Description
Robert E. Lee faced the most monumental crisis of his military career on the morning of April 2, 1865. By sunrise that morning, the Union 6th Corps had punched a huge hole in Lee's outer line, southwest of Petersburg. He needed time for reinforcements to arrive from Richmond, but how could his depleted army buy that time? Amidst overwhelming odds, this suicide mission fell to a handful of Confederates who made a desperate last stand at Fort Gregg. Famous historian Douglas Southall Freeman called this epic fight "one of the most dramatic incidents of an overwhelming day," and yet it has been overshadowed by all the other historic events of April 1865. Fourteen Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery at Fort Gregg. Many battle-scarred veterans from both sides described this clash as the nastiest of their four-year war experience. The Confederate Alamo is the first battle study ever written about this strategic fight.
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Author Fox, native born Virginian, history graduate of Washington and Lee University and long time student and steward of the history of the Civil War in Virginia, was surprised to discover a hole in that history. There was no account of a particularly bloody and trying and remarkable battle, the suicidal last stand at Fort Gregg. To remedy this oversight, Fox dedicated years to the pursuit and collection of vivid and compelling documents that tell the story of 300 Confederates who fought off some 4,400 determined Union soldiers for more than two hours. Through the use of these letters, diaries and newspaper accounts, Fox creates a story whose telling honors this forgotten battle, restores a moment of history and salutes a day of heroism wherein both Confederate and Union soldiers suffered so much as to report later as veterans that Fort Gregg was the most hellish and memorable experience of their four war years. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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