Justin S. Solonick

Solonick received his PhD in 2013. This book was published in 2015. Which explains why it is one of those frustrating efforts that is really just a dissertation expanded into a book. This one is especially exasperating, with the usual symptoms of an expanded dissertation: massive repetition, including the same quotations two and even three separate times; constant restatement of the theme of "professional engineering blended with common sense westerner improvisation", literally every five or six pages; a two or three page summary at the end of each chapter to pad the number of pages; etc.

The central disappointment of the book is its failure to say anything in detail about the Confederate side. How can we understand the effect of the Union siege tactics in isolation from their impact on the Confederates? Solonick knows he must address this obvious shortcoming, for in the Introduction he states: "The reason for this study's emphasis on the Union must be addressed. A thorough examination of the Confederate's stalwart efforts to hold Vicksburg is not only a worthy topic but also in need of a fuller and more careful analysis THAN THE LENGTH OF THIS VOLUME WILL ADMIT." (my EMPHASIS) The length of the volume is a mere 220 pages of text plus a short appendix, and those pages are padded as described above. Covering the Confederate side would have made the book, what...400 pages?

Then there is this line out of left field (page 75): "...these rugged westerners [Grant's army] were willing to live in bovine quarters if need be in order to ensure the fall of the SLAVE EMPIRE and to restore the Union." (again, my EMPHASIS). Wait, what? Am I reading an abolitionist pamphlet from 1860 or a scholarly book on the Civil War from 2015? Fortunately, this is the only instance of this sort of virtue signaling; perhaps such a reference is de rigueur for an academic hoping to publish a Civil War book nowadays.

Because of the lack of balance in describing both sides, the main value of the book lies in the technical descriptions of the siege. These could be accumulated from various online resources, but it is nice to have them in a single book. Solonick does occasionally provide nice touches of what it would have felt like to be a Union sapper digging his way in no man's land. I also appreciated his depiction of the Union engineers, especially Andrew Hickenlooper. I stood in Battery Hickenlooper at the battlefield a couple of years ago; I can appreciate it more now.… (mere)