SOURCE: A review of The Last Full Measure, in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 245, No. 16, April 20, 1998, p. 44.

[In the following review, the commentator asserts that The Last Full Measure is "a stirring epigraph to his father's remarkable novel," but criticizes "the occasionally coarse grain of Shaara's characterizations."]

Concluding the Civil War trilogy that began with his father Michael's Pulitzer-winning The Killer Angels, Shaara (Gods and Generals) [in The Last Full Measure] chronicles Lee's retreat from Gettysburg and his valiant efforts to defend northern Virginia from Grant's superior, better-supplied forces. Seen alternately through the eyes of Lee, Grant and Maine abolitionist Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the narrative begins with the successful Union ambush at Bristoe Station in October 1863. It then details Lee's 18-month cat-and-mouse game as he outmaneuvers Grant, despite overwhelming odds and terrible deprivation, concludes with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Impressively researched, this deeply affecting work can't be faulted for...