Gods and Generals - Jeff Shaara [255]
Major General Edwin V. “Bull” Sumner
The old loyal soldier, who shares none of the political egotism of his colleagues, is not named in Burnside’s sweeping indictment of his commanders after the debacle at Fredericksburg. By staying back across the Rappahannock River, he is therefore spared much of the stigma the other commanders will carry. However, his personal failures weigh heavily, and in the spring of 1863, less than two months after his forced retirement, he dies.
Colonel Adelbert A. Ames
On May 20, 1863, he is promoted to Brigadier General after a vigorous campaign on his own behalf, and receives command of a brigade in the Eleventh Corps, under Oliver Howard. He is later awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his gallantry at First Manassas (Bull Run). After the war, General Grant assigns him to Mississippi as the military provisional governor. In 1876 he is forced to resign by an uprising in reaction to his unpopularly liberal views. Returning to the army, he commands a brigade in the Spanish-American War. He dies in 1933, at age ninety-seven, and is thus the oldest surviving general officer of the Civil War.
Brigadier General Thomas F. Meagher
His Irish Brigade is so decimated after Chancellorsville, he resigns from command, believing his usefulness to the army has passed. By December 1863 he is given command of forces under William T. Sherman. After the war, he receives a gold medal from the state of New York for his brilliant leadership of the Irish Brigade. But he leaves the postwar turmoil of the East, goes to Montana, becomes Territorial Governor. He dies by drowning in the Missouri River in 1867.
And from These Pages
Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Lewis Armistead, A. P. Hill, John Bell Hood, George Pickett, J.E.B. Stuart, Porter Alexander, Harry Heth,
and
Winfield Scott Hancock, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Reynolds, George Gordon Meade, John Buford, Oliver Howard, Dan Sickles
In July 1863 they will share the field again, the low hills and open farmlands around Gettysburg, for the three bloodiest days in American history. But that is another story. . . .
About the Author
JEFF SHAARA was born in 1952 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University in 1974. For many years he was a dealer in rare coins, but sold his Tampa, Florida, business in 1988 upon the death of his father, Michael Shaara.
As manager of his father’s estate, Jeff developed a friendship with film director Ron Maxwell, whose film Gettysburg was based on The Killer Angels. It was Maxwell who suggested that Jeff continue the story Michael Shaara had begun.
Gods and Generals is Jeff’s first novel. He and his wife, Lynne, live in Missoula, Montana.
Praise for Gods and Generals
“JEFF SHAARA HAS SUCCEEDED BRILLIANTLY. GODS AND GENERALS IS EVERY OUNCE AS FINE A WORK AS HIS FATHER’S WAS.”
—Detroit Free Press
“Pick up and read Gods and Generals. . . . The pen of Shaara has put life into Lee, Jackson, Hancock, and Chamberlain. We almost get to know them personally through their thoughts and feelings as they lived through our great American tragedy.”
—Civil War News
“Compelling . . . A work of vivid drama and skill . . . The strength of this work is its personalization of the struggle. The action both draws in the reader and illustrates the gravity of each situation. . . . There is also a certain poetry to Mr. Shaara’s introspections and narrative.”