GDG- Roll-Call to Destiny

[Batrinque at aol.com]

Although in some ways  Brent Nosworthy’s new “Roll-Call to Destiny: The 
Soldier’s Eye View of Civil War  Battle” can be viewed as a companion to his 
previous, ground-breaking “The  Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and 
Combat Experience of the Civil  War,” fundamentally “Roll-Call to Destiny” is 
independent of that earlier  volume, written from a quite different 
perspective.  Thoroughly grounded in firsthand  accounts, “Roll-Call to Destiny” 
provides an examination of combat during the  American Civil War: infantry, cavalry, 
and artillery (and even naval, or at  least riverine, action), from the 
beginning of the war until nearly its end, in  both Eastern and Western theaters, 
looking at both Union and Confederate  experience.   
The focus is not  principally upon individual soldiers, but rather upon the 
activities of “small  units” (usually, regiments or batteries, but also 
brigades or larger  organizations, where appropriate) at several different battles, 
including First  Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Missionary Ridge, but also 
lesser-known actions such  as Arkansas Post and Darbytown Road.  Nosworthy does not 
attempt to provide detailed accounts of the whole  battles, but rather focuses 
upon one or more selected small units at those  actions to illustrate numerous 
facets of Civil War warfare.  (His chosen Gettysburg focus is the East  
Cavalry Field fight.)  He is particularly careful to link the theory  and practice 
of American combat to European military history and technical  developments, 
showing how the American experience fit into a broader picture and  that it is 
impossible to really understand the battlefields of 1861-65 without  taking 
that broader picture into account.  In several cases, Nosworthy  challenges 
conventional wisdom and provides new answers to old  questions. 
Besides  this innovative assessment of Civil War combat,  “Roll-Call to 
Destiny” offers plenty of  more traditional military history in the form of 
narratives of dramatic combat  episodes.  This is a book that  should be of value to 
anyone seriously interested in the real nature of fighting  during the Civil 
War.  Even those  who think that they have already read everything there is to 
be said on the  subject will come away with new information and ideas, I 
believe.   

Bruce  Trinque
Amston,  CT




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