The Smoke at Dawn by Jeff Shaara
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book of the series "Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater." I started reading this series this year because I heard it was a trilogy. No, there will be yet another book.
I like the format of describing a campaign from various viewpoints of generals on both sides plus the viewpoint of an infantryman. However, sometimes this includes repetition of topics and repetition of phrases that annoys this reader. Note to Shaara--try doing a word search for cigar in your next draft to see just how many times you use it in your chapters about Grant and Sherman, and just how many times similar phrases are used when describing smoking cigars.
I recommend this book to fans of well-researched novels of the Civil War. My preference is for a historical narrative such as written by Allan W. Eckert who quotes dialogue when he can find the words in historical documents and suggests what might have been said when nothing has been recorded for this reader is given a better understanding of the individual voices of the characters.



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