The Smoke at Dawn

by Jeff Shaara Book 3 in the The Civil War in the West series.

First published 2014

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4.4(5,628)

After the fall of Vicksburg, Union forces in the western theatre advance into Tennessee but suffer a severe defeat at Chickamauga. The Army of the Cumberland retreats into Chattanooga, where Braxton Bragg’s Confederates occupy the surrounding heights and threaten to starve it into surrender. Ulysses S. Grant arrives to restore the supply line and reorganise the Union command.

Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and George Henry Thomas prepare attacks while Bragg and Patrick Cleburne confront division within the Army of Tennessee. Fighting at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge breaks the siege and sends the Confederate army back into Georgia. The victory opens the route towards Atlanta and changes the balance of the war in the West.