A Fire in the Wilderness

“An expert account of a particularly horrific Civil War battle.” * Kirkus Reviews *
“Reeves delivers an exhaustive and intermittently riveting account of the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness.” * Publishers Weekly *
“Reeves shows that battles can reveal heroism not through victories but at a basic level of survival. He has produced an evocative account of the human costs of the Civil War.” * Library Journal *
“It is a riveting read that brings a human element to a battle where humanity was lost amid the undergrowth and fires of the Wilderness.” * Emerging Civil War *
“Through the years, my various readings of the Civil War never showed the horror that John Reeves lays bare in his new volume…” * The Virginia Gazette *


“Reeves focuses on the personal experiences of the participants, both high and low, their thoughts, hardships, heroics, and personal experiences. It is unlike any book I have seen on the battle.”- * American Civil War Round Table *
“With the absorbing narrative style that distinguished The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee, John Reeves hauntingly evokes the human drama of one of the Civil War’s most horrific battles… Relating the story of this first clash between Lee and Grant from the perspective of both generals and foot soldiers, this is popular military history at its best.” – Brian Matthew Jordan, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War
“John Reeves offers us an intimate portrait of the great Battle of the Wilderness that focuses on PEOPLE—their thoughts, hardships, heroics, and personal experiences—that is unlike any book previously published on the battle. His narrative is lively, scrupulously-researched, and filled with a pathos that is rare among writers of Civil War military history.” – Christian B. Keller, PhD, author of The Great Partnership: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Fate of the Confederacy
“John Reeves illuminates The Battle of the Wilderness from fresh perspectives. His story personalizes the controversial and much-resented substitution policy in an especially compelling way.” – Stephen Cushman, Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and author of Bloody Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle
“An exciting, well-written account of the first clash between Grant and Lee.” – HistoryNet

John Reeves is the author of A Fire in the Wilderness and The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee. He has taught European and American history at Lehman College, Bronx Community College, and Southbank University in London. John received an MA in European History from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He lives near Washington, DC.

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