Ranger Mosby

Rating:
Summary: Painful reading - disjointed and stilted language
Review: I bought this book with great enthusiasm due to the reviews I read here. It has taken me three weeks to literaly "plow" through this disjointed and just plain difficult to follow narrative. The attemps at literary fluorish are constant distraction and hinder the reader's progress. This book is written as if someone simply took various accounts from other sources and cobbled them together with no idea how to make truly fascinating events into a readable story. There are areas where there is given painfully intricate detail in non-essential minutae and then where there could be benefit from detail there is only the briefest passing mention of important events. There has to be a better book on this.

Rating:
Summary: Painful reading - disjointed and stilted language
Review: I bought this book with great enthusiasm due to the reviews I read here. It has taken me three weeks to literaly "plow" through this disjointed and just plain difficult to follow narrative. The attemps at literary fluorish are constant distraction and hinder the reader's progress. This book is written as if someone simply took various accounts from other sources and cobbled them together with no idea how to make truly fascinating events into a readable story. There are areas where there is given painfully intricate detail in non-essential minutae and then where there could be benefit from detail there is only the briefest passing mention of important events. There has to be a better book on this.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I was totally amazed at the greatness and importance of Mosby. If only there were more men like him in the South! His valiant deeds extended the war (not that long wars are better) quite a bit, I think. This book shows you a new (at least not as well known) aspect of the Civil War. Those of you who love the South will find their hearts beating as Mosby makes his dashing raides behind Yankee lines. It is almost unbelievable! Get it, by all means.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I was totally amazed at the greatness and importance of Mosby. If only there were more men like him in the South! His valiant deeds extended the war (not that long wars are better) quite a bit, I think. This book shows you a new (at least not as well known) aspect of the Civil War. Those of you who love the South will find their hearts beating as Mosby makes his dashing raides behind Yankee lines. It is almost unbelievable! Get it, by all means.

Rating:
Summary: Lost Opportunity for the South (& Viet Nam)
Review: I would suspect that this book never made it to the shelves of West Point. The West Point Generals in the Civil War (as well as Vietnam) just never understood Guerilla warfare. If Generals Lee and Westmoreland had only employed Mosby's techniques, we would have won both wars (I'm from Virginia). In reading the book from this point of view, it was a real "Fountainhead." Ranger Mosby was Roak in every sense of the word. He was daring, he persevered, and he endured. The book brought to life more than any other book I've read (including Cold Mountain) the excitement of that era.

Rating:
Summary: Lost Opportunity for the South (& Viet Nam)
Review: I would suspect that this book never made it to the shelves of West Point. The West Point Generals in the Civil War (as well as Vietnam) just never understood Guerilla warfare. If Generals Lee and Westmoreland had only employed Mosby's techniques, we would have won both wars (I'm from Virginia). In reading the book from this point of view, it was a real "Fountainhead." Ranger Mosby was Roak in every sense of the word. He was daring, he persevered, and he endured. The book brought to life more than any other book I've read (including Cold Mountain) the excitement of that era.