Book News: A Summer of Battles

When it comes to the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, David Powell's five-volume series is consuming the bulk of reader attention these days. With only fifteen months passing between the release dates of the first two installments, the project is proceeding at a rapid clip. However, that's not to say that there aren't other things of possible interest out there for us to consider in the meantime.

A couple of days ago, I came across a new two-volume set covering the fighting around and below the city following the July 28 Battle of Ezra Church (itself the subject of two recent full-length battle studies):

• A Summer of Battles - The Final Weeks of the Civil War's 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1: The Siege of Atlanta, Utoy Creek and The Grand Movement
and • A Summer of Battles - The Final Weeks of the Civil War's 1864 Atlanta Campaign, Volume 2: Jonesboro, Lovejoy's Station and the Capture of Atlanta

What primarily leads me to have more than a passing interest in these two self-published efforts is their author, David Allison. I rather liked his 2018 book Attacked On All Sides: The Civil War Battle of Decatur, Georgia, the Untold Story of the Battle of Atlanta [to read the site review, go here]. Its primary drawback was a lack of maps, so I hope the author took that criticism to heart when putting together the new set, which is available in very reasonably priced hardcover and paperback versions.