The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth (Civil War America)
Cozzens' outstanding companion to his three books on the battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga attends to the battles of Iuka and Corinth in September and October 1862, in which the Mississippi prong of the Confederacy's three-pronged autumn offensive was defeated. Although those battles and their supporting operations have not received much historical coverage, they were hard fought and bloody in proportion to the numbers of troops engaged. Cozzens' battle narratives are, as usual, superlative, and he does not slight logistics or the fact that heat and dysentery claimed nearly as many lives as bullets. He fills the book with memorable portraits of individual units, combatants, and commanders, including Union generals Grant and Rosecrans (giving neither much credit), and the stupendously inept Confederate Earl Van Dorn, who was eventually shot by an outraged husband. This is a demanding but invaluable contribution to study of the Civil War in the West.Roland Green--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.