The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns: An Atlas of the Battles and Movements in the Eastern Theater after Gettysburg, Including ... 1864 (Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series)

The period after Gettysburg in the Eastern theater from July, 1863 to February, 1864 usually doesn't get much attention since there were no major battles fought; the action was in the west with the fighting in Tennessee. But there were several minor clashes between the armies of Meade and Lee during that time. There were cavalry clashes in August and September leading up the the engagement at Bristoe Station, where the Federal army narrowly escaped a major defeat. Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford were the scenes of sharp fighting that were defeats for Lee, humiliations more than major losses. Then finally the Mine Run campaign which, while there was again sharp fighting, ended pretty much in a stalemate, after which the armies went into winter quarters.These were not major battles but rather a series of engagements in which Meade pursued Lee's army with varying degrees of success. He never brought Lee to a major battle, but he tried, he tried.Now about the book as a publication. I really like the format, and Gottfried has done an excellent job with the maps. The correlation between the text and the corresponding map is excellent, which is good because there are a great many errors in this book. His previous book, the Maps of Antietam, already was showing signs of sloppy proofreading; one truly glaring error was the labeling of a "bridle path" as a "bridal path". While there are bound to be errors in mislabeling of regiments or switching compass directions, that sort of thing is plain inexcusable.This book is far, far worse, showing a real rush to publication with very poor proofreading. while there are the usual mistakes of omissions, mislabeled regiments, and wrong directions, there are a huge number of other mistakes that make me wonder if the book was proofed at all. As in previous volumes, Gottfried uses a numbering system on a map to correspond to sections of explanatory text. For example, he will describe the positions of regiments in a particular division at the start of an engagement, which will be labelled as 1) on the corresponding map. Later positions of that body of troops might be labelled 3), for example, to show a new position. these are convenient, certainly, but not necessary, which is good because there are maps in which the numbering system bears no resemblance whatsoever to the text. The errors are so egregious that it is obvious those map/text combinations were never proofread. This sort of sloppiness incompletely unacceptable. Errors in the first edition, yes, that happens. But these are not just the usual sort of errors; these constitute an inexcusable lack of attention in preparation for publication. It is for that reason that I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5.Gottfried is preparing other books in the series; the next one covers the Wilderness and Spottsylvania battles. I look forward to the book and will buy it, but I fervently hope that there will be better pre-publication preparation.

For those of you who are fans of Brad Godfrey's Maps of ... series from Savas Beatie all I need to say is that his latest volume is now out. When I read in the introduction to his last volume on Antietam that his next book was going to cover the period between Gettysburg and the Overland campaign I was ecstatic, to say the least. This six month period is probably the most neglected in the whole war in the east.I first became interested in this period while reading Rhea's volume on the Wilderness campaign and saw that Gouverneur Warren was commanding the 5th corps. I said whoa, the last time I'd seen him he was chief engineer of the Potomac Army, how'd he become a corps commander?Research revealed only three books on this subject. One is a self published title by Adrian Tighe on Bristoe Station, and the other two are by an obscure Virginia publisher and both out print and hard to find and prohibitively expensive if you do find them.Brad Godfrey's new book has gone a long way to filling that gap. His book now becomes the first book to cover the Bristoe Station campaign of fall 1863, and Mine Run in the winter of that year, in one volume.There are two things that makes this volume unique in the series. First it's the first one that doesn't focus on a major battle, since there wasn't one, which is why it has been so neglected previously. But there was a lot of interesting maneuvering that led to a lot of small battles and one major what if.The second unique thing about this book is that it's the first one that can stand on it's own. While his books can be read from cover to cover I find their best use as adjuncts to other more detailed works, making them more understandable. But since there are no major works on this subject Brad's book become's the standard work until someone gives this subject it's proper due.The map style is same as in the previous work on Antietam, which might disappoint those who preferred the Gettysburg style better. I personally like this style much better. My only quibble with the book, and it's a very minor one, is that Kirkptricks raid on Richmond in Feb.- March '64 wasn't covered.To sum up in my opinion, if not his best book, this is easily his most valuable.

After a friend got me "The Maps of Antietam" for a gift - I just had to have more from this series. It's exactly what I look for in a Civil War book: no Stonewall's love letters - just battle maps. It's the perfect amount of narration as well, so you don't get bogged down in all the details, making the actions of the battle easier to remember. I use the maps to plot GPS points in Google Maps, and then head out to the battlefield, so I know I'm in the exact areas I read about in the book.I've already purchased "The Maps of the Wilderness," and now that I live nearby, I'm looking forward to getting out there this weekend with Bradley's book. I hope I have as much fun this weekend as I did last weekend with "The Maps of Bristoe Station and Mine Run" at my side.