AuthorTracks

The Last Full Measure: A Novel of the Civil War (Civil War Trilogy)

02 May 2000

In the Pulitzer prizewinning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time. In the bestselling Gods and Generals, Shaaras son, Jeff, brilliantly sustained his fathers vision, telling the epic story of the events culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg. Now, Jeff Shaara brings this legendary father-son trilogy to its stunning conclusion in a novel that brings to life the final two years of the Civil War. As The Last Full Measure opens, Gettysburg is past and the war advances to its third brutal year. On the Union side, the gulf between the politicians in Washington and the generals in the field yawns ever wider. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a decisive, hard-nosed leader. It is at this critical moment that Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in commandand turns the tide of war. For Robert E. Lee, Gettysburg was an unspeakable disastercompounded by the shattering loss of the fiery Stonewall Jackson two months before. Lee knows better than anyone that the South cannot survive a war of attrition. But with the total devotion of his generalsLongstreet, Hill, Stuartand his unswerving faith in God, Lee is determined to fight to the bitter end. Here too is Joshua Chamberlain, the college professor who emerged as the Union hero of Gettysburgand who will rise to become one of the greatest figures of the Civil War. Battle by staggering battle, Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Lee and Grantcomplicated, heroic, deeply troubled men. From the costly Battle of the Wilderness to the agonizing siege of Petersburg to Lees epoch-making surrender at Appomattox, Shaara portrays the riveting conclusion of the Civil War through the minds and hearts of the individuals who gave their last full measure. Full of human passion and the spellbinding truth of history, The Last Full Measure is the fitting capstone to a magnificent literary trilogy. From the Hardcover edition.