A Tempest of Iron and Lead
Spotsylvania Court House May 8-21, 1864
by
Chris Mackowski
This battle does not get the attention that it deserves. Coming right after the more famous Battle of the Wilderness, it gets lost in the other battles of the 1864 Overland Campaign. The number of books written about Civil War battles is immense. Spotsylvania, by comparison, has very few. Some of the fighting in this battle was the most horrific and prolonged of the war. I am very glad to see that another author has decided to tell us the story of this amazing battle.
The author is the editor-in-chief of the Emerging Civil War Series published by Savas Beatie. He was also employed by the National Park Service as a historian for the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. In my travels around those battlefields, it is possible I talked to him. He has also written more than two dozen books on the Civil War. So, you can see that he is extremely well versed in the book's subject.
The book itself is 359 pages long. It is the standard fare for a book by Savas Beatie, meaning that it is well made and hefty to the touch. The book should also be lauded for its absence of one of my pet peeves with military history books. It is loaded with not only maps, but the maps are extremely well done and very easy to read. I think these are essential in military history books. It also has a large number of pictures of the people and period photos and drawings.
The book starts with Lee maneuvering from the Wilderness to cover the approaches to Spotsylvania Court House. It then continues with each chapter representing each day of the battle. Both May 10th and 12th have so much happening over the complete battlefield that sometimes authors make the exact history of those days hard to follow. However, Mr. Mackowski gives the reader a wonderful, and easy to follow, panorama of the battle on those days, and indeed the entire battle.
Thank you, Savas Beatie, for allowing me to review this excellent addition to your Emerging Civil War Series. I also want to thank the author for an easy to follow and well written book on one of my favorite battles. I am going to look for more of the author's books to add to my collection.
Robert Peterson
Book: A Tempest of Iron and Lead: Spotsylvania Court House May 8-21, 1864
Author: Chris Mackowski
Publisher: Savas Beatie
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