by Jeff Shaara
First published 2013
Major General Ulysses S. Grant finally pushes his Union forces across the Mississippi River in May 1863. Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton retreats with his battered army to Vicksburg, the fortress city known as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. After two costly failed assaults leave his troops demoralized, Grant reluctantly chooses siege warfare. He traps soldiers and civilians inside a ring of Federal trenches. For six brutal weeks, the defenders endure starvation and constant bombardment. Private Fritz Bauer fights in the Union ranks while nineteen-year-old Lucy Spence struggles to survive among Vicksburg's besieged citizens. Confederate commanders Pemberton and Joseph Johnston face impossible odds as Grant and his lieutenant William T. Sherman tighten their grip. The siege transforms everyone it touches, from generals plotting strategy in their command tents to families hiding in ruined mansions. When the starving Confederates finally surrender on July 4, Independence Day, they hand Grant control of the Mississippi River and mark a turning point that will echo through the war.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, war
Setting: Mississippi River, Vicksburg
Period: May 1863, July 4
562 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books