MOUNTAINS TOUCHED WITH FIRE

With a mix of personal vignettes and fascinating background sketches, Sword shows how Confederate General Braxton Bragg's haughty and inept leadership managed to turn victory at Chickamauga Creek in September of 1863 into defeat at Chattanooga two months later. Robert Sevra reads carefully and cautiously, as one might have walked these war-ravaged fields, never dazzling the reader. But his precise, scholarly voice is carefully attuned to the seesaw of events at Chattanooga. Like General George Thomas's men rushing hell-bent up Missionary Ridge, Sevra's narration sometimes pulses with excitement. As always with battle narratives, a map on the jacket cover would have been helpful and appreciated. P.E.F. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 97]