A good atlas to accompany a history of the war. ( )

You need an Atlas to follow McPherson's superb account of the Civil War (1988). Not all the maps here are successful, but the task is difficult - showing troop movements and depicting situations on the same battlefield at different times. The Civil War Trust have a series of animated online battlefield maps and photographs at www.civilwar.org which are very useful additional guides to the quite good single-tone maps in "Battle cry of Freedom", but this Atlas is a necessary additional aid. That said, the map on page 105 has a completely flawed topographical underlay - showing the Yazoo River joining the Mississippi SOUTH of Vicksburg (while the map on page 104, correctly, shows a northern convergence). On page 209 the three forts south of Wilmington are not placed consistently with the preceding map showing the fall of Fort Fisher. ( )

CAYAA