A SCYTHE OF FIRE
A Civil War Story of The Eighth Georgia Regiment
by
Warren Wilkinson and 
Steven E. Woodworth

William Morrow (An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)
340 Pages including Appendix, Notes and Index

Reviewed by Danny Witt

The title of the book tells you exactly what  the  book  is,
the story of the fighting 8th.                              

From  the  very beginning of the war to the bitter end, this
is the story of a group of  kids,  many  having  never  left
their home county, being thrust into battle with a gun and a
promise of glory.  Francis Bartow led them into  the  battle
of  Bull  Run  and  caused  them many casualties, but didn't
survive the battle himself.  Recovering  their  wounds  they
pass their first winter in Virginia.                        

While  the  8th  is  not  heavily  engaged in the Seven Days
battle around Richmond, it returns to fighting on the second
day  of  Second  Bull Run.  The spring of 1863 finds the 8th
with Longstreet at the siege of Suffolk, and while the  trip
to  southeastern  Virginia  is not demanding they are called
back to the Army of Northern Virginia, but miss  the  battle
of   Chancellorsville.    They  are  soon  on  the  road  to
Gettysburg.                                                 

Gettysburg is to the 8th what it is  to  many  regiments  in
this  long  and  cruel  war,  their  last big hurrah.  While
charging with Hood on the second day  the  8th  is  bled  to
almost  nothing  while trying to capture a soon to be famous
wheat field.  After recovery they are soon traveling  again.
They  miss  the  battle  of  Chickamauga,  because  they are
diverted to temporary duty in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,
but arrive in Tennessee in time to travel with Longstreet to
again be bloodied during the ill-fated Knoxville campaign.  

Spring of 1864 finds them fighting Grant in the  Wilderness,
Richmond  and  Petersburg  campaigns.   Few survivors arrive
with Bobby Lee at Appomattox, but the 8th is there.         

While I feel that this is not a definitive  history  of  the
8th  Georgia, it serves the purpose that I think the authors
intended and serves it very well, a story that needed to  be
told.  I have only two small criticisms of the book.  As the
book  progressed,  the  amount  written  about  each  battle
decreased proportionality to the size of the regiment, so by
the time Appomattox comes  around,  the  text  is  only  two
paragraphs.   And last of all, my pet peeve, no maps to show
where the 8th was on the battlefield.  I enjoyed reading the
book very much and felt it read much like Covered With Glory
by Rod Gragg, both very readable books  that  stuck  to  the
subject  and  didn't  feel  like they had to tell everything
that happened during the civil war to tell their story. This
is a good addition to any civil war library.                


Availability: March 2002
Currently available for $22.36 through Barnes & Noble


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