Counter-Thrust

During the summer of 1862, a Confederate resurgence threatened to turn the tide of the Civil War. When the Unions earlier multitheater thrust into the South proved to be a strategic overreach, the Confederacy saw its chance to reverse the loss of the Upper South through counteroffensives from the Chesapeake to the Mississippi. Benjamin Franklin Cooling tells this story in Counter-Thrust, recounting in harrowing detail Robert E. Lees flouting of his antagonist George B. McClellans drive to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond and describing the Confederate heros long-dreamt-of offensive to reclaim central and northern Virginia before crossing the Potomac. Counter-Thrust also provides a window into the Unions internal conflict at building a successful military leadership team during this defining period. Cooling shows us Lincolns administration in disarray, with relations between the president and field commander McClellan strained to the breaking point. He also shows how the fortunes of war shifted abruptly in the Unions favor, climaxing at Antietam with the bloodiest single day in American historyand in Lincolns decision to announce a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Here in all its gritty detail and considerable depth is a critical moment in the unfolding of the Civil War and of American history.