Battle Hymn Cycle
5 primary works
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
"The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley ... pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: ... Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart; ... the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the era's greatest love stories. From hungry, hard-bitten Rebel privates to a pair of Union officers destined to become presidents, from a neglected hero who saved our nation's capital and went on to write one of his century's greatest novels, to doomed Confederate leaders of incomparable valor, Ralph Peters brings to life yesteryear's giants and their breathtaking battles"--
Book 4
Glory turned grim and warfare changed forever. As Grant pinned Lee to Petersburg and Richmond, the Confederacy's stubborn Army of Northern Virginia struggled against a relentless Union behemoth, with breathtaking valor and sacrifice on both sides. That confrontation in the bloody summer and autumn of 1864 shaped the nation that we know today. From the butchery of The Crater, where stunning success collapsed into a massacre, through near-constant battles fought by heat-stricken soldiers, to the crucial election of 1864, The Damned of Petersburg resurrects our Civil War's hard reality, as plumes and sabers gave way to miles of trenches. Amid the slaughter of those fateful months, fabled leaders--Grant and Lee, Winfield Scott Hancock and A.P. Hill--turned to rising heroes, Confederates "Little Billy" Mahone and Wade Hampton, last of the cavaliers, or Union warriors such as tragedy-stricken Francis Channing Barlow and the fearless Nelson Miles, a general at twenty-four. Nor does Ralph Peters forget the men in the ranks, the common soldiers who paid the price for the blunders of leaders who'd never know their names. In desperate battles, now forgotten, such as Deep Bottom, Globe Tavern and Reams Station, soldiers on both sides, pushed to the last human limits, fought on as their superiors struggled to master a terrible new age of warfare. The Damned of Petersburg revives heroes aplenty--enriching our knowledge of our most terrible war--but, above all, this novel's a tribute to the endurance and courage of the American soldier, North or South.--Amazon.com.
Book 5
A great war nears its end. Robert E. Lee makes a desperate, dramatic gamble. It fails. Ulysses S. Grant moves. Veteran armies clash around Petersburg, Virginia, as Grant seeks to surround Lee and Lee makes a skillful withdrawal in the night. Richmond falls. Each day brings new combat and more casualties, as Lee's exhausted, hungry troops race to preserve the Confederacy. But Grant does not intend to let Lee escape... In one of the most thrilling episodes in American history, heroes North and South, John Brown Gordon and Phillip Sheridan, James Longstreet and Francis Channing Barlow, battle each other across southern Virginia as the armies converge on a sleepy country court house. --Amazon.com.