The Bloody Ground: Starbuck Chronicles Volume Four, The
4/5
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About this ebook
From New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, comes the fourth installment in The Starbuck Chronicles, an exciting novel which vividly captures the horror of the battle field.
It is late summer 1862 and the Confederacy is invading the United States of America.
Nate Starbuck, a northern preacher’s son fighting for the rebel South, is given command of a punishment battalion – a despised unit of shirkers and cowards. His enemies expect it to be his downfall, as Starbuck must lead this ramshackle unit into a battle that will prove to be the bloodiest of the Civil War.
Bernard Cornwell
BERNARD CORNWELL is the author of over fifty novels, including the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales, which serve as the basis for the hit Netflix series The Last Kingdom. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod and in Charleston, South Carolina.
Read more from Bernard Cornwell
Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for The Bloody Ground
13 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Some thoughts on the series as a whole:
Starbuck's character development hits a wall somewhere in book 3. He's a preacher's son who fights against his country, curses, drinks, whores, and even murders. But it's just a downward trend and then a leveling-off. We really need a good conclusion to this series, but given that it's been 25 years since this book and Bernard Cornwell is pushing 80, I doubt we'll ever see it. A shame, a book describing what Starbuck does in, say, late June/early July of 1863 would be interesting.
Starbuck murders four people in three separate episodes during this series. The last two instances of murder actually made me laugh out loud, which is either a reflection on my own character or maybe a reflection on how strange these scenes were.
When Starbuck kills a Major in his Legion that refuses a direct order and then immediately follows up the cold blooded murder with the (real!) catchphrase of Stonewall Jackson's men in the summer of 1862: "Oh, My God, just lay me down."...That is hilarious. Then Starbuck uses a cannon(!) firing canister (like a giant shotgun) to kill two of his own men who had shot him in the mouth just a couple of minutes before. I mean...this is the Civil War equivalent of using a BFG to kill a single monster in DOOM. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The last edition of Cornwell's Civil War Starbuck Chronicles, this book particularly hits on the realism and horror of war. Antietam remains one of the most horrific battles in American history, and Cornwell describes it well.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is book 4 in a very good series about the Civil War. I hope Mr. Cornwell is going to write a couple more to finish the war and bring Starbuck back to Richmond and his future. I sometimes wonder if Mr. Cornwell has a puritanical streak in him, he seems to like to make life very hard on his main characters. I would recommend reading the whole series to everyone they are very well written and enjoyable. I'll be waiting the next installment.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The fourth in the series, The Bloody Ground depicts the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland in fall 1862. The battle--which Southerners prefer to call the Battle of Sharpsburg--is known as the bloodiest day of the war. The Antietam Creek ran red with blood with 23,000 casualties and was not a decisive win for either side. The battle had importance, though, because it clearly demonstrated McClellan's poor leadership and gave Lincoln a reason to at least not have to claim an defeat. He followed up with the Emancipation Proclamation. And, in the midst of his sometimes gut wrenching depiction of the battle field, Cornwell tells this political and military history in an entertaining but insightful way.