| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! By George C. Rable. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xvi, 671 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-8078-2673-1.)

George C. Rable's Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! is the latest volume in the University of North Carolina Press's Civil War America series. Arguing that the battle fought in December 1862 has been overshadowed by those at Antietam and Chancellorsville, which occurred before and after, Rable contends Fredericksburg is 'much more complex than it appears at first glance.' For Rable, Fredericksburg is a significant engagement because it marked the 'nadir' of the Northern war effort. 1

Rable begins his book with an analysis of the Federal Army of the Potomac after the bloodbath on the banks of Antietam Creek. It is not a favorable portrait. The army, despite Gen. George B. McClellan's much-vaunted organizational skills, was in a deplorable condition. Soldiers were dirty, lice-ridden, and reduced to foraging and plundering the countryside in order to get enough to eat. Indeed, Rable's description of the Union army's condition mirrors the situation in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. . . .

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