by Ralph Peters
First published 2017
The summer of 1864 finds Grant's Union forces locked in brutal trench warfare around Petersburg, Virginia. Heat-stricken soldiers endure near-constant fighting as traditional cavalry charges give way to miles of earthworks and deadly new tactics. The catastrophic Battle of the Crater begins with stunning Union success but collapses into massacre when coordination fails. Rising Confederate leaders like "Little Billy" Mahone and Wade Hampton fight alongside seasoned commanders A. P. Hill and Robert E. Lee. On the Union side, Winfield Scott Hancock and tragedy-marked Francis Channing Barlow serve under Grant's relentless pressure, while twenty-four-year-old Nelson Miles proves his fearless leadership. Through forgotten battles at Deep Bottom, Globe Tavern, and Reams Station, common soldiers pay with blood for their commanders' mistakes. As the crucial 1864 election approaches, both armies push human endurance to its limits while generals struggle to master this terrible new age of combat. Peters follows these men through months of slaughter that will determine America's fate.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, military-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: military, war
Setting: Petersburg, Virginia
Period: 1864
448 pages · Paperback · Forge Books
Content warnings: violence, war