GDG- Robert Rodes book review

[Alan D. Brunelle]

Ted Savas wrote:
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> Hello Alan
>    
>   Thank you for taking the time to review one of our newest releases, "Major General Robert E. Rodes of the Army of Northern Virginia," by Darrel Collins. We are all happy that you found it worthwhile. This was one of the earliest manuscripts we accepted for publication at Savas Beatie, but the fault in getting it ready was ours alone. The author is a wonderful guy who demonstrated the patience of Job. And his knowledge of his subject is breathtaking.
>   

You're very welcome - it was a great read, and I probably didn't do it 
full justice in the review...

>    
>   Unless a massive cache of Rodes papers is located (I know Bob Krick dreams about this at least once a month), there is no need to ever prepare another full-length biography. Collins' in-depth handling of Rodes' prewar life is magnificent, and puts, finally, the flesh on the bones of a general who heretofore was little more than a cardboard prop. And who he was as a man helps us better understand who he was as a general. Collins, for example, uses Rodes' early-war Peninsula experience to aptly demonstrate how and why he responded as he did on other fields of battle.

This is probably one area I could have elaborated upon: Collins /was/ 
very clear in demonstrating how Rodes-the-general grew over the short 
period of time he was in command. I wrote a little bit about the pre-war 
experiences helping to craft Rodes-the-general, but Collins /does/ go on 
to show how Rodes learned from each battle, and then applied the lessons 
learned in subsequent events. (And Collins is also clear that sometimes 
the lessons learned weren't always the best - e.g. waiting for 
everything to be just so before starting the assault is a great idea, 
but sometimes striking while the iron is hot is more important.)


I'm going to go back and re-digest the Gettysburg chapters, and learn 
some more from them.

Regards,
Alan