What do you think?
1864 series
No Turning Back: The Beginning of the End of the Civil War March-June, 1864
A highly readable command study of Ulysses S Grant's Wilderness campaign that reveals a sure grasp of Civil War history and military strategy.
- GenresHistory
576 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 23, 2026
The first volume in a decent four-volume history of the end of the Civil War focusing on the campaigning around Richmond. I would compare this single particular volume against Gordon Rhea's five-volume history of effectively the same time period. The end of "No Turning Back" is aligned with the final volume of Rhea's "On to Petersburg."
Generally, I would say as far as a single volume coverage of Grant's first campaign against Lee goes Lowry is fairly successful. Given that he is covering a major campaign encompassing multiple major battles into a single book, it is tricky to thread the needle on the right level of detail. Generally, Lowry sticks to fairly short quotes and anecdotes from the participants of the events; as opposed to longer works that will generally quote at length from diaries, written orders, and the like.
What Lowry does that I think is effective and useful for anyone reading on the last year of the Civil War is he does provide, sparingly, a little bit of coverage elsewhere across the USA/CSA. Given that U.S. Grant by this time is "General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States" it would seem that to gloss over Sherman's significant campaign in Georgia; or smaller, but still important, campaigns in Louisiana on the Red River, against Forrest in Mississippi and Tennessee, ongoing fighting in the Shenandoah Vally would have been a mistake. Keep in mind this coverage rarely rises to the level of even a chapter (I believe only the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads gets that level of treatment at the very end of the book), broadly each 'active' area in Grant's overall command gets a paragraph or two at the start of a new chapter, with the fighting in Virginia receiving the balance.
Given the high-level coverage of the topic the one thing that feels like it is missing in the inclusion of any maps. These days it isn't too hard to go find something on Google, but when the book was published most readers would have probably needed to have a cross-referenced atlas to keep track of the action.
Overall a solid history of this part of the Civil War, I debated whether to give it 4 stars; but we'll see what we find in the next volume.
Generally, I would say as far as a single volume coverage of Grant's first campaign against Lee goes Lowry is fairly successful. Given that he is covering a major campaign encompassing multiple major battles into a single book, it is tricky to thread the needle on the right level of detail. Generally, Lowry sticks to fairly short quotes and anecdotes from the participants of the events; as opposed to longer works that will generally quote at length from diaries, written orders, and the like.
What Lowry does that I think is effective and useful for anyone reading on the last year of the Civil War is he does provide, sparingly, a little bit of coverage elsewhere across the USA/CSA. Given that U.S. Grant by this time is "General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States" it would seem that to gloss over Sherman's significant campaign in Georgia; or smaller, but still important, campaigns in Louisiana on the Red River, against Forrest in Mississippi and Tennessee, ongoing fighting in the Shenandoah Vally would have been a mistake. Keep in mind this coverage rarely rises to the level of even a chapter (I believe only the Battle of Brice's Cross Roads gets that level of treatment at the very end of the book), broadly each 'active' area in Grant's overall command gets a paragraph or two at the start of a new chapter, with the fighting in Virginia receiving the balance.
Given the high-level coverage of the topic the one thing that feels like it is missing in the inclusion of any maps. These days it isn't too hard to go find something on Google, but when the book was published most readers would have probably needed to have a cross-referenced atlas to keep track of the action.
Overall a solid history of this part of the Civil War, I debated whether to give it 4 stars; but we'll see what we find in the next volume.
October 25, 2024
Insightful description of the ending campaigns and events of the American Civil War
November 11, 2007
Once again, I must admit to being horribly biased. This book (and the three which come after it), was written by my dad.
The goal of the four-volume series is to present the final year of the Civil War in a strictly chronological format. Most history books, basic or learned, will follow events at one place for some time, before breaking off, going back in time, and picking up at a different location. This can muddle understanding of how events truly interacted with each other, as even with the time of travel being long, the telegraph often made communications fast.
This series picks up with Grant taking command of all the armies of the Union. His plan of campaign was for several coordinated offensives in the various theaters of operation. Thus, the series picks up the chronological viewpoint at the point where there is an actual attempt to conduct the war at several points at the same time.
The series is a re-ordering of data, not an attempt to bring to light new data, or new theories. It is written (quite successfully) in a readable style, and while it is good to have some familiarity with the outlines of the subject, it is not written at the level the serious scholar, but rather the interested hobbyist.
The goal of the four-volume series is to present the final year of the Civil War in a strictly chronological format. Most history books, basic or learned, will follow events at one place for some time, before breaking off, going back in time, and picking up at a different location. This can muddle understanding of how events truly interacted with each other, as even with the time of travel being long, the telegraph often made communications fast.
This series picks up with Grant taking command of all the armies of the Union. His plan of campaign was for several coordinated offensives in the various theaters of operation. Thus, the series picks up the chronological viewpoint at the point where there is an actual attempt to conduct the war at several points at the same time.
The series is a re-ordering of data, not an attempt to bring to light new data, or new theories. It is written (quite successfully) in a readable style, and while it is good to have some familiarity with the outlines of the subject, it is not written at the level the serious scholar, but rather the interested hobbyist.
May 2, 2013
This is a 575 page book that covers the first 40 days of U.S. Grants getting command of the U.S. Army in 1864. This is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, so I am boneing up on some research before visiting the sites down in Virginia in a month or so. I can't recommend this book to a casual reader just learning about war, because it lacks alot of background info (and maps) that are kind of necessary to put things in context, but for an history buff who already has that context under his belt, the details & personal stories bring the thing alive in a very real time perspective. I just finished it an hour ago, and I will definitely read more of this authors work.
Read
January 7, 2009I wrote it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews