeber the story of the boy whose friend apparently died in a forced labour factory. The young man was piled in the frigid cold of night in a pile of corpses after a terrible illness had left no sign of life in him. The grandfather of the boy kept appearing in his friends dream to tell him the his friend must be "woken up". After the third dream, the youth was more frightened of the dream than of risking his life to escape to where the dead were piled to investigate. The youth found his friend amid the corpses, and when he repeated the granfather's invocation to "wake up", he indeed stirred! The story concludes with the boy warming his friend, bringing him to safety, and survival. It is marvelous and breathtaking to discover that these miraculous and spellbinding stories occurred in the darkest heart of humankind's darkest hours, and that they have been compiled in this manner is a fitting tribute to is subjects.

Yaffa Eliach is to be commended for collecting and publishing these tales. They tell stories of Jews who despite horrible trials and sufferings kept their faith in God, and their decency as human beings. The paradox is often that only when human beings are subject to the worse trials do they reveal their greatness. These stories are stories of inspiration not only for Jews but for all of mankind.

I am still reading the book and am now on page 186. I feel compelled to add my review now before finishing the book. I am 63 and came along too late for WWII. All of the airmen Dick Baughn talk about in this book are my heros! The pilots and air crew members mentioned are old enough to be my parents. They were honorable, very talented people who made many sacrifices so I could grow up in the relatively safe, secure time from 1945 to 1963. Thank you General Baughn!
Jeffrey Blair
Wharton, TX

The Eagle's Last Flight
Brigadier General Richard M Baughn (USAF, Retired) is one of those rare authors who can pull a period of World War II history off a dusty book shelf and breathe fresh new life into it. In his latest book, The Hellish Vortex, he describes the air campaign in the European theater between 1943 and 1945, during which waves of American B-17 and B-24 bombers, escorted by P-38, P-40 and P-51 fighters, pounded Germany. In the same narrative, he chronicles the daily lives of the men who flew them. The result is pure magic; a book well worth reading. How did he do it? It's simple. For one thing, he is a good writer and for another, he flew P-51s in Europe during the same period. As the saying goes, he has "been there, done that." It works every time!

The principal character in the book is 2nd Lt. Robb Baines, a nineteen year old fighter pilot who arrives in the U.K. underage and under trained for his new assignment flying P-51s and escorting bombers to Germany. Like most nineteen year olds, Baines, who I suspect is General Baughn's alter ego, secretly wonders if he is up to the task at hand. But tangling with German ME 109s and ME 110s is dangerous business with no margin for self doubt, as Baines quickly found out. In time, he became a seasoned combat veteran, a confident leader, and a candidate for bigger and better things in what would become the United States Air Force in 1947.

There are several other characters in the book worth mentioning. There is "The Colonel", a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the group commander who led his pilots with a calm steady hand; "Big John," a sergeant whose well meaning support for the war effort included seducing the wife of a local chicken farmer to get eggs for the pilots' predawn breakfasts; and "Rocco", Baines' long suffering wing man who lives his life with characteristic gritty, New York City bravado. These characters, and many others like them, add spice to an already well prepared dish. Speaking of spices, there is love, romance and sex in the book as well; but the author is careful not to let these asides draw him off the main theme of the book.

One of the things I like about The Hellish Vortex, is that the author periodically inserted excerpts from a paper entitled "The Army Air Forces and 8th Air Force during World War II," purportedly written by Baines while at The Armed Forces Staff College. These asides afford the reader a chance to take a break and look at the big picture. It was there that I learned things I never knew, or had forgotten, about the growth of American air power between World War I and 1947. And it was also there that I read a statistic I still can't get out of my mind; namely, "There were 41,802 airmen killed in a force that never exceeded 100,000 pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and aerial gunners." This grim statistics reinforces something I have always believed, namely: that it is tempting for warriors to tell their stories loudly, garnering praise and admiration wherever and whenever they can. But the plain truth is that not all warriors are heroes; just as not all heroes are warriors; and those that are, often prefer to speak softly in deference to the heroes that never made it home.

This is a book about real heroes, written by a soft spoken man who remembers those who could not make it home. It is a book to read and remember.

For anyone interested in the air war in Europe this is the book for you. The fact that it is written by a P-51 pilot gives it credibility. The War College report from the 50's is a nice touch. The stories about the interaction between the Bittish people and our servicemen is an important aspect and tells it like it was. I recommend it highly.

I'm a WWII buff and originally saw this reviewed in the WWII magazine recently (June 2008). It's definitely different in that is is very detailed and technical in the moment-by-moment descriptions of what flying a P-51 fighter (mainly as bomber escort) was like, and also in describing day-to-day life for this young pilot in war-time England. The author Richard Baughn was a decorated P-51 pilot, and he states that what he set out to do was write a book about what it was really like. The book is a fictional account of a 19 year old pilot. It succeeds on both the fictional and the historical level, containing interesting characters, fast action, and a not small amount of action with the ladies.
One aspect of this different book is it makes you very aware of how extremely hazardous every mission was for all the airmen (fighter and bomber crews alike), with a much higher casualty rate than for any other service. The hazards posed by flying in bad weather, collisions, and various other accidents added greatly to the casualty rate. One final interesting point - from the description on the book it sounds like they lived on SPAM througout the war. Makes you want a nice SPAM sandwich.

This is one of the best fiction books I have read on the air corps since Len Deighton's "Goodbye Mickey Mouse". I had heard of Marines having had a couple of weeks of basic training in WW II and being given "training" on the 19-day sail to Guadalcanal, but I did not know that pilots had sometimes had very little training. Thank goodness this pilot read the manual on P-51's on the boat ride to England. With only a couple hours in the P-51, his instructor put him in the cockpit and said basically, "Go solo". And then he was sent to a unit and certified as combat ready. You get the feeling that too many kids were treated this way and became cannon fodder. I had never seen the statistics that the Army Air Force had the highest percentage of fatalities of any of the services in WW II. My eight uncles and cousins, who fought in WW II, always felt the air force had the best deal, but after reading this book, I realize how little the sacrifice of 155,000 airmen has been acknowledged.

The Rita Mae Brown book, High Hearts was a thrilling read from cover to cover. It was a look back in time to a woman who goes to war, the Civil War as a man, so that she can be with her new husband. More than a romance, but with more substance than an adventure tale, I could read this book over and over. I never knew about the phenomenon this book was based on, but apparently, there were several women who did in fact, pass for men, in order to go to war. Not complicated, or hard to follow, this book is enjoyable with some thought provoking aspects as well.

One of the best written by Rita Mae Brown. Gives a different perspective on the Civil War. Should be more like it showing the losers side.I highly recommend this book. I have given it as gifts to friends.

This book is very unusual for Rita Mae Brown and I consider it her best work! It's all in one: A love story, a history book (American Civial War & Slavery), a feminist novel, funny, serious, ironic, and critical of society. The reader experiences the war through the eyes of captivating characters you just have to fall in love with!

There were uncounted women who cut their hair, lowered their voices and took up arms on both sides of The Civil War. Rita Mae Brown does a wonderful job crafting a fictional story using this truth as her premise. The characters are richly drawn (I actually preferred the evolution of Geneva's mother, Lutie, to Geneva herself), and the story layered and interesting.

Geneva can't bear to be away from her husband when he enlists as soon as the guns fire on Fort Sumter. She joins him as a soldier, and learns some unpleasant truths about him and about war. She finds that she has a talent for fighting and that she and her husband aren't as compatible as they might have been had they not rejected their "traditional" roles.

Rita Mae Brown's interesting Foreword and endnotes provide context and explanation for her literary choices, and greatly enrich the experience. I give this book four stars instead of five because at the end, there are several characters whose final stories are only alluded to, as in, "this happened, but that's a story for another day." I wanted to know what happened for these folks, and this abrupt ending felt like laziness, as if Miss Brown just didn't feel like writing any further. Unfortunate, as it left a bad taste after the novel had been so interesting up to that point.

One of the BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN!!!! Shared this with my 12 year old son and my spouse, my 8 year old daughter, I would like to introduce,soon an another positive female role model. A great book to even interest( and introduce) HOMOPHOBES who cannot be asked to view another great book, Rubyfruit Jungle.TRy the book... you will LOVE IT!!! Love, war, decision based on love and respect. I wore out 2 copies already. One of my top 5 for a desert island. Enjoy the book.