Civil War, Military history, Essays, Vicksburg 

War is in many ways the ultimate gamble. In the first place it requires a great deal of money, national treasure, to equip and arm men for war. But beyond that it involves lives, not just money...Some of the gambles in the accounts that follow were successful, some partly successful, and some simply failed. Some involved entire armies and others small forces. Some took place on land and some on the water. Some were taken by units on the defense, and some by attacking formations. The one thing common to them all is that they originated in the brain of a single individual -- a commander -- who chose an option that went against conventional wisdom, which almost always advises caution..." The conflict was littered with cavalier actions by individual commanders and units which held little guarantee of success. Yet sometimes the gamble paid off, improbable victory the result. In this masterly account of thirteen dramatic military gambles, Philip Katcher shows how on each occasion the odds for success or failure were finely calculated and the desperate chance then taken. He charts the full progress of the ensuing action to its actual outcome, and the effect it had, bringing an intriguing new excitement to familiar battlefields