... a superb account of both military leadership and soldierly warfare ... Mr. Miller has done a prodigious amount of research (the back matter runs to nearly 150 pages), and among the book’s many strengths are the quotations he provides from diaries and letters ... Books like Vicksburg are exactly what Thomas Hardy had in mind when he wrote that 'war makes rattling good history.'
Readers will marvel at how Grant—a washed-up dry-goods clerk at the beginning of the Civil War—acquires the power and skill that made him the mastermind at Vicksburg of the largest amphibious army-navy operation staged by the U.S. military until D-Day. In a narrative taut with drama, Miller recounts how this resolute Union crusader takes the war down the Mississippi, defying geographic and military obstacles, thereby seizing control of the Confederacy’s essential internal waterway in a triumph that mattered more than Gettysburg or Antietam, a political as well as military breakthrough, freeing plantation slaves in large southern regions. Readers will recognize defects in Grant, as they see his heedlessness with other men’s lives, his intemperance in his own. But Miller leaves no doubt: the nation Washington helped to found needed this dogged warrior to defend it. War history alive with probing intelligence and irresistible passion.
To be sure, Miller takes the general to task for some military miscalculations — and personal shortcomings ... Readers who fall short of Civil War Buff status may find Miller’s attention to tactical detail a literary forced march, although a profusion of maps helps to keep things clear. And Miller steps back often from his regiments-and-road-junctions approach to offer some interesting sidelights.
Miller provides important context for the final siege of Vicksburg by explaining why the city was vital to control of the Mississippi and how naval accomplishments made possible maneuvers employed by Grant’s soldiers during their halting advances toward the city. He superbly integrates events in Washington, keeping primary attention on those in the field of battle and emphasizing the role of freedmen in the victory ... Skillful writing makes Miller’s latest work a highly recommended and readable addition to the voluminous library of Civil War histories.
A skillful history ... it was the most satisfying Union campaign of the war, and Miller chronicles it with aplomb ... An expert, detailed account that should remain the definitive account for quite some time.
In this elegant Civil War history, Miller meticulously details Ulysses S. Grant’s success on the yearlong campaign to take Vicksburg, Miss ... Miller’s enlightening chronology explains how the campaign established Union dominance on the western front despite Vicksburg’s natural bluffs, which aided the defending Confederate army as it waited desperately for relief that never came. Drawing on military records, personal letters, and diaries, Miller fleshes out the effects of the relentless campaign on the mistake-prone generals on both sides ... Miller mistakenly repeats the assertion that rape by military personnel was uncommon during the war, but overall this account is well-researched and well-told, incorporating a variety of perspectives and events without becoming shaggy. Military buffs will delight in Miller’s rendering of Grant’s audacity.
