As a boy, Bruce first heard the reminiscences of the aged veterans who had fought in the Civil War. He was the son of a Congregationalist minister, who accepted a teaching position in Benzonia Academy and later became the academy's headmaster. Oliver Jensen, who succeeded him as editor of American Heritage magazine, wrote: "There is a near-magic power of imagination in Catton's work that seemed to project him physically into the battlefields, along the dusty roads and to the campfires of another age."īruce Catton was born in Petoskey, Michigan, but spent most of his boyhood in Benzonia.
In the long line of Civil War historians, Catton is arguably the most prolific and popular of all, with Shelby Foote his only conceivable rival. His works, although well-researched, were generally not presented in a rigorous academic style, supported by footnotes. General McClellan (impaled in these pages on the arrogant words of his letters) captured more imaginations than enemies, and continued to accept serious over estimates of Confederate strength while becoming more and more fatally estranged from his own government.Ĭatton was known as a narrative historian who specialized in popular histories that emphasized the colorful characters and vignettes of history, in addition to the simple dates, facts, and analysis.
Failed to drive ahead-for reasons good and bad. Buell, Halleck, Beauregard Albert Sidney Johnston. After these first tests at arms, reputations began to crumble. The earliest engagements were halting and inconclusive. As the buildup began, there were maddening delays. Cautious generals inexperienced, incompetent, or jealous administrators shortages of good people and supplies excess of both gloom and optimism, kept each side from swinging into decisive action. At first, it was not even much of a fight. Lincoln kept insisting, a fight to reunite the United States. It was not initially a war against slavery. And then the author reveals how the sweeping force of all-out conflict changed the war’s purpose, in turning it into a war for human freedom. This would not be the neat, short, “limited” war both sides had envisioned. First, he describes how the war slowly but steadily got out of control. In Terrible Swift Sword, Bruce Catton tells the story of the Civil War as never before-of two turning points which changed the scope and meaning of the war. The second episode in this award-winning trilogy impressively shows how the Union and Confederacy, slowly and inexorably, reconciled themselves to an all-out war-an epic struggle for freedom.
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