Another winner from Tim Smith. Has everything you want in a campaign book: compelling narrative, clear communication of movements, good mix of personal accounts, discussion of impact of terrain, incisive analysis of commander decisions, excellent maps and plenty of them. This book imparts a complete familiarity with what happened at Champion Hill, when and why, as well as situating it in the context of the campaign, with discussion of events preceding and following the battle. The final chapter is a unique "what happened to them later" series of each of the major figures discussed in the book.

I got this because I thoroughly enjoyed Smith's "Shiloh". This earlier work is just as rewarding. ( )

Grant's brilliant Vicksburg campaign has always stood in the shadow of the more famous actions of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Nobody has done more to restore the Vicksburg campaign to its proper place than Edwin C. Bearss. Nevertheless, a detailed monograph about the battle that decided the fate of Vicksburg has been lacking. No longer. Timothy B. Smith has written a superb study of the battle of Champion Hill with excellent maps, capsule biographies of all the major officers and a photographic appendix which illustrates the rugged nature of the battlefield.

The battle of Champion hill on May 16 1863 was a mid-size battle pitting 29.000 Federals against 21.800 Confederates. The battle was a miniature Antietam. While four Federal divisions idled in the southern and middle part of the battlefield, the battle for Champion hill sucked in first 3, then 5 and finally 8 rebel brigades that fought against first 5, then 8 Union brigades. As the Union had four divisions in reserve, the ultimate outcome was never in doubt. As elsewhere, tactical rebel successes could not be sustained due to the lack of reserves. On the Union side, while Grant manoeuvred his divisions masterfully on a strategic level, he bungled the coordination among his divisions which were all within supporting distance. Napoléon would probably have annihilated Pemberton ... ( )