Baptism of Fire
This is a story of three green regiments who come together at one of the most brutal battles of the entire Civil War, The Battle of Franklin. What I found special about this story as told to us by Jacobson and Rupp is the wonderful emphasis on the individual soldiers. It is not unlike the modern day mini-series Band of Brothers, only condensed into one ferocious battle. Rather than a tale of strategy and tactics it is more of individual human beings, men and boys who could have as easily lived today as 150 years ago. One learns not only a great deal about a controversial part of that savage event but more interestingly to me, one sees it through the perspectives of the actual soldiers and their, up till then, largely untested units. --James Lighthizer, President, Civil War Trust