Through three novels, Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen have told the story of a Civil War that might have been. It started with Gettysburg
In Never Call Retreat
Everything that made the first two volumes of this trilogy so good are here in the final volume as well. The historical research is impeccable, and the writing once again makes you feel like you’re reading accounts of an actual battle, rather than a story about one that never took place.
The ending, which I won’t reveal, may strike some as implausible, but I don’t think it is. Even in 1863, the enmities that the Civil War created had not grown deep. All of the main players — Lincoln, Grant, and Lee — said more than once in their own words how much they hated war in particular, and the death and destruction of that war specifically. Given the chance to end it earlier, on terms that might not have caused such divisiveness in the post-war era, I think they all would have jumped at it.
In the end, Gingrich & Forstchen have created a work of historical fiction that deserves to be read, and re-read, for a long time to come.
