The clash between Union and Confederate forces at Wilson’s Creek was one of the first significant “battles” of the Civil War. by later standards, it was no more than a skirmish--a few thousand troops on either side. But the fighting, even among mostly green troops was fairly fierce, and casualties were high in proportion to the number of soldiers involved.

Edwin Bearss is a respected Civil War historian and has written several books about the Vicksburg campaign. Therefore, this book was a surprise and a disappointment, because it is poorly done.

That Bearss researched the topic thoroughly is very clear. Out of a relatively minor engagement, he has produced a very detailed book of 170 pages, with copious notes on each of the chapters. But the writing is difficult to read, in that the prose is composed of flat, declarative sentences, many of them short. Also, there is just a straightforward recounting of the “facts”, without any commentary or analysis.

The real horror is the maps. While the number could be adequate enough--no worse than in many books--they are of poor to medium quality, and their positioning is totally bewildering. I have no idea why a map of the Confederate encampments BEFORE the battle took place was place nearly three-quarters of the way through the book! The same is true of other maps showing the progress of the battle. The major map, which is actually fairly good, is about half way through the book--and has no distance scale on it. Still, it wound up being adequate to follow at least the positions of the armies through the battle.

While I certainly learned more about the battle than I knew before--it gets very short treatment in any general history if it appears at all--this is not a book I would recommend to anyone who wants a better understanding of this particular battle. Surely there are better. ( )