The Chickamauga Campaign—Barren Victory

Winner, 2017, Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize, Given by the Austin Civil War Round Table

"Now in paperback, Barren Victory is the third and concluding volume of the magisterial Chickamauga Campaign trilogy, a comprehensive examination of one of the most important and complex military operations of the Civil War.

The first installment, A Mad Irregular Battle, introduced readers to the major characters of this sweeping drama and carried them from the Union crossing of the Tennessee River in August 1863 up through the bloody but inconclusive combat of the first and second days of the battle (September 18 and 19, 1863). Glory or the Grave, the second volume, focused on September 20—the decisive third day of fighting that included the Confederate late-morning breakthrough and the desperate Union final stand on Horseshoe Ridge. This installment drew to a close at nightfall. Powell’s final installment, Barren Victory, examines the immediate aftermath of the battle with unprecedented clarity and detail.

The narrative opens at dawn on Monday, September 21, 1863, with Union commander William S. Rosecrans in Chattanooga and most of the rest of his Federal army in Rossville, Georgia. Confederate commander Braxton Bragg has won the signal victory of his career, but has yet to fully grasp that fact or the fruits of his success. Unfortunately for the South, the three grueling days of combat broke down the Army of Tennessee and a vigorous pursuit was nearly impossible.

In addition to carefully examining the decisions made by each army commander and the consequences, Powell sets forth the dreadful costs of the fighting in terms of the human suffering involved. Barren Victory concludes with the most detailed Chickamauga orders of battle (including unit strengths and losses) ever compiled, and a comprehensive bibliography more than a decade in the making.

David Powell’s award-winning The Chickamauga Campaign trilogy is now complete. The fighting in the hills and valleys of North Georgia has finally received the extensive treatment it has so long deserved."