Bullet and Shell: The Civil War as the Soldier Saw It

By George Forrester Williams

Book Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765117681
• ISBN13: 9780765117687
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Smithmark Pub
• Length: 462 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Civil War

I enjoyed this book, I purchased it in a used book store thinking it would be interesting to read. Written in the fictional style (the author served in the Army of the Potomac)that the population of the 1880's could understand I found the book both entertaining, fast moving and historically accurate. In fact I did not want to put it down, wanting to see what would happen to the main characters as the war unfolded. Perhaps not up to the style of "Corporal Si Klegg", it never the less is a first hand account of army life and Civil War service and is well worth the read. Wounder why the printers chose Robert E. Lee's staff for the cover since it's a book about service in the Union Army?

Fiction - BUT - Based On Actual Civil War Facts

George F. Williams was a real person, a member of several New York volunteer regiments that were part of the Union Army during the Civil War. Williams himself was both a soldier and a volunteer, and his "Bullet and Shell" written nearly twenty years after the end of the war is his account of the actions of the Union Army of the Potomac.Be aware that this is a work of fiction based on true events and true people - including U.S. Grant, Generals Meade, Warren, Kilpatrick, Sedgwick, Custer and others. Williams apparently did not wish to go to a strictly autobiographical account as was the custom in those days. Here he skillfully chose two young protagonists - Frank, based on himself, (as was Osborn, the war correspondent) and Tom, a Virginian, who while pre-war friends argued over secession and slave rights - and then when war broke out found themselves on opposite sides.The carnage of battle is vividly described here - at Seven Days, Chancelorsville, Gettysburg and the Wilderness, as well as the final drama of Appomattox. Here Frank describes as close friends are killed nearby, the tedium of camp life,foraging for food in a destitute country, the adventures of scouts behind enemy lines, and the true events of the war as they built to a climax. In one dramatic scene "Frank" (Williams) temporarily captures his former friend Tom at Gettysburg, then let him go - their friendship apparently still intact.He also describes the characteristics of the Generals to a tee - Warren, nervous and irritable; Grant - "steady calm and confident" and Meade, "courtly".Again, this is fiction based on fact, whereas it is presented as being strictly factual. This being the only reason why I did not give it 5 stars as it is indeed a classic work of the War Between The States.And yes, the wonderful illustrations of Edwin Forbs are a plus!