Very easy read. It's been years since I read Shelby Foote's three-volume Civil War so I may be misremembering things; but it seems from having read Catton's book, I'm struck with the feeling that North won despite the ineptitude of its generals. ( )

This book is highly readable, well researched and most informative. It is not a history of the war in general, but a history of the Army of the Potomac the Union's principal force inthe eastern Theatre. This third volume is a narrative of the army's last, and professional period, the one where Ulysses Grant and George Meade ran it. There is a bias in favour of the unon, but those who have been ensorceled by Shelby Foote's narrative, "The Civil War" should read this book and its two companions as a corrective. A balanced look at the conflict demands it. We move as does the army fom the wilderness all the way to the end. The triology is a considerable achievement. ( )

A really fine history book by a master of the genre. Pulitzer Prize winner for history and rightfully so. Brings the Civil War to life. Grant takes over the Army of the Potomac and slowly and then suddenly conquers the gallant but hungry and decimated Army of Northern Virginia. Sedgwick, Sheridan, Custer, Chamberlain, Pickett, Lee, Early, A.P. Hill. Wow. Just a great read. Highly recommended as blue ribbon history. ( )

This third volume in the Army of the Potomac trilogy is a marked change from the first volume. The supreme civil war buff that wrote, and very often entertained us, in the first volume, has transitioned in each following volume to become a most competent professional historian. While the genuinely fascinating anecdotes that highlighted the first volume have diminished, this final volume is constantly and consistently still very interesting, blending more smoothly the "stories" with the facts and analysis. Also, this final volume no longer gives the impression of blindly looking at the history from an unnecessarily one-sided perspective, a problem that occasionally marred the first two volumes. Perhaps the biggest highlight of many in this volume is the telling of General Philip Sheridan's actions during the Battle of Cedar Creek: extraordinarily stirring without embellishment. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author. ( )

What a wonderful tome! Bruce Catton brings the civil war to life and death with his clear accounting of troop movements, strategies, missed opportunities, and person stories full of triumph and sometimes despair. But it's a story of the civil war and it wasn't pretty. I spent a good deal of time reading the bibliography as well as the story, because Mr. Catton's research is so thorough and clear. I plan to read the other two books in this series and I have no doubt they will be as eloquent as this portion. ( )