Hell or Richmond: A Novel (The Battle Hymn Cycle Book 2)

This is the third book of Peters' that I have read, more or less in reverse historical order. It covered probably the greatest span of events of any of Peters' books, from Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Consequently it felt to me to be a bit spotty. But I don't think this could have been helped, being that it was already a good-sized volume. Once again I am so impressed by this man's ability to provide psychosocial insight into the minds of the participants. I only wish he'd stop repeating Lee's expression "those people" so often when he has him speak, or when Burnside repeats phrases. I would contend that, in 50 years of reading about this War, Peters is the best in this genre of historical fiction. And to those that don't like his representation of Grant, let me remind you that that's how he was seen by his subordinates at the time. Indeed, Grant did not win any of the battles that are depicted in the book. If "the rules" dictated that in order to win you were supposed to pick a field of your choosing to fight on, then remain in possession of that field after the battle, then Grant did not play by those rules, unlike Lee. As Lincoln said, Grant "understood the arithmetic" of attrition. Lee could never stand up to the killing for long, and Grant could, due to the North's vastly greater manpower reserves. Moreover, tactical "rules" were of minimal importance if one had the strategic vision of maneuvering Lee into a siege (of Richmond and Petersburg) from which Lee could never escape. It is not Peters' style to spell this out. The reader needs to draw his or her own conclusions from the narrative. Still, Peters does have Grant speak to his vision within pages 456 to 458. And that's what Grant ended up doing, after all.

“I’m heartily tired of hearing what Lee’s going to do. Some of you seem to think Lee’s suddenly going to turn a double somersault and land in our rear and on both flanks at the same time … try to think what we’re going to do ourselves, instead of about what Lee’s going to do.” – from HELL OR RICHMOND, Grant (commanding all Union armies) in a moment of frustration“Grant, Grant, Grant, the newspapers were always full of Grant! As if no one else existed … Who did they think commanded in the field? Grant and his louts stayed farther to the rear with every battle.” – from HELL OR RICHMOND, Meade (commanding the Army of the Potomac) in a moment of frustrationHELL OR RICHMOND is the second of five historical novels in the Battle Hymn Cycle by Ralph Peters on the last military operations in the Civil War in the East beginning with Gettysburg and concluding with Appomattox. HELL OR RICHMOND is built around not just one battle, but four of the Overland Campaign beginning May 5, 1864 and lasting until June 12 during which the Federals suffered 54 to 65 thousand casualties (7600 killed) and the Confederates 20 to 40 casualties (4300 killed): The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, North Anna, and Cold Harbor.Commendably illustrative maps for each of the four battles are included.Similar to the fighting novels of Jeff Shaara, those by Ralph Peters are narrated from the perspectives of actual participants from commanding generals down to the enlisted. As Peters puts it in the Author’s Note of HELL OR RICHMOND:“I have tried to make this novel as accurate as possible, down to the local weather at a given time of day. Whenever possible, characters speak the lines they are recorded as having spoken.”The commanders given the most text space within HELL OR RICHMOND are, for the Union, Lt. General Grant (all Union armies), Maj. General George Meade (Army of the Potomac), Maj. General Humphreys (Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac), Maj. General Hancock (Second Corps), Brig. General Barlow (First Division, Second Corps), and Colonel Upton (Second Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps) and for the Confederacy, General Lee (Army of Northern Virginia), Brig. General Gordon (Gordon’s Brigade, Early’s Division, Second Corps), and Colonel Oates (15th Alabama, Law’s Brigade, Field’s Division, First Corps).The author is unsparing in conveying the miseries of infantry warfare of the time including forced marches, heat, cold, thirst, hunger, bone numbing fatigue, lack of sleep, dysentery, lice, and the endless waiting for orders. And the deaths and ghastly wounds caused by bullet, bayonet, rifle butt and artillery:“Now the woods were burning between the armies, and wounded men shrieked as they roasted in broad daylight.”“The burned men waited there, white bones revealed by flesh peeled back and teeth grinning through black lips. The stink was worse than dead snakes.”“Black beetles covered a dead man’s face, a living mask of them … the corpse moved an arm, then settled again.”“The lad had been blinded and wandered the field, veering away from noises and stumbling along.”“Instead of legs, the wounded man had shreds of blood-soaked trousers and one white thighbone visible, striped like a barber’s pole painted by a drunkard.”“Crazed, a man from the 38th bayoneted a Yankee body over and over again, pulping the meat.”“To the front of the works, bodies baking for a third day reeked of burst guts, belly gas, and rot.”“… men delighted to bash each other’s brains out, or to gut a man and grin as he clutched his intestines.”“Trapped under corpses, wounded men struggled to free themselves … A long, filthy hand clutched the air, searching for a grip.”“One Reb pulled himself along, leaving a trail of intestines behind his bare feet.”“What [the rechristened artillerymen] lacked in skill, they made up for in brutality, crowding around resisting Rebels to club and bayonet them beyond all need.”“… the field fell quiet enough for a thousand moans to be heard. Men called for their mothers or shouted, in dying-now voices, women’s names.”The reader is best left with the observation:“[Maneuvering is] what generals do between one mistake and the next.”I think the entirety of the Battle Hymn Cycle likely a must read for any serious or casual student of the Civil War. Next up for me: VALLEY OF THE SHADOW, the struggle for Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during the summer and autumn of 1864.

I’m absolutely hooked on this series and the author’s style of bringing history to life.He takes these real historical characters and develops them on ten pages based on all that he has read of them and by them (their own letters).“Killing well was the darkest form of genius. And, God help them all, the greatest of earthly thrills.” Lines like this grab you; could someone come to get a thrill from killing? Almost certainly, but who would ever think of it?“They had to consolidate the lines, officers explained. Old soldiers understood that ‘consolidate the lines’ was secret code amount generals for ‘We’re not sure what to do next’.”Read it for the history, hold it for the adventure.

Great to find another writer in the class of the Shaaras. Absorbing detailed read on the US Civil War.

Delighted

The book gives a very realistic picture of what the war was like to the soldier in the field. Peters really gives one insight into the individual characters. Thoroughly engrossing.

STORY, IN GENERAL TERMS. FOLLOWED THE HISTORY. IT WAS SPOILED BY HE READER WHO WAS TRYING TO "ACT" THE PARTS WITH REGIONAL ACCENTS AND THE ANNOYING HABIT OF DROPPING HIS VOICE AT TRHE END OF A SNTENCE.