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Title: Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory |
Review of Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory
New York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen conclude their inventive trilogy with this remarkable answer to the great âwhat ifâ of the American Civil War: Could the South have indeed won?
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After his great victories at Gettysburg and Union Mills, General Robert E. Leeâs attempt to bring the war to a final conclusion by attacking Washington, D.C., fails. However, in securing Washington, the remnants of the valiant Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of the impetuous General Dan Sickles, is trapped and destroyed. For Lincoln there is only one hope left: that General Ulysses S. Grant can save the Union cause.
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It is now August 22, 1863. Lincoln and Grant are facing a collapse of political will to continue the fight to preserve the Union. Lee, desperately short of manpower, must conserve his remaining strength while maneuvering for the killing blow that will take Grantâs army out of the fight and, at last, bring a final and complete victory for the South.
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Pursuing the remnants of the defeated Army of the Potomac up to the banks of the Susquehanna, Lee is caught off balance when news arrives that General Ulysses S. Grant, in command of more than seventy thousand men, has crossed that same river, a hundred miles to the northwest at Harrisburg. As General Grant brings his Army of the Susquehanna into Maryland, Robert E. Leeâs Army of Northern Virginia maneuvers for position. Grant first sends General George Armstrong Custer on a mad dash to block Leeâs path toward Frederick and with it control of the crucial B&O railroad, which moves troops and supplies. The two armies finally collide in Central Maryland, and a bloody week-long battle ensues along the banks of Monocacy Creek. This must be the âfinalâ battle for both sides.
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In Never Call Retreat, Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen bring all of their critically acclaimed talents to bear in what is destined to become an immediate classic.
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Comments for Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory
- Posted on 2006-08-15
now what?
The first volume covers the battle of Gettysburg, though with strategic maneuvers beyond anything contemplated by the actual participants. Like any successful counterfactual history, the authors are careful in their initial changes - in fact, most readers will not even be aware of the changes in the battle to after the end of the first day's fighting, but by this point many small changes have already occurred - enough changes in fact to lead Lee to a strategic masterstroke on a par with Jackson's Chancellorsville march. From here the story rapidly diverges from what we know as history, but never beyond possibility, and it's amusing to see various participants like Sykes, Sickles, Joshua Chamberlain and others perform in this parallel universe.
The battles scenes are excellent and provide a closeup look at the experience of individual troops. They note often how the opposing sides would arrange unofficial truces when the battles end. You'll probably suspect that the climactic battle of the second book won't resolve everything since there's still that third volume! But that never subtracts from the tension & suspense of these books. Great history - my only regret is that Gingrich didn't start writing novels earlier, rather than spending so much time fighting other battles in Congress.
One small annoyance is the tendency of the authors to put anachronistic quotes in the mouths of their actors. The most prominent one was during a race between the armies towards the coast in which a general remarks let the man on the farthest edge of the flanking troops touch the sea with his sleeve" - a statement actually made 50 years later by the German general during their flanking attack through Belgium. There are several more of these pillaged pedantries scattered thru the books, but their effect is minimal.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2006-07-29
good read
Gingrich and Fortschen have written an excellent conclusion to their alternative history of the Civil War. AS I stated in my review of the first book, those of us who grew up in the south have lived with the "what if?" Questions our whole life. The first volume of this series posits a Confederate victory in the Gettysburg campaign. But even with that victory could the Confederacy have pushed the campaign to victory and what would have been required to acheive that victory.
The authors have done an excellent job of taking into account the difficulty of capturing Washington and the overwhelming superiority of men and material the Federal forces had. To win this war, it would have required a quick knockout after July 4, 1663. this book shows why this would have been difficult. The difficulties in controlling a captive population, sabotage, internal weakness of the confederate government all are taken into account in this book. I think the embrace of "colored" troops and the army of workers is probably a stretch.
The book involves a short period around on final conclusive battle in Maryland, not far from the site of the Battle of Sharpsburg. The carnage is overwhelming, but in comparison to Cold Harbor, it seems feasible. The authors show an excellent knowledge of the area the battle is fought on.
I enjoyed the trilogy. It was fun fiction, but it also helps the reader to address the 'what if's" Recommend
Score: 4 - Posted on 2006-07-14
Entertaining but very disappointing
I read all three in this series of "Alternative History" and found the first two fascinating reading and all three were page turners. The last, however left me with more issues that I could not resolve. The end result was as expected. Lee surrenders. I could accept all of the alternative presentations and battles but I could not accept George Armstrong Custer being killed in a battle. What will happen at the "Little Big Horn"?
Score: 3
- Posted on 2006-04-03
Did the South Win?
"Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant-The Final Victory. Thomas Donne Books, St. Martin's Press, New York. 496 pages with maps and numerous Civil War Photographs. Hardcover 2005/Softcover 2006.
"Never Call Retreat" is the dramatic conclusion to the Civil War trilogy penned by Newt Gingrich, past Speaker of the House and William R. Forstchen, Ph. D., history professor at Montreat College which attempts, in part, to answer the question: "Could the South have won the American Civil War?".
The "yes or no" answer to tha question is forcefully and with knowledgeable insight presented in the conclusion of this spellbinding fictionalized account of the final weeks of the war. Before the conclusion is reached many notable persons and their actions are presented. Custer, Longstreet, Jackson, Stuart, Sheridan and Sherman all are provided their due in the pages of historical time and place.
Lincoln, Grant and Lee, being the principal players in this the bloodiest conflict endured by this nation are shown to be men of strong religious backgrounds and beliefs. All abhor the human suffering and loss endured by the combatants. They are also shown to be cognizant of the pain, worry and heartbreak borne upon the mothers, wives, sweethearts, children and other family members.
"Never Call Retreat" does not skin over the events of the day. The vivid details of moving an artillery piece to the line of battle over a road knee deep in mud down to including the loss of a trooper's boot sucked up by the mud brings the reader to feel he is by the near wayside observing if not in the mud itself straining and sweating in compnay with the combatants.
The action(s) provide hours of excitement worthy of the James Bond 007 thrillers such as: two steam locomotives sent hurtling down the tracks towards each other to collide head on at the center of the bridge. The resulting explosion caused by the impact plus the tremendous rupture of the steam boilers renders the bridge to the devastation and destruction intended.
Also the maniac charges of the Confederates again and again against the three-inch ordnance rifles loaded with double cannister (100.50cal steel balls) is as strong an epistle of man's animal indecencies as this reviewer has had occasion to have read. Grant's compassion is revealed when he orders his artillery commander: "For God's sake, Henry hold fire", stopping the harvest of human flesh likened to the sweep of a sickle through a field of wheat. "Never Call Retreat" should be required reading and study by all politicians, especially those arm-chair types who advocate military action but have never been on the receiving end of shots fired in anger.
The filling of canteens down stream from the scene of battle with water streaked pink by blood is another meticulous description of the gruesome nature of warfare.
The reader is again and again skillfully brought into the narrative to be one and the same as if he is subjective rather than objective in nature. He becomes an insider rather than an observer while reading the insightful narrative of the building of the pontoon bridge. The descriptive wording of the difficult straining to implant a king-pin to secure the bridge spans is felt as is the spray of the waters of the river.
After the defeat General Robert E. Lee addresses the Confederate Assembly with words that are as meaningful as the words of Atticus Finch (a.k.a. Gregory Peck) in his summation to the jury in "To Kill a Mockingbird". He asks that the hostilities cease and that all, North and South, start to mend and bring the opposing forces into a unified union.
The novel alternates between the White House, The Northern and Southern armies in a time sequence used by the author W.E.B. Griffin. The days/dates do not relate to the times of the actual war, and the reader must keep in mind that this is fiction.
Could the South have won the war? The authors say NO! I suggest you read the book and draw your own conclusion.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2006-03-23
Excellent "alternate history" of the Civil War
This historical novel is the third and final part of a trilogy that began with Gettysburg, and as the title suggests, this volume chronicles the final stages of the Civil War. The trilogy begins during the Battle of Gettysburg, and describes how the course of the war might have changed had General Lee taken General Longstreet's advice at the end of the second day of battle. What follows is a riveting account of the rest of the "alternate Civil War". The authors describe strategy, tactics, and battle scenes with great realism, and all the developments were easier to follow than the "real thing". Character development was very thorough and added a great deal to the over all understanding of the events (I hope not too much "fictional license" was taken).
Overall, this book was an excellent read, as was the entire trilogy. I think they would be worthwhile to the most casual student of the Civil War.
Score: 5
