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CHILDREN'S ART EXPERIENCE: Today and Saturday, Dec. 15, 10-11 a.m., Fredericksburg Area Museum, 907 Princess Anne St., Fredericksburg. Artist Lindsey Victoria will help children ages 6-12 explore the art of John Elder. A $5 charge for materials; reservations required. 540/371-3037.

November 17, 2007 12:36 am

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.

A photojournalist for the Roman Catholic diocese in Harrisburg, Pa., Heisey spends his free time capturing Civil War battlefields with his camera. His talent has brought him to the attention of the National Park Service, the U.S Congress and the Civil War Preservation Trust, all of which have commissioned his work.

Instead of merely recording battlefield landscapes, Heisey's artistic eye captures the beauty and tranquility of these hallowed places. Fog spills across the open fields in front of the "Mule Shoe" at Spotsylvania Court House. Early morning sun bathes the front of Ellwood Manor on the Wilderness battlefield. Heisey's haunting, yet striking images coupled with Rhea's engaging and lively text result in a nice presentation of the battlefields that were at the center of the heavyweight fights between Grant and Lee.

Some nice features of the book are the maps and historical photos that appear within its pages. Fifteen beautiful maps, produced by noted illustrator Steven Stanley, will help the reader understand the movements and progression of the armies through central Virginia. An order of battle, which lists each unit in both armies at the outset of the campaign, appears as an appendix.

While most of the historic photos are likely familiar to those who have spent any time looking through Civil War picture books, there are a couple of unique images to be found in these pages. For instance, on Page 33 is reproduced a 1937 photograph of Phenie Tapp and Dr. Allen M. Giddings. This previously unpublished photo is of nice local interest, because Phenie was a young girl living in the Wilderness area of Spotsylvania County when her grandmother's farm became part of the 1864 battlefield.

She later recounted her experiences of the battle and the confusion that ensued when the family was ushered away as the bullets kicked up dirt around their feet. Dr. Giddings, a member of the Civil War Round Table of Battle Creek, Mich., bought the Tapp Farm in 1953 and donated it to the National Park Service nine years later, thus preserving that important site for the enjoyment of future historians, authors and visitors.

Although it is a coffee-table book, this new volume will appeal to a wide audience. For the student of the war, the photos and lively narrative will complement Rhea's previous and more in-depth studies and should find welcome shelf space next to these earlier works. Casual readers will enjoy Rhea's engaging style and his concise overview of the campaign.

Heisey's photos of the places where these momentous events took place may also entice folks who have never been to places such as the North Anna battlefield, Totopotomoy Creek or the Garthright House on the Cold Harbor battlefield to travel there and see what remains of the sites chronicled in this new book.

Both Rhea and Heisey acknowledge that this book would not have been possible if it were not for the fact that many of the places they wrote about and photographed have been preserved. In his preface, Rhea recognizes the work of the National Park Service, the Civil War Preservation Trust and other organizations that are committed to protecting these battlefields.

Among those mentioned is the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, a local group devoted to saving battlefield lands in the Fredericksburg area. Committed preservationists themselves, Rhea and Heisey teamed up with the trust for an event last evening. Both the author and the photographer were on hand to discuss and sign copies of "In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee."

If you were unable to make this event, Rhea will be available today from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Eastern National Bookstore, located behind the Fredericksburg Battlefield Visitor Center on Lafayette Boulevard. Copies of "In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee," along with many of Rhea's other titles, will be available for purchase and for the author to inscribe. For more information on today's book signing, call 540/372-3034.