The Smoke at Dawn: A Novel of the Civil War

by Jeff Shaara

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Jeff Shaara returns to the Civil War terrain he knows so well, with the latest novel in the series that started with A Blaze of Glory and A Chain of Thunder. In The Smoke at Dawn, the last great push of the Army of the Cumberland sets the stage for a decisive confrontation at Chattanooga that could determine the outcome of the war.

Summer, 1863. The Federal triumph at Vicksburg...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345527429
• ISBN13: 9780345527424
• Release Date: May 2015
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Jeff Shaara at his best.

Another outstanding addition to Jeff Shaara’s series on the Civil War in the Western Theater, The Smoke at Dawn focuses on the Chattanooga Campaign as Ulysses Grant faces down Braxton Bragg in this critical engagement that cost one general his reputation and elevated the other one to ultimate command. Like the first two volumes in this four volume set, Shaara moves the story along through the eyes of various participants in the action, and does so with an expertise that is rare. I have often been curious about how men could stand in lines of battle and take the kind of punishment so common in 19th Century linear combat, what type of psychology must be necessary to do that, what was going through their minds in the midst of battle. I have read memoirs and autobiographies but so many of them avoid that issue, perhaps afraid of reviving memories best left buried. But Jeff Shaara has recreated those thoughts in vivid detail as well as can be possible and true to the characters. I have read some reviews critical of his works as being too slow in action because of this, but I disagree. Reaching into the minds of these men, both enlisted and officers, as well as time and lick of records permit, enhances the story and enabled this reader, at any rate, to more easily imagine himself in that place and during that time. A remarkable achievement indeed. I love this author.