Excellent history of the Civil War. The key thing I learned was that Lee surrendering at Appomattox did not end the conflict. The Union had to get the other Confederate armies to surrender as well. Didn't realize that Lee wasn't in command of their entire Army. The book was also excellent due to its maps allowing the reader to follow the movements of the Armies.

This third and final book in Bruce Catton's groundbreaking "Centennial History of the Civil War" provides a compelling, clear, and accurate narrative just like the first two books in this set. Unfortunately, compared to the previous two books it feels a bit incomplete, almost like a dog hitting the end of its leash. I don't know if Mr. Catton's publisher limited this works' length or not (although I suspect it since all three volumes are very close in size), but whatever the reason one can feel Mr. Catton trying very hard to include mere highlights from the middle to late war while there is so much more he seems to want to say. Likewise, Catton makes some fascinating points at the end of this book and the series which, had he lived longer, I think would have yielded book-length treatments. Specifically, he posits the American Civil War's post-war Lost Cause mythology helped make national reconstruction a success which he correctly identifies is not common after civil wars. While I think this can be substantiated for the White Southerners immediately after the war, I wonder if this mythology actually did more long term harm by leaving racial inequality out of the public consciousness only to explode roughly a century later? Although a Southerner by birth and rearing, Bruce Catton clearly saw the Confederacy's rebellion for what it was - an armed bid to maintain slavery - and anyone who has read his works can clearly see he does not buy in to the mythology himself. I am not well versed enough in Civil Rights history to know if someone else has tackled this tricky question, e.g. did some of the factors that gave America a relatively quick and bloodless post-civil war peace go on to cause other societal issues and more bloodshed as the decades passed. Clearly for all of the many, many failures both formal and informal American post-civil war reconstruction possessed, America's reconstruction process was still idyllic compared to the "troubles" in Northern Ireland, ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, the post-U.S. invasion civil war in Iraq, or the on-going struggles for control of Afghanistan. Despite the aforementioned weaknesses, I still highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War, civil wars in general, 19th Century warfare, American military history, or American history.

Volume 3

This is the final volume in Catton's Civil War history trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed its detailed description of the battles, as well as the in-depth explanation of the events away from the front. I would have liked to have it cover the actual aftermath of the war, Reconstruction, and so forth, but that wasn't the area the author was aiming to explore, so I can't really fault him for not writing a fourth volume dedicated to that.
Overall, it's an excellent trilogy and I recommend it highly. This is definitely a series of books I will return to for a second (and eventually third, and fourth) listen, I think. Now I just need to find a comparable book covering the pre and post-war periods.

This is the third and final volume of a trilogy that is very large but is the right amount of detail for me. I am very interested in the civil war is the reason. The work is more than 50 years old but I doubt that anything significant has turned up from research in that period of time.

Great ending to an incredible trilogy. Re-ignited my enjoyment of studying the American Civil War.

This is the third and final volume in the Centennial History of The Civil War by Bruce Catton. At the time this series was published Catton was the editor of the "American Heritage" and had already published a number of books on the Civil War. He won the Pulitzer for history in 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox. I have read a number of his books. My favorite is The Coming Fury. That book is the first volume in this series and starts with the 1860 Democratic Party convention and goes through the First Battle of Bull Run.
I have read some opinions that Bruce Catton is dated and reflects an outmoded viewpoint on the Civil War. IMO he is an author who is definitely worth reading. A few examples. There is a conversation between Lincoln and Grant that appears in Grant's Memoirs. Grant told Lincoln that all of the Union armies should advance at once in order to keep all of the Confederate armies occupied and unable to assist each other, using those famous interior lines. Lincoln replies " Oh Yes, I see that. As we say out West. If a man can't skin he must hold a leg while somebody else does."
Catton writes
"This remark would have puzzled Meade, it probably would not have been said to Hooker, and it would have made McClellan wince; as the son of a tanner, Grant understood it. The President had a general-in-chief he could talk to."
I have read about this incident in other books but I never read the significance of it explained that way. In his discussion of the Battle of Fredricksburg Catton writes that the night after the battle the Confederate soldiers crept out and pulled the clothes off of many of the Union dead. In the morning when the fog lifted there were hundreds of Union dead in front of the sunken road and wall who were naked. I don't remember reading that fact in any other book in my short time reading about the Civil War. It is a grisly fact but a significant detail that adds to my knowledge of that event. When discussing the Battle of the Wilderness Catton states that Grant got beat nearly as bad as Hooker at Chancellorsville, but Grant was not Hooker. He points out that Grant kept fighting and eventually Lee lost the initiative wrote to Davis that all he could hope for was to save Richmond. Catton includes the fact that when Longstreet fought at Chickamauga ten of his infantry brigades and all of his artillery had not arrived before the battle ended. That fact is significant when discussing the outcome of the battle and I don't recall another author highlighting it.
Catton's excellence extends to his writing style. There is a pace to his writing that provides a steady flow of interesting information. He became a writer as a journalist and journalists have to write a lot of words in a hurry. I have been reading How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. I have found a number of citations to Catton's books and several quotations from this book. I am sure the quotations are used because Catton's writing adds to what the author is trying to say. In reading this book I often felt that the quality of Catton's writing gave me a better understanding of the events and imparted some of the emotion associated with them.
Catton does not limit himself to the military history. He writes about the politics and the social history of the times. There is an interesting chapter on the transition period for the slaves who were freed during the war. Catton makes it clear that the Northerners were racially prejudiced. He describes the Army building "concentration camps" to house the slaves. The slaves were free but they were forced to work for what the landowners decided to pay them. This was a period of incredible change in the role of African-Americans in America.
Lincoln started out advocating compensated emancipation and colonization. He ended up advocating abolition which his Attorney General said would make the blacks equal citizens. There were black men in the Union Army but they were not accepted as equals even when they proved it. IMO Catton was an historian who sought the truth no matter where that search took him. From what I read in this book the author's description of the racial relations of that time is unbiased and accurate.
In discussing political developments Catton points out the growth in the power of the central government that came about during the war. He includes Lincoln's acceptance of one of Salmon Chase's resignation letters and Ben Butler's ambition for the presidency in his coverage of the election of 1864. The military situation rescued Lincoln from predicted defeat and he won easily over George McClellan. The specific provisions of the Wade-Davis bill that were the basis of Radical Reconstruction are set out by the author.
Reading this book definitely gives the reader a very good understanding of the the topic. In addition it is enjoyable to read. Shelby Foote's trilogy provides more detail and is also very well written. Foote's books have much better maps. Maps are important for my understanding of events like battles and the maps in this book were not adequate.
Everything else being equal, analysis of the events is the difference between excellent and good history writing. Catton did an excellent job of picking out the relevant facts and showing how and why they affected events. I am looking forward to reading Terrible Swift Sword, the middle volume in the series. I recommend this book as interesting and well written narrative history .