Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating maps
Review: For the most part this was an entertaining and useful book. I did not enjoy it as much as Sword's other works, for two reasons. First, the maps were poor and not well situated throughout the text. Often events were described and the locations were not on any of the overall regional maps. It was also difficult to find the relevant map so an index would have been helpful. Considering the main audience for this work is composed of Civil War buffs, detailed and covenient maps should have been a top priority. Second, I think there was some mild hyperbole used throughout, with verbs chosen to unnecessarily sharpen the conflict between fueding generals. Other than these points I thought this book was a wonderful exposition of the siege of Chattanooga. After reading it I will have to visit Missionary Ridge all over again. I highly recommend Sword's other books to the Civil War enthusiast.
Rating:
Summary: More, and better maps would have been great!
Review: I want to start off by saying that I loved this book, and this was the first book on the Siege/Battle of Chattanooga that I have read. There was one glaring inaccurarcy: while describing Sherman's movement from Memphis to Chattanooga (via the Memphis & Charleston RR), Sword misplaces the town of Colliersville as being in Mississippi, while, in fact, it is in Tennessee. I know this as I live within 20 miles of Collierville. Sword, as usual, is very skillful in his writing. His book on Shiloh was, I believe, the best on that battle, and this book definitely doesn't dissapoint. The photo section of this book was great. Why, you may ask, didn't I give this book five stars, then? The reason is that his book had very few maps, and those provided, while not bad, could definitely have been better. If there had been more maps, I most likely would have given this book five stars. With all that said, I would recommend this book to anyone who has a sincere interest in the campaigns of the War Between the States. At the price Amazon.Com charges, I would recommend even more highly that you purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: More, and better maps would have been great!
Review: I want to start off by saying that I loved this book, and this was the first book on the Siege/Battle of Chattanooga that I have read. There was one glaring inaccurarcy: while describing Sherman's movement from Memphis to Chattanooga (via the Memphis & Charleston RR), Sword misplaces the town of Colliersville as being in Mississippi, while, in fact, it is in Tennessee. I know this as I live within 20 miles of Collierville. Sword, as usual, is very skillful in his writing. His book on Shiloh was, I believe, the best on that battle, and this book definitely doesn't dissapoint. The photo section of this book was great. Why, you may ask, didn't I give this book five stars, then? The reason is that his book had very few maps, and those provided, while not bad, could definitely have been better. If there had been more maps, I most likely would have given this book five stars. With all that said, I would recommend this book to anyone who has a sincere interest in the campaigns of the War Between the States. At the price Amazon.Com charges, I would recommend even more highly that you purchase it.
Rating:
Summary: Good Companion to Sword?s Other Book
Review: Mountains Touched with Fire is a fine history of the the battle of Chickamauga and the resulting siege and relief of Chattanooga. It is the perfect companion to Sword's other book dealing with the western front - Embrace an Angry Wind : The Confederacy's Last Hurrah Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. Mountains Touched traces the battle in detail from the Union loss of Chickamauga to the raising of the subsequent siege of Chattanooga. Sword excels in describing the effect of the battle on the common soldier and the interplay of the Union and Confederate Generals and the effect that it had on the outcome. His description of the charge up Missionary Ridge is at times griping. He takes particular care in describing the fact that the charge was in direct violation of General Grant's orders and was the result of the spontaneous action of the Union rank and file. He, like others, is especially critical of Braxton Bragg and almost all of the other Confederate commanders. Of the Union Generals, he is not as critical. However, his description of the successful frontal charge up Missionary Ridge and the simotaineous stalemate with Sherman's troops on the northern side of the Ridge reveals that Sword believed that luck, as much as anything else was the reason for the Union victory. If there is a General that Sword is positive about it is General Thomas. The same is true of his other book. Combined they reveal that Sword believes that Thomas is an unsung hero of the Civil War. The book is well written, although at times the detail seems excessive. The weakness of the book is the maps or lack thereof. At times it is difficult to follow the battle sequences and place them in a geographical context.
Rating:
Summary: Chattanooga...The beginning of the end of the Confederacy
Review: Overall there is not much that I can add to the last review of this book offered by Amazon.com. I must say that the author provides more than enough detail of the events and personalities leading up the battle of Chattanoogo in 1863. And as the previous review makes mention he certainly covers all aspects of the soldiers and generals lives during this campaign . Of interest was the in-fighting between the Southern Officers and the decent and honest appraisal of Grant, Sherman & Thomas and who the real hereo/s were. The only thing that I could fault this book on was that you had to read nearly half of it until you got to the fighting, however once there it became a great book. The maps were OK but there could have been more and an index to their locations. The actual accounts of the fighting were excellent, however the lead up to the battle was, at time, tedious. Overall a good solid book which covers all aspects of the battle and the men involved and as good as Peter Cozzens "Shipwreck of their hopes'.
Rating:
Summary: Chattanooga Besieged
Review: Sword's book presents a detailed and gripping account of the Union's struggle to break through tough Confederate forces holding on to the gateway of Georgia. He takes us from the Union's loss at Chicamauga to the final conquest of Missionary Ridge while providing a clear picture of the human misery and tragedy of this seige. Sword also provides an objective narration of the principal players, including Grant, Sherman, and Bragg. A great book from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible and Engaging Book on a Crucial Campaign
Review: The siege and battle of Chattanooga presents a complex and difficult challenge to a writer. The action was spread out over more than a two-month period. It included the critical but inactive month long siege, when the Army of the Cumberland was besieged and nearly starved out of Chattanooga by Bragg's Confederates. Then followed a month of various actions, large and small, from the October 28 Brown's Ferry action that opened the cracker line, to Cleburne's rear guard fight to defend the fleeing Confederate army on November 27. This was all further complicated by both the politics that was altering the Union command, and the vicious political infighting among Bragg's high command that played a huge role in the eventual outcome of the campaign. Wiley Sword has done a masterful job of tackling the daunting task of weaving a clear, informative, and exciting tapestry from all of these various threads.
Sword begins with the bloody battle of Chickamauga. By devoting the first three chapters to this devastating defeat of the Union Army of the Cumberland that set up the conditions for the siege at Chattanooga, Sword wisely avoids opening his book with the long inaction of the siege. By necessity, a large section is devoted to the siege, and even Sword's fine writing sometimes fails to enliven this dull but crucial build up to the final crisis. He then expertly makes sense of the various and confusing military actions that started in late October, and did not end until the desperate rear guard action of the Confederates in flight on November 27. His account of Thomas' "demonstration" which turned into a full scale assault up Missionary Ridge and turned the tide of the battle is the most stirring of any that I have ever read of this amazing event.
Sword vividly paints Chattanooga as the most devilishly unpredictable of campaigns. Men with impressive reputations such as General Sherman and Confederate General Longstreet met with only failure and embarrassment here. The best plans of the Union's hero, General Grant, utterly failed, while actions planned only as diverting demonstrations turned into major victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The action which against all odds swept the Confederates from their nearly impregnable position atop Missionary Ridge was based on a spur of the moment, ill-considered mistake made by Grant, and succeeded at least in part because it should never have been attempted. Sword shows a campaign won not by the generals, but by the vagaries of chance and the mettle of the men in the ranks.
Mountain Touched with Fire is not the last word on Chattanooga. There may be other works that go into greater detail, and it certainly could have had more maps. However, it is the most accessible, the most engaging book on the subject, and the best place to begin to understand this complicated and crucial campaign.
Rating:
Summary: Lookout Mountain Wasn't Always A Tourist Trap!
Review: This book concerns itself with the siege of Chattanooga in the fall of 1863 by the Confederates and the unexpected breakout by Union forces just when it seemed that they on the verge of suffering a major defeat. Historian Willey Sword weaves a brilliant narrative that reveals the behind-the-scenes infighting of the Confederate generals and the ineptness of many of the northern generals as well as the rise of Ulysses S. Grant (this battle helped to cement his reputation). But what I found most compelling about this book was the detailed descriptions of the incredible suffering that was sustained by the common soldiers. Many people have a romantic image of the Civil War. But the reality is that the average soldier suffered hardships that cannot even be imagined today. For example, so starved were the troops on both sides during the siege that many were driven to such desperate acts as eating bark off trees or picking undigested corn from animal feces. For in those days, supplies to the battlefield often had to travel hundreds of miles on rail which were often sabotaged by the enemy. Even if the supplies made it to the nearest depot safely, they still had to travel dozens of miles by horse-driven wagons over muddy and often impassable roads. The sad truth is that most supplies ended up rotting or otherwise were destroyed before they even got to the troops, ensuring a constant lack of vital supplies and rampant starvation and illnesses. By this stage of the Civil War, it was apparent that many of the rank-and-file soldiers were sick of the war and just wanted it to end. In fact, soldiers on opposing sides of the picket lines would often banter playfully with each other and trade such items as pocket knives and tobacco back and forth across enemy lines. But they would soon enough be engaged in bloody battle once again. The climactic battle makes for gripping reading and many unexpected (and unheralded) heros turn disaster into victory (for the Union). The battle described in this book is typical of many Civil War battles. Lots of people were slaughtered and maimed. Many of them senselessly on account of ill-advised orders from their own officers. It is amazing how the United States was able to reunite at all after such a bloody conflict (over 520,000 Americans were killed), but that is a story for other books to tell. This book only concerns itself with the action at Chattanooga in late 1863 and the narrow focus of the book is an advantage as it does not bore the reader with a confusing tangle of battles and generals - the pitfall of many of the other Civil War books. The only disappointment with this book (and keeping it from getting five stars) is that there are only a few maps and they are horrid and almost useless. This extremely well-written text deserves better situation maps and more of them so that the reader can better picture the action in his/her mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Better storyteller than most
Review: Wiley Sword has a richly deserved reputation as a Civil War historian and a writer. Although the title indicates the book is about the battle of Chattanooga, the book is half gone before you start the fighting that occurred in Nov. 1864. Sword starts with the Tullahoma Campaign, touches on the events preceding Chickamauga, and with the fires still glowing 12 miles south of Chattanooga, Sword begins to weave the tale of America's Scenic City late in 1863. The Union Army is stranded with little food and little hope of increasing its supply, Rosecrans is arrogently refusing to admit to his problem and General Grant is put in charge of a potentially disasterous situation. Grant's first concern are the men trapped in this valley between two mountains. He is willing to overlook his distaste for George Thomas, who is, well, a Virginian in the Union Army. Once a supply route is secure and the rations begin to pour into the besieged city, Grant turns his attention to the problem at hand -- lifting the seige and driving the Rebels back. This he does in a series of four battles, Orchard Knob, the "Battle Above the Clouds," Missionary Ridge and Ringgold Gap. The Confederates are being torn apart by the hatred of most of the generals for their commanding officer, Braxton Bragg. And as much a the book is a big hurrah for General Grant and Thomas, its an indictment of the beleaguered commander of the Army of Tennessee. Sword's strength is his ability to tell a story without sacrificing historical accuracy. I suppose he could have gone into more detail, but I like it just the way it is. We don't need another Cozzens epic.
Rating:
Summary: Better storyteller than most
Review: Wiley Sword has a richly deserved reputation as a Civil War historian and a writer. Although the title indicates the book is about the battle of Chattanooga, the book is half gone before you start the fighting that occurred in Nov. 1864. Sword starts with the Tullahoma Campaign, touches on the events preceding Chickamauga, and with the fires still glowing 12 miles south of Chattanooga, Sword begins to weave the tale of America's Scenic City late in 1863. The Union Army is stranded with little food and little hope of increasing its supply, Rosecrans is arrogently refusing to admit to his problem and General Grant is put in charge of a potentially disasterous situation. Grant's first concern are the men trapped in this valley between two mountains. He is willing to overlook his distaste for George Thomas, who is, well, a Virginian in the Union Army. Once a supply route is secure and the rations begin to pour into the besieged city, Grant turns his attention to the problem at hand -- lifting the seige and driving the Rebels back. This he does in a series of four battles, Orchard Knob, the "Battle Above the Clouds," Missionary Ridge and Ringgold Gap. The Confederates are being torn apart by the hatred of most of the generals for their commanding officer, Braxton Bragg. And as much a the book is a big hurrah for General Grant and Thomas, its an indictment of the beleaguered commander of the Army of Tennessee. Sword's strength is his ability to tell a story without sacrificing historical accuracy. I suppose he could have gone into more detail, but I like it just the way it is. We don't need another Cozzens epic.
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