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A Chain of Thunder

a Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg
Jun 22, 2013Keogh rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The second of Jeff Shaara's unfolding Civil War trilogy focusing on the western theatre, after the earlier A Blaze of Glory. This one focuses its narrative on the Vicksburg campaign in the spring and early summer of 1863. The commanders on both sides figure heavily into the story- Grant, Sherman, John Pemberton, and Joseph Johnston, most of whom Shaara has written before. Their personalities are vividly depicted, as is the ferociousness of the campaign, one of Grant's masterpieces, as it settles into a siege around the town that commanded one of the final barrier points for control of the Mississippi River. Shaara brings back a Wisconsin infantryman from the first book, more settled into the life of a soldier as he takes part in the campaign, as a man on the ground viewpoint. As well, he repeatedly brings us the point of a view of a civilian in Vicksburg, a young woman on her own who becomes a nurse in the nightmarish hospitals, experiencing the deprivations and hardships of a town surrounded by the enemy. A worthy addition to Shaara's work.