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The Smoke at Dawn

a Novel of the Civil War
Apr 24, 2017TheresaAJ rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Shaara, in his third book of the Western Theater series, reimagines the battle of Chattanooga in November 1863. After victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, Ulysses S. Grant has taken command of the Army of the Cumberland and is relying on William Tecumseh Sherman to help him with the final push through Tennessee and Georgia. The author effectively imagines the battle through the voices of the commanding generals who issue orders, junior officers who carry out the orders, and men on the ground who kill each other with bullets and bayonets. The reader can feel the hunger, misery, and chaos of the men on the ground while junior officers relay orders they don't believe in and generals bicker among themselves while trying to present vainglorious images to the reporters and politicians who follow the armies around the south. Shaara's series is a sharp reminder that war as portrayed in media is vastly different war's reality.