text: "The Great Locomotive Chase" is the stuff of legend.  This somewhat obscure event, which commemorated the first anniversary of the first shots on Fort Sumter, could too easily be written off among Civil War devotees as a lark, a foolhardy distraction from the inexorable march from Shiloh to the Seven Days, to Second Manassas, to the three more years of bloodletting that were required in order to form a more perfect union.  But first-time author Russell Bonds does a masterful job of taking this adventure story on its own terms, telling it well, and placing it in its proper context.  The raid itself is a gripping story of intrigue, espionage, and derring-do.  And if Mr. Bonds had only told the tale itself, this book would be well worth the read.  But what sets this distinguished this book apart from so much Civil War writing is Mr. Bonds's ability to tell this gripping tale objectively, while putting it in its proper context.  The author sets the table with a relatively brief yet thorough overview of the strategic arrangement of the war nine months after First Manassas.  And by doing so, and by explaining why the Raid, coupled with the deep penetration of General Ormsby Mitchell into Tennessee and North Alabama, offered the fleeting chance to cut the Confederacy in two and thereby hasten the end of the war, Mr. Bonds gives the otherwise reckless �lan of the raiders its proper place.  Andrews and his raiders were not off on a lark, even though students of the era will have the natural reaction, "what were they thinking?"  Mr. Bonds answers that question, and the answer, as incongruous as it may seem, reminds the reader that there was so much more to the Great War than the epic battles of the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia.  
  
  If the author had done nothing more than told the story of the Great Raid, reconciling contemporary accounts that were so often embellished, this would be a wonderful adventure story, in the great tradition of Shelby Foote's narrative history of the War.  But this book does so much more.  It puts the Raid in its proper strategic context, and it tells the story of the gallant raiders after the raid itself failed.  This book will satisfy both the devoted Civil War critic and the general reader who loves a historical tale well-told.
  