Dade's Last Command

Rating:
Summary: Dark tragedy in the Florida wilds
Review: I have just finished reading this excellent book, and I am certain that the scenes of the march and ultimate annihilation of Major Francis Dade's column by the Seminole Indians will haunt me for a long time to come, just as the movie version of this event, Naked In The Sun, did when I saw it as a child in 1957. However, unlike that film, this book is hard, unadorned reality, with the facts more incredible than any fictional trimmings. The Dade Massacre remains less than a footnote in the popular imagination only because the fall of the Alamo occurred less than 3 months afterwards; but Mr. Laumer's book will surely enlighten those who don't know about it as well as those who think they do, for the author has combed every possible avenue of research in putting together the widely scattered pieces---and often they are mere crumbs---of this story. The suspense and high drama is quite palpable, and the reader is made to feel as if he is one of Dade's soldiers as they are whittled away first on the road, and then within their pathetic log breastwork. The saga of survivor Ransom Clark, and how he somehow managed to limp and crawl his way back to Fort Brooke---over 60 miles in three days----despite multiple wounds, is truly incredible, and would not pass muster in a work of fiction. The only thing really lacking in the book is a map of the Florida of the period---1835---that would have helped readers unfamiliar with the landscape better understand where the events were taking place. However, a collection of contemporary maps and drawings of the immediate battlefield certainly make an understanding of the action there as clear as a bell; and rare portraits of some of the men involved, on both sides, provide an immediacy and a humanity to the history.

Rating:
Summary: Before Custer There Was Dade
Review: This book is the product of years of study and of walking over the ground of Dade's massacre. Unlike Custer, Dade left some survivors to tell the tale. Those of you familiar with the enormous literature on Custer will recognize the type of book "Dade's Last Command" is, a study of a single battle from as many angles as can be researched by the author. Yes, the last stand of Dade and his men mark the official opening of the Second Seminole War, a war that made and tarnished the reputations of Zachary Tayor and Winfield Scott, whose career streatched from the War of 1812 to the Civil War. But be clear this is a battle study centering around the end of Dade and his 108 men. So don't be mislead by the book jacket description.

Rating:
Summary: NIGHTMARE FOR THE HOLIDAY
Review: This is a great book! researched exhaustively,and for 30 years the author writes this as if you are marching right beside the doomed column.You can hear the shuffle of the feet feel the tension as they march to their deaths,and above all you feel the forlorn hope diminish with each passing hour. A GREAT GREAT BOOK. A MASTERPIECE! I CANNOT PRAISE THIS TOO HIGHLY! A great book on a forgotten time and place. WISH TED TURNER would make this into a TNT ORIGINAL MOVIE!And follow the truth of the format. A VERY GOOD STORY!

Rating:
Summary: NIGHTMARE FOR THE HOLIDAY
Review: This is a great book! researched exhaustively,and for 30 years the author writes this as if you are marching right beside the doomed column.You can hear the shuffle of the feet feel the tension as they march to their deaths,and above all you feel the forlorn hope diminish with each passing hour. A GREAT GREAT BOOK. A MASTERPIECE! I CANNOT PRAISE THIS TOO HIGHLY! A great book on a forgotten time and place. WISH TED TURNER would make this into a TNT ORIGINAL MOVIE!And follow the truth of the format. A VERY GOOD STORY!