Review by Choice Review
Well-known journalism professor Patterson (emer., Univ. of Florida) here offers the latest title to focus on the military-naval campaigns in the Civil War's western theater. He emphasizes the several Union advances made down the Mississippi River from Cairo, IL, and up it from New Orleans that ended with the Union captures of Vicksburg, MS, and Port Hudson, LA. This Mississippi Valley campaign has lately received enhanced appreciation from Civil War scholars. Unhappily, Patterson, the author of several popular campaign histories, breaks no new ground in this book, in either the information delivered or interpretations provided. Indeed, archival or newspaper collections and numerous printed histories or memoirs of significant value to the study of this topic were either not consulted or not cited in the two-and-a-half-page bibliography. Two dozen fairly well-known reproductions of historical prints and photos enhance the book, but there is not a single map. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; public libraries. M. J. Smith Jr. Tusculum College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
