**Winner, 2017, Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize, Given by the Austin Civil
War Round Table
**
"Now in paperback, Barren Victory is the third and concluding volume of
the magisterial Chickamauga Campaign trilogy, a comprehensive
examination of one of the most important and complex military operations
of the Civil War.
The first installment, A Mad Irregular Battle, introduced readers to the
major characters of this sweeping drama and carried them from the Union
crossing of the Tennessee River in August 1863 up through the bloody but
inconclusive combat of the first and second days of the battle
(September 18 and 19, 1863). Glory or the Grave, the second volume,
focused on September 20--the decisive third day of fighting that
included the Confederate late-morning breakthrough and the desperate
Union final stand on Horseshoe Ridge. This installment drew to a close
at nightfall. Powell's final installment, Barren Victory, examines the
immediate aftermath of the battle with unprecedented clarity and
detail.
The narrative opens at dawn on Monday, September 21, 1863, with Union
commander William S. Rosecrans in Chattanooga and most of the rest of
his Federal army in Rossville, Georgia. Confederate commander Braxton
Bragg has won the signal victory of his career, but has yet to fully
grasp that fact or the fruits of his success. Unfortunately for the
South, the three grueling days of combat broke down the Army of
Tennessee and a vigorous pursuit was nearly impossible.
In addition to carefully examining the decisions made by each army
commander and the consequences, Powell sets forth the dreadful costs of
the fighting in terms of the human suffering involved. Barren Victory
concludes with the most detailed Chickamauga orders of battle (including
unit strengths and losses) ever compiled, and a comprehensive
bibliography more than a decade in the making.
David Powell's award-winning The Chickamauga Campaign trilogy is now
complete. The fighting in the hills and valleys of North Georgia has
finally received the extensive treatment it has so long deserved."
