A worse place than hell How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg changed a nation

Matteson's (Eden's Outcasts) sweeping collective biography is not a conventional study of the bloody Civil War battle at Fredericksburg, VA. While skillfully conveying the historical importance of the events of December 1862, he focuses on the significance of the battle in the lives of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., John Pelham, Walt Whitman, Arthur B. Fuller, and Louisa May Alcott. Pelham, daring fighter and sole Southerner of this group, died later in the war, while Fuller, a chaplain, perished at Fredericksburg early and with little notoriety. Holmes, Whitman, and Alcott achieved wide recognition in the years following the war. With keen biographical skill, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Matteson deftly interweaves the wartime actions of these five with what occurred in their lives and minds before, during, and, for all but one, after the battle. The author shows how, in different ways, Fredericksburg offered Whitman and Alcott distinctive memories of military hospitals. Holmes, Pelham, and Fuller faced the intense fighting differently, each according to past experiences and commitment to their causes. Matteson also effectively demonstrates how the lives of these individuals connected with more familiar characters of the battle and war. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of historical biography, especially as it intersects with the Civil War.--Charles K. Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato

The chaos of war transformed into a riveting tale of sacrifice and redemption. Pulitzer Prize--winning author Matteson turns to the Civil War in his third book, an insightful, exhilarating interweaving of grim military history and uplifting biographies. Focusing on the Union Army's devastating loss in 1862 during the Battle of Fredericksburg, this is an affecting, courageous story about fathers and four sons and a daughter, "heroes" who "confronted war and struggled to redeem themselves within it." Growing up, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the future Supreme Court justice and son of the famous poet and doctor, had a difficult time escaping from his father's shadow. Wendell Sr. believed slavery a "tragic, ghastly business" but was against war; Wendell Jr. disagreed, fought for the cause, was wounded three times, and nearly died of dysentery. His father left home to find his hospitalized boy. John Pelham, another doctor's son, fought for the Confederates and distinguished himself as a battery officer. "Few young men," writes Matteson, "had ever fit their historical moment more exquisitely." While the "ambitiously named" George Washington Whitman was also fighting, his brother, Walt, was in Brooklyn, "seeking the literary means to move a nation." After he learned his brother was wounded, he sought him out and volunteered as a nurse to help wounded soldiers. Union chaplain Rev. Arthur B. Fuller, whose sister Margaret had tended to the wounded during the Roman Revolution of 1848, took care of Union soldiers until he was killed by Confederate bullets. Fledgling author Louisa May Alcott left home to become a nurse for the Army of the Potomac, treating hundreds of soldiers from the bloody battleground. When she caught typhoid, her abolitionist father, Bronson, brought her home. Intimate portraits of these main characters smoothly merge with many others, including Abraham Lincoln, George McClellan, and Jeb Stuart, who fought with Pelham. In an impressive narrative juggling act, Matteson deftly unfurls many stories within stories with a confident, novelistic flair. Ambitious, nuanced, and thoroughly rewarding Civil War history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.