The Iron Dice of Battle

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Killed in action at the famous Battle of Shiloh, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston stands as the highest-ranking Civil War soldier to perish in battle. He is also the highest-ranking American military officer ever to die in combat. His unexpected death had cascading negative ramifications on the Confederate war effort, especially in the Western Theater, where his absence created a void in adequate leadership. Johnston's experiences before the war are a window into the factors that compelled men like him to volunteer to fight to preserve slavery. Surprisingly, there have been only two major biographies of Johnston, one by his son in the 1870s and another by historian Charles P. Roland in the 1960s. In "The Iron Dice of Battle, " prolific Civil War historian Timothy Smith reexamines Johnston's life and death, reaching new conclusions about both. According to Smith, as a commander, Johnston constantly faced larger and better-armed Union forces, which dramatically shaped his command decisions, turning him into a strategic gambler. Over and over, he noted that his strategy was essentially a roll of the dice. Johnston's personality was anything but that of a gambler, making choices that required quick and bold bluffs or audacious enemy engagement at odds with his inclinations. Nevertheless, he gambled with his life and troops throughout his command. The final wager came with his army at Shiloh in April 1862. He had alerted his troops that "we must this day conquer or perish, " and he perished instead of conquered. His death came amid a desperate gamble to mold the fighting the way he needed it to go, in doing so, he charged ahead to lead from the front and fell mortally wounded. The first volume to examine Johnston's life and career in detail in nearly sixty years, "The Iron Dice of Battle" builds on modern scholarship to provide a new and incisive analysis of not only Johnston's life but, more importantly, his Confederate command and the effect his death had on the remainder of the Civil War in the West"--