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Rating: 
Summary: A Focused, Original Perspective on the Army of the Ohio
Review: This book is focused and trenchant, and it succeeds in illuminating some basic questions (the 'how's and 'why's of Civil War army dynamics, and how they affected the flow of battles), and best of all it raises many interesting points, and leaves the reader thinking anew. It is an interesting dichotomy that the story is of discreet regiments and companies of the Army of the Ohio 'formed into a blunt instrument', and that Buell and his key commanders remain indispensible elements in the story. The army commander's and officers' struggle to fulfill their true roll (drill the troops in a systematic way, create and encourage espirit de corps for the army, and of course - develop a plan of campaign and act - with alacrity!) seems to be a sub-theme of the entire book. Another re-curring theme is the power of perception - the strength that the Army of the Ohio drew from their steady diet of success up until Perryville. Casual readers of this or that battle account from that war become de-sensitized to the big numbers (30,000 troops, or 60,000, or 100,000...and casualties in the thousands after single engagements) and maybe never give any thought at all to the enormously complex enterprise of creating such an army, and supplying it, and manuevering it; let alone bringing it to bear and fighting it in an effective way. This book includes interesting accounts of the battles at Shiloh and Perryville, and of an epic march between Nashville and Louisville as it happened to the Army of the Ohio.
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