Matt Spruill - Böcker

Not far from Chattanooga in northern Georgia, the Confederacy won one of its most decisive battles at Chickamauga. This guide uses firsthand accounts to illustrate how this skirmish, only two days long, turned into the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War with over 34,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed, wounded, or captured.The U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles series was developed for “staff rides” on key battlefields by military professionals. Eyewitness accounts by battle participants make these guides invaluable resources for visitors to the national military parks and armchair strategists alike who want a greater understanding of five of the most devastating yet influential years in our nation's history. This is an on-the-ground guide with explicit directions to points of interest and maps—illustrating the action and showing the details of troop position, roads, rivers, elevations, and tree lines as they were more than 150 years ago—that help bring the battle to life. In the field, these guides can be used to re-create each battle’s setting and proportions, giving the reader a sense of the tension and fear each soldier must have felt as he faced his enemy.

“An outstanding guide…meets the needs of the serious students as well as the casual visitor.”- Edwin Bearss, former chief historian of the National Park ServiceIn this guide, matt Spruill recounts the story of the November 1863 battle of Chattanooga using official reports and observations by commanding officers in their own words. The book is organized in the format still used by the military on staff rides, allowing the reader to understand how the battle was fought and why leaders made the decisions they did.Unlike other books on the battle of Chattanooga, this work guides the reader through the battlefield, allowing both visitor and armchair traveler to see the battle through the eyes of its participants. Numerous tour “stops” take the reader through the battles for Chattanooga: Wauhatchie, Lookout mountain, Orchard Knob, Missionary Ridge, and Ringgold Gap. With easy-to-follow instructions, extensive tactical maps, eyewitness accounts, and editorial analyses, the reader is transported to the center of the action. Storming the heights offers new insights and covers key ground rarely seen by visitors to Chattanooga.The Author: A retired army colonel, matt Spruill served as a licensed battlefield guide for the national Park Service at Gettysburg Battlefield Military Park. He is the author of A Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga.

Echoes of Thunder is the only guide to the 1862 Seven Days Battles. Taking the reader over the ground where the five battles were fought between the Union and Confederate armies from June 26 to July 1, 1862, the book is for the Civil War expert as well as the newcomer.For each battlefield the book provides information to orient the reader about where the opposing units were positioned and what happened. Appropriate excerpts from the official records are included, written by commanders whose units were fighting at each stop. This technique of presentation allows the reader to see the development of each battle as the participants and decision makers saw it.A chapter is dedicated to each of the Seven Days Battles: Beaver Dam Creek, Gaines Mill, Savage Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill. The reader can follow the battles in their entirety from Stop 1 to Stop 30; however, as each chapter is designed to stand alone, the reader can tour the battlefields in any order or visit only selected battlefields.Detailed topographical maps show the battlefield areas as they were in 1862 and are marked with unit locations and movements. Modern day road maps and instructions allow the reader to follow the same routes—from battlefield to battlefield—used by the armies. Operational and planning maps show overall situations and maneuver plans.Because of the detailed maps and orientation information, a reader can use Echoes of Thunder effectively even without being on the battlefields, making this a valuable reference work on this important series of battles.

Among the myriad books examining the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), Summer Thunder is one of a kind. A terrific resource for is visitors to the national military park, it explores the clashing armies' deployment of artillery throughout the battle- from one position to another, from one day to the next. Matt Spruill, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former licensed Gettysburg guide, carefully takes readers to every point on the battlefield where artillery was used, and combining his own commentary with excerpts from the Official Records and other primary sources, he reveals the tactical thinking of both Union and Confederate commanders. Spruill uses a sequential series of thirty-five ""stops,"" complete with driving instructions and recent photographs, to guide readers around the park and orient them about where the opposing units were placed and what happened there. Detailed maps depict the battlefield as it was in 1863 and are marked with artillery positions, including the number of guns in action with each battery. Meanwhile, the passages from primary sources allow the reader to see key events as the actual participants saw them. The book also brims with information about the various artillery pieces used by both sides, from howitzers to Parrott rifles and Napoleon field guns, and the critical role they played over the course of the battle, right up its outcome. Summer Thunder devotes a chapter to each of the three days of the historic devotes a chapter to each of the three days of the historic Summer Thunder engagement between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. One can follow the battle chronologically in its entirety from Stop 1 to Stop 35, or concentrate on a specific day or a specific area. In fact, the maps and orientation information are of such detail that the book can be used even without being on the battlefield, making it an invaluable reference work for expert and novice alike.

From December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles raged as more than 42,000 Union troops led by General William S. Rosecrans met 37,000 Confederates under General Braxton Bragg near the small town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  The Battle of Stones River, which the Union declared as a victory, significantly boosted Union morale in the Western Theater.Stones River has received scant attention in comparison to other battles, such as Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, especially in the publication of tour guidebooks. Winter Lightening is the only battlefield guide to Stones River available in print.  Designed as a step-by-step primer for visitors to the Stones River National Battlefield, it offers a comprehensive, “you are there” overview of the important events that took place during the battle.Winter Lightening follows a sequential series of twenty-one “stops” to guide the visitor through the battlefield over the exact routes used by both armies,  offering informative details on what happened at key points along the way.   The guide divides the battle into three segments: the west flank, the center, and the east flank.  This approach allows visitors to follow the battle in its entirety or in any order they wish. Detailed maps and extensive primary material including commentary by commanders, letters, and other fascinating sources further enrich the visitor's experience.Matt Spruill is a retired U.S. Army colonel and formerly a Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide. He is the author of Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga, Storming the Heights and Echoes of Thunder. Lee Spruill, a paramedic and fireman, is a major in the U.S. Army Reserve and has just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The Battle of Gettysburg has inspired scrutiny from virtually every angle, but until the first publication of Matt Spruill’s Decisions at Gettysburg in 2011 investigations of critical decisions made by Union and Confederate commanders were not heavily scrutinized. The success of Decisions at Gettysburg launched a series of books exploring critical decisions in various battles and campaigns during the Civil War. In this revised second edition, Spruill updates the nineteen critical decisions, adding a twentieth decision, and aligns the book with others in the Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series.Decisions at Gettysburg, second edition, further defines the critical decisions made by Confederate and Union commanders throughout the battle. Matt Spruill examines the decisions that prefigured the action and shaped the course of battle as it unfolded. Rather than a linear history of the battles, Spruill’s discussion of the critical decisions presents readers with a vivid blueprint of the battle’s development. Exploring the critical decisions in this way allows the reader to progress from a sense of what happened in these battles to why they happened as they did.Complete with maps and a guided tour, Decisions at Gettysburg is an indispensable primer, and readers looking for concise introduction to the battle can tour this sacred ground—or read about it at their leisure—with key insights into the battle and a deeper understanding of the Civil War itself.

From June 25 to July 1, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia engaged Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac in a series of battles at the end of the Peninsula Campaign that would collectively become known as the Seven Days Battles. Beginning with the fighting at the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, Lee consistently maneuvered against and attacked McClellan’s Army of the Potomac as it retreated south across the Virginia Peninsula to the James River. At the conclusion of the Battle of Malvern Hill, Lee’s second most costly battle, where McClellan’s strong defensive position of infantry and artillery repelled multiple frontal assaults by Lee’s troops, the Federal army slipped from Lee’s grasp and brought the Seven Days to an end. The Seven Days was a clear Confederate victory that drove the Union army away from the capital at Richmond, began the ascendancy of Robert E. Lee, and commenced a change in the war in the Eastern Theater. It set the stage for the Second Manassas Campaign followed by the Maryland Campaign of 1862.Decisions of the Seven Days explores the critical decisions made by Confederate and Union commanders during the Seven Days Battles and how these decisions shaped the outcome. Rather than offering a history of the battles, Matt Spruill hones in on a sequence of critical decisions made by commanders on both sides of the contests to provide a blueprint of the Seven Days at its tactical core. Identifying and exploring the critical decisions in this way allows students of the battles to progress from knowledge of what happened to a mature grasp of why events happened.Complete with maps and a driving tour, Decisions of the Seven Days is an indispensable primer, and readers looking for a concise introduction to the battles can tour this sacred ground—or read about it at their leisure—with key insights into the campaign and a deeper understanding of the Civil War itself.Decisions of the Seven Days is the ninth in a series of books that will explore the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War.