A Blaze of Glory: Book summary and reviews of A Blaze of Glory by Jeff Shaara

A Blaze of Glory Summary

In the first novel of a spellbinding new trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Jeff Shaara returns to the Civil War terrain he knows best. A Blaze of Glory takes us to the action-packed Western Theater for a vivid re-creation of one of the war's bloodiest and most iconic engagements - the Battle of Shiloh.

It's the spring of 1862. The Confederate Army in the West teeters on the brink of collapse following the catastrophic loss of Fort Donelson. Commanding general Albert Sidney Johnston is forced to pull up stakes, abandon the critical city of Nashville, and rally his troops in defense of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Hot on Johnston's trail are two of the Union's best generals: the relentless Ulysses Grant, fresh off his career-making victory at Fort Donelson, and Don Carlos Buell. If their combined forces can crush Johnston's army and capture the railroad, the war in the West likely will be over. There's just one problem: Johnston knows of the Union plans, and is poised to launch an audacious surprise attack on Grant's encampment - a small settlement in southwestern Tennessee anchored by a humble church named Shiloh.

With stunning you-are-there immediacy, Shaara takes us inside the maelstrom of Shiloh as no novelist has before. Drawing on meticulous research, he dramatizes the key actions and decisions of the commanders on both sides: Johnston, Grant, Sherman, Beauregard, and the illustrious Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest. Here too are the thoughts and voices of the junior officers, conscripts, and enlisted men who gave their all for the cause, among them Confederate cavalry lieutenant James Seeley and Private Fritz "Dutchie" Bauer of the 16th Wisconsin Regiment - brave participants in a pitched back-and-forth battle whose casualty count would far surpass anything the American public had yet seen in this war. By the end of the first day of fighting, as Grant's bedraggled forces regroup for could be their last stand, two major events - both totally unexpected - will turn the tide of the battle and perhaps the war itself.

A Blaze of Glory Reviews

"Here, in time for the sesquicentennial, is a reimagining of the bloody Battle of Shiloh. It's the start of a new trilogy, with each book publishing on Father's Day. So you're armed; get for Shaara fans." - Library Journal

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Jeff Shaara Author Biography

Jeff Shaara is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including No Less Than Victory, The Steel Wave, The Rising Tide, Rise to Rebellion, and Gone for Soldiers, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure–two novels that complete the Civil War trilogy that began with his father’s Pulitzer Prize—winning classic The Killer Angels. Shaara was born into a family of Italian immigrants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University.

After many years spent in New York City and the mountains of Montana, Shaara has returned to Florida, and resides again in Tallahassee.

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