Historian Gordon Rhea

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Historian Gordon C. Rhea and photographer Chris E. Heisey team up to create an engaging account of the Overland Campaign in a new book: "In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness Through Cold Harbor." By Eric J. Mink

Date published: 11/17/2007

BEGINNING IN EARLY May 1864, the Civil War armies of Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee slugged it out in central Virginia. Termed the Overland Campaign, this series of battles and skirmishes marked the start of a new, aggressive Union effort to bring an end to the war.

Over 40 days of almost-constant combat, the two forces marched and fought from the Rapidan River to the James River, leaving almost 90,000 casualties on the bloodied fields behind them.

The campaign was a turning point in the war in Virginia. By its end, Grant had pinned Lee to Richmond and Petersburg, greatly reducing the Confederate commander's offensive effectiveness and ultimately determining the outcome of the war.

No author or historian is more familiar with these pivotal events than Gordon C. Rhea. For more than 13 years, Rhea has researched and written about the battles and events that transpired between the two great armies of Grant and Lee. The result is a series of four detailed narratives that cover nearly the entire campaign. Rhea is currently working on the fifth and final installment.

In researching and writing about the Overland Campaign, Rhea learned that "the fields themselves were key to understanding the battles." He is intimately familiar with the sites about which he writes, and can frequently be found leading tours of the battlefields. His knowledge of the history and the places where the events occurred is obvious in his latest release.

"In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee" strays slightly from Rhea's standard battle study. It is, in fact, a coffee-table book. Oversized and printed on glossy paper, it is lavishly illustrated with a fine mixture of modern and historical photos depicting the places where the armies trod, along with a narrative that covers the entire campaign.

Readers familiar with Rhea's earlier works will find little new in the text, but the photographs are what really drive the book. Rhea recruited Chris E. Heisey to take the photographs of battlefields and sites that fill this volume.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GRANT AND LEE: THE WILDERNESS THROUGH COLD HARBOR By Gordon C. Rhea and Chris E. Heisey (Louisiana State University Press, 134 pages, $39.95)

Date published: 11/17/2007