The Civil War: The Story of the War with Maps

I'm researching the western battles of the Civil War. These battlefield maps are a necessary tool to refer to as I read about battlefield locations.

Colorful, easy to follow - great companion with studying Civil War battles or using on its own. Especially helpful with understanding The Wilderness, Cold Harbor etc battles that became an on-going battle over several days. Highly recommend!

The author is too modest in his foreword regarding this work. Any research faces the hurdle of addressing the forest and the trees. Does one focus on socio-politico-economic events or the military? If the later, does one focus on the strategy, the battles, or the detailed tactics? Mr. Detweiler does a fantastic job of combining all but the detailed tactics. One can always look elsewhere for greater details on individual battles and tactics at the regimental level, but this is an EXCELLENT work providing the reader or researcher with a big picture viewpoint with the occasional dive into a battle. Illustrations are always an added cost to any book, but in this case maps exist on every page. Equally as important, there is a well written narrative accompanying each map Stackpole (the publisher) has a history of printing military genre and it is nice to see they have continued with this 2014 book. Compared to the many American Civil War books with the word "Maps" in them, this work easily fits (physically speaking) on your library shelf and I'm glad to have added it to mine.

A common complaint with history books is a lack of detailed maps. Stackpole fixes that with this book on the battle of the Civil War. No one book can cover such a broad topic, there are too many important battles. Detweiler helps show the strategic look of the war. 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 each have a chapter showing the warring states and details on most of the important battles.Every single page on the right side of the book is a full page map. Very detailed, the maps show terrain features, topography, roads where units were deployed, what the respective commanders intended and in some instances, opportunities missed. They maps are clear, legible to same scale and really help the reader see the battle unfold.Also recommended:  Gettysburg: The Story of the Battle with Maps and I hope Stackpole will continue making books for various battles.

I enjoyed reading this and using the maps to try and visualize where the action was taking place. It wasn't always easy to coordinate the story line with what the maps were depicting. I would like to have seen a greater graphic difference between the opposing forces so that I could tell which side was where instead of having to rely on the names of the various Generals involved. I mean, after Grant, Lee, Sherman, Jackson, Stuart, Longstreet, Halleck and maybe Johnston, it is difficult to identify by name if a certain General was Yank or Rebel. Maybe I'm being too critical. This was a fun read and I would recommend it to others interested in the Civil War battles.

Great on presenting the visual map in general terms, for the whole war.For details and clearer unit movements, must still go to details in other sources.

The book is interesting and fun to look at, especially when you're interested in a particular battle. Very concise when you don't have the time to read a whole book on a specific battle. And if you love battle maps, then you'll enjoy it even more with the accompanying narrations.

My husband is a history buff, especially about the Civil War. He recently read Chernow’s excellent biography on Grant, and he was constantly googling maps of the various sites in the book. I figured there ought to be decent books full of Civil War era maps. After reading reviews on Amazon, I ordered this for my husband. He was polite about it, yet it was obvious he found the book a bit of a disappointment. The maps are simplistic, and there wasn’t the wealth of additional information we both expected. However, this IS a good map book to help a student at the junior high school level, if they are writing a report on the Civil War. That is the age group I’d say this book would find helpful, certainly no older than a high school student.

I bought this book intrigued by the story of the American Civil War being told broadly in map form. Thus it was a great surprise to me that I enjoyed the author's attendant commentary as much, if not more, than the excellent maps showing the twists and turns of America's most bloody internal conflict.Mr Detweiler writes with a terrific bony no nonsense clarity. But this is also accompanied by a unexpected dry wit that makes the book an absolute joy to read. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's lively, engaging, insightful and hugely informative.I read with great sadness that the author died in 2014, the very year this book was published. This, and his earlier Battle of Gettysburg in Maps companion, then should serve as a fitting tribute to an 'amateur historian' (Detweiler's modest, self-deprecating description of himself) who wanted to make history truly accessible. You certainly did Mr M. David Detweiler - and for that we salute you!

Stripping away the fog and clutter of politics, omitting the minutiae of eyewitness accounts, this book clearly traces the PROGRESS of the battles and the war. Each page of clear narrative text is accompanied by a full page coloured battlefield map, with arrowed troop movements. It's like a storyboard for a movie. As well as the main battle being shown, small boxes of text on the maps show what was happening elsewhere (where relevant). If you want detailed individual battle descriptions (as in David's book about Gettysburg - highly recommended) look elsewhere. Here, however, the battle of Shiloh is covered in just two pages (4 blocks of text and 4 battle maps). The occasional wry comment in the text shows clearly the later consequences of certain actions (or inaction!)

I purchased this book in the hope that it would enable me to understand the tactical and strategic moves used by both Union and Confederate leaders that orchestrated the American Civil war. I was not disappointed. It contains a well structured time-frame set up as a series of detailed, easy to read maps and descrptions. Well recommended for the reader who wishes to understand more about the war that not only took so very many lives but also set firmly the path to modern and present day warfare.

Excellent summary of the Civil War with informative maps of the conflict’s main events. The author’s knowledge of generals, battlefields, geography, is well illuminated with meaningful and insightful commentary. I liked the way the tactics and strategy were explained, especially the political intrigue between generals and the president, all vying for advancement. Maps are beautifully done.This is one book that I would take with me in a tour of the battlefields.

This is an excellent overview of what happened and for those trying to juggle the various engagements across the whole country. As a novice to the war I was always unsure between the various theatres, why things were or weren't happening ... not any more.In addition - there is a verbal history which supplement's the maps beautifully.Note - many military history books have appalling maps - this just proves how little time and effort publishers put in.