I have spent several weeks reading this incredible caricature of the final campaign of the Civil War. Previously, I had read “In the Hands of Providence”, “Bayonet”, and “Soul of the Lion”, which are also Chamberlain masterpieces of ground warfare in my humble judgment. “The Passing of the Armies…” was published in 1915 shortly after Chamberlain’s passing in 1914 so is absent his final edit, so it is not as polished as the other three but the lucid descriptions of the battle and the leader personalities are present in abundance.

It is at times difficult for even a career infantryman to follow the battles at the infamous White Oak Road and Five Forks, VA due to the mingling of the units and the poor reconnaissance that confused the Sheridan, Chamberlain, Warren, Griffin, and others to the extent that the main objective at the “angle” was a 1,000 meters from where it was described in the battle plan (“fog of war” - Carl Van Clausewitz).

Even for a non-infantry reader, just to experience the language, vocabulary, and insights of one of the great warriors/scholars of his time is worth the price of the book. Benson