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The
Bloody Ground |
| It is
late summer 1862 and the Confederacy is at last invading the United States of America.
Nathaniel Starbuck, the northern preacher's son who fights for the rebel South, is given
command of a punishment battalion, a despised unit of shriekers and cowards. His enemies
expect the appointment to be his downfall. To prove them wrong, Starbuck must lead the
ramshackle unit against the northern garrison at Harper's Ferry and then across the
frontier to the bank of the Antietam Creek. There he will fight in what will prove to be
the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. A superbly exciting novel which vividly captures the horror of the battlefield, The Bloody Ground is the fourth volume in the Starbuck Chronicles. " The best so far in Cornwell's American Civil War series ... The cacophony of the cornfield slaughter is stunningly conveyed" DAILY MAIL " Cornwell is as masterly as ever at conjuring up the grisly nature of nineteenth century campaigning and the terrifying adrenaline surge experienced on a battlefield reeking of black powder and blood" THE TIMES " A very fine novel indeed; Bernard Cornwell at his distinctive best ... builds to a gripping climax ... stirring stuff" SUNDAY TELEGRAPH " Cornwell is a natural storyteller with a vivid sense of history" MAIL ON SUNDAY Reviews
"I love Bernard Cornwell's books - having discovered him, as many have, through Sean bean's TV portrayals of Richard Sharpe, I devoured the Sharpe books and then moved onto Starbuck. I'm English, and prior to picking up 'Rebel', I had little knowledge of, or interest in, the American Civil War (we add the 'American' because we had a Civil War of our own). My the end of 'The Bloody Ground' I'd become an obsessive. I've read a pile of factual books on the subject, and am getting Shelby Foote's huge hitory for my birthday, and I have to say, the story of this war is the greatest tale of the millenium. It has the grandeur of Greek myth, and yet it all happened. I have not read a single thing in any other books since that makes anything in Cornwell's books seem false. Experiencing Bull Run and Sharpsburg with Starbuck is real enough for you to smell the powder. I wish he'd write more. I know this series has had relatively poor reviews, by Cornwell's standards, but not series has ever captured mt imagination as powerfully. Perhaps those who bring extensive knowledge of the War to these books will be less impressed, but as an introduction to the most fascinating conflict since medieval times, this can't be beaten. I also will defend Cornwell's telling of this from the Southern perspective - few Southern soldiers gave a damn about slavery, yet their memory often gets damned because, at its core, their cause was unjust. yet the South, fighting for the wrong cause, brought nobility, courage, brilliant and panache to the field, while the North, fighting for the righteous cause, was incompetent, brutal and clumsy - rarely winning by any other means than crushing the Confederates under weight of numbers and superior resources. Its hard NOT to root for the South - even though you know you shouldn't, and Cornwell makes this paradox the core of the series. " |
Buy
the book online in... |
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Paperback - 320 pages (January 1997) HarperCollins
|
Hardcover
- 456 pages ( 1 July, 1997) Chivers Press |
Audio
Cassette (July 1996) ISIS Audio Books
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Buy the book online in...
|
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Mass Market Paperback - 400 pages Reprint edition (January 1997) |
Audio Cassette Cassette edition (March 1997) |
(USA)
