In the Pulitzer prize-winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael
Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time. In the
bestselling Gods and Generals, Shaara's son, Jeff, brilliantly
sustained his father's vision, telling the epic story of the events
culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this
legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that
brings to life the final two years of the Civil War.
As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war
advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between
the politicians in Washington and the generals in the field yawns ever
wider. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a
decisive, hard-nosed leader. It is at this critical moment that Lincoln
places Ulysses S. Grant in command--and turns the tide of war.
For Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg was an unspeakable disaster--compounded by
the shattering loss of the fiery Stonewall Jackson two months before.
Lee knows better than anyone that the South cannot survive a war of
attrition. But with the total devotion of his generals--Longstreet,
Hill, Stuart--and his unswerving faith in God, Lee is determined to
fight to the bitter end.
Here too is Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor who emerged as the
Union hero of Gettysburg--and who will rise to become one of the
greatest figures of the Civil War.
Battle by staggering battle, Shaara dramatizes the escalating
confrontation between Lee and Grant--complicated, heroic, deeply
troubled men. From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing
siege of Petersburg to Lee's epoch-making surrender at Appomattox,
Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the
minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure.
Full of human passion and the spellbinding truth of history, The Last
Full Measure is the fitting capstone to a magnificent literary trilogy.
