The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. (Book Reviews)

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The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. By David J. Eicher. Foreword by James M. McPherson. Illustrated by Lee Vande Visse. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. 990 pages. $40.00. Reviewed by Colonel Len Fullenkamp, USA Ret., Professor of Military History, US Army War College.

"Commanders screamed orders that were rarely heard in the chaos; great billowing clouds of white smoke belched from cannon; shells ripped trenches into the plowed fields; and men were dying at a great rate on both sides of the fight." As this description of the Battle of Antietam illustrates, David Eicher's military history of the Civil War resounds with what James McPherson describes in his forward as the "Sturm und Drang" of battle narrative. War, as it is often said, makes rattling good history, and this one rattles a lot.

With his eye-catching subtitle, the author gives fair warning that The Longest Night is not going to spend much time with politics, economics, social issues, or any other subject that causes the reader to stray too far from the battlefield. All things …