Book Review – Jeff Shaara’s “The Last Full Measure”

Today I finished reading Jeff Shaara‘s The Last Full Measure, the final book in a trilogy of American Civil War books written by Jeff and his father, Michael Shaara.  The previous two books are Gods and Generals and The Killer Angels.

First published in 1998, The Last Full Measure is a historical novel that takes readers through the last two years of war in the eastern campaign in the War Between the States (a.k.a. American Civil War).  We experience the war through several points-of-view, but mainly General Robert E. Lee, General Ulysses S. Grant, and Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The book begins in July of 1863 just after the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the Civil War.  General Robert E. Lee suffered a serious setback at the battle, and now the Confederate’s Army of Northern Virginia has retreated back into Virginia to reorganize themselves.  Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of Lieutenant General and the position of commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Grant knows that the key to winning the war is not in conquering Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.  Capturing that city would only make the rebels change the location of their headquarters.  In order to win the war, Grant is going to have to defeat Robert E. Lee.  The problem is that although Lee’s army is smaller in size, they are more mobile, they are fighting on their home ground, and they are still very powerful.  It’s going to take a great deal of force and strategic planning in order to finally conquer Robert E. Lee.

The first major course of action in The Last Full Measure is Grant’s Overland Campaign (also known as the Wilderness Campaign), a series of maneuvers and battles between the two armies.  General Grant placed his army between General Lee and Richmond, and forced Lee into an engagement.  This was the same area that saw major combat in the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 and the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.

One of the first fights in this campaign was the Battle of the Wilderness.  This battle was a victory for the Confederacy though they lost over 11,000 casualties, and General Longstreet was accidentally shot and wounded by his own men.  Thankful for the Confederacy, General Longstreet would recover from his wound and return to command troops in the war.  The temporary loss of Longstreet was a tough blow to Robert E. Lee as he was haunted by the similarities of the death (from accidental friendly fire) of Stonewall Jackson in the Battle of Chancellorsville.

After the bloodshed in the Battle of the Wilderness, General Grant withdrew his forces and repositioned them to attack Lee again.  This next engagement was the next two weeks at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, a brutal series of fights between the two armies.  One of the key points in this battle was that this was a defensive engagement for the Confederates, and one of their techniques was to use their shovels and entrenching tools to dig ditches for their own protection, an idea originally proposed to them by Stonewall Jackson back in 1862.  No longer was it viewed as weak or inferior to dig into the ground and stay behind a protective barrier while fighting the enemy, especially when you were outnumbered by about two-to-one.

General Grant ordered a series of attacks against the Confederate’s position, but none of them were capable of overpowering the enemy.  Some of the attacks broke through the defensive lines, but those temporary victories were withdrawn when the Confederate soldiers forced them back.  By the end of this battle, both armies would suffer from a total of over 30,000 casualties.

During this time, General Grant had sent Major General Philip Sheridan and his cavalry out to find and defeat Confederate cavalry expert Major General J.E.B. Stuart.  On May 11, 1864, the two cavalry units met at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, and General Stuart was mortally wounded while trying to rally his troops against the numerically superior Federal cavalry.  He later died the next day, his death removing one of General Lee’s more powerful weapons.

Following the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, both armies maneuver to the south towards Richmond and General Lee stands in a defensive position waiting on the banks of the North Anna River.  The Battle of North Anna had General Lee’s forces positioned to trap Grant’s soldiers, but General Lee fell ill and his battle plans were not carried out as planned.  The battle ended when Grant withdrew and maneuvered his forces for a head-on attack against General Lee.

Sadly, The Last Full Measure glosses over the next major engagement, the Battle of Cold Harbor.  The book’s characters merely look back and reflect on the battle and the beating that they received, a severe beating that could have easily been avoided.  Basically, the Battle of Cold Harbor involved General Grant ordering a head-on attack against General Lee’s forces, believing that Lee’s army had been weakened by the previous engagements.  This attack was planned as being a final blow to the Army of Northern Virginia, the defeat of Robert E. Lee, and the end to the Civil War.

In reality, the opposite occurred.

General Lee’s forces were ready for the attacks, and they were positioned behind a series of earthworks.  The attacking Union forces lost almost 13,000 casualties in the engagement.  This was one of the bloodiest and most lopsided battles in the entire war.  Again, don’t expect to read much about this particular battle in The Last Full Measure.

Following the loss at the Battle of Cold Harbor, General Grant swept his forces to the east and made a stealthy cross of the James River, moving his men south of the river before General Lee was aware of what was happening.

By this point in time General Lee’s army was in desperate need of reinforcements, food and supplies.  New soliders would be nearly impossible to find as most men had already volunteered, and many of those volunteers were forced to desert the army and return home where they were needed.  As far as provisions and supplies, those could be found at the nearby town of Petersburg, Virginia.  Petersburg also happened to be a major lifeline into Richmond.  Should that city fall, then the Federal forces could easily surround and starve Richmond into submission.

The Confederate forces gathered in the town of Petersburg, but General Grant’s soldiers were quick to surround much of the town.  The result was the Siege of Petersburg, an event that lasted from June of 1864 through March of 1865.

The Confederate forces set up a series of trenches around the city, and what happened next was nine months of trench warfare that slowly wore away at the Confederate troops.  The Confederate lines were forced to continue spreading outwards to match Grant’s movements, and the lines themselves were dangerously thin.  A strong push in almost any position would break through the lines and split apart General Lee’s army.

One of the key battles discussed in The Last Full Measure during the Siege of Petersburg is the Battle of the Crater.  In this battle the Federals used miners to dig underneath the Confederate trenches and set a series of explosives.  The plan was to set a tremendous explosion underneath the trenches, create a massive hole in the defense, and then rush into that opening with a division or two of soldiers.  If executed correctly, the move could overwhelm the Confederate defenders and end the war.

The explosives detonated and the Federal soldiers rushed forward into the chaos, but what actually happened was that instead of obliterating the defenses, the explosion created a giant crater.  The Federal troops rushed into the crater and quickly realized that they were trapped and unable to crawl out of it.  More troops continued pouring into the area as part of the attack, and all of the Federal troops were stuck there in the open.  The result was a turkey shoot for the Confederate defenders.  At the end of the Battle of the Crater the Union forces would suffer from almost 4,000 casualties.

The Federal attack failed miserably and the Siege of Petersburg would last another eight months.

The Last Full Measure continues with the withdraw of General Lee’s forces from Petersburg and their trek westward to Appomattox and then, hopefully, Danville and an escape route away from Grant.  What happened though was that General Grant was in hot pursuit of Lee’s troops, and Grant’s cavalry was able to cut off Lee’s forces, trapping them at Appomattox, Virginia.

The Battle of Appomattox was the final engagement for Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.  Lee’s forces were surrounded, outnumbered, and facing a well-fed army hungry for revenge.  The two forces fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, but the battle was short and heavily one-sided in favor of the Federal troops.  General Lee knew that there was no escape and the situation was hopeless.  He contacted General Grant and agreed to meet to set terms for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.

That day, General Robert E. Lee signed a document in the Appomattox court house surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.

The final three chapters in The Last Full Measure each involve the final moments in the lives of Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and Joshua Chamberlain.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Is Jeff Shaara’s The Last Full Measure a good book?

Absolutely!

This is a fantastic historical book that takes a detailed look at many events during the last couple of years in the eastern campaign in the American Civil War.  In addition to the fascinating battle scenes and war strategy, this book is also loaded with action scenes.

In addition to covering the battles between Grant and Lee, this book involves much more of President Abraham Lincoln.  We also get to read parts of the western campaign including the action in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and General Sherman’s famous march to the sea in which he conquered the city of Atlanta and port of Savannah.

Growing up here in Georgia, our history classes always made it a point to talk about the Civil War.  The only problem is that the classes never went into any detail, especially after the Battle of Gettysburg.  There would only be a quick mention about General Sherman’s march through Georgia, and then General Lee surrendering at Appomattox Court House, ending the war.  That segment between Gettysburg and Appomattox was largely unknown to us students.

For me, that’s part of what made The Last Full Measure such an interesting read.  I had a general understanding of some of the events and characters during this later phase of the war, but many of the actual battles were unknown to me.  What seemed like reading an exciting thriller was actually the enjoyment of reading a well-written historical novel of true events that took place in this country 150 years ago.

The best way to enjoy this book is to first read Gods and Generals and the The Killer Angels.  If you can make it through those two books then The Last Full Measure will be a breeze.  It’s still a lengthy book, but it’s a great read and it delivers a ton of information.

This book has inspired me to research more about the Civil War and the different battles and engagements.  Soon I’ll have to acquire Jeff Shaara’s other Civil War books detailing events in the western campaign.