Booknotes: Unparalleled Horror

New Arrival:

• Unparalleled Horror: The Battles of Jerusalem Plank Road and the Crater, June 19-July 31, 1864 by Sean Michael Chick and John F. Schmutz (Savas Beatie, 2026).

Sean Chick's A Grand Opening Squandered: The Battle for Petersburg, June 15-18, 1864 (2025) marked the start of a five-volume ECW sub-series that will trace the entire 1864-65 Richmond-Petersburg Campaign from beginning to end. Picking up right where that earlier installment left off is Unparalleled Horror: The Battles of Jerusalem Plank Road and the Crater, June 19-July 31, 1864. I don't know if co-authoring is going to be a pattern with this new Petersburg series, but this time Chick partnered up with Crater expert John Schmutz.

After the initial Union attacks on the Petersburg front failed miserably, a new plan was immediately put into operation. From the description: "On June 20, Grant ordered George Meade to swing out to the west and cut off the railroads leading to Petersburg, while he unleashed his cavalry on Robert E. Lee’s communications. The Federals suffered a stunning defeat at Jerusalem Plank Road, and Confederate horsemen ravaged Grant’s cavalry. Grant settled for a siege while still searching for a chance to strike." A chapter is also devoted to the July 21-27 fighting at Deep Bottom. Schmutz then takes over, addressing the Crater battle over several chapters. Nine fine-looking maps cover all of these battles in detail.

The appendix section includes a driving tour of the Petersburg Campaign (with an accompanying map) and an account of the U.S. congressional investigation that followed the Crater disaster. In another pair of appendices, contributor Scott Patchan offers a review of military events that occurred in the Shenandoah Valley during the time interval examined in the book, and Charles Knight adds a short biography of Confederate Crater hero William Mahone. The final appendix provides a very brief history of Petersburg up through the Civil War years. Orders of battle, and a suggested reading list round out the volume.