Appomattox
Two hundred and forty pages is perfect for the story of Appomattox. Shelby Foote gave it about a hundred, but Mr. Foote had already written three thousand pages about the Civil War, and he was no doubt getting a bit weary.
The structure is interesting. In the first few pages, the author provides the necessary background in such a way as to describe Seven Days, Antietam, and Fredericksburg in one paragraph. That’s good. He knows that his reader probably has some knowledge of the Civil War. As the story closes in on Appomattox, the narrative jumps to short chunks of backstory about the 1864 campaign, and then drives toward the impending conflict. About halfway through, it’s completely linear, day by day, hour by hour, and blow by blow.
Most non-fiction only tells what happened. This author gets into the thoughts of the antagonists and their strategies, as in, “Sheridan saw opportunity.” Sheridan never said that. That’s the author getting into Sheridan’s head.
I personally learned some things. I didn’t know that Chamberlain, the hero of Gettysburg, was at Five Forks, or that he’d been wounded yet again. Shelby Foote never mentioned that.
This is an excellent piece of historical non-fiction.
