
Hell Itself
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864 (Emerging Civil War Series)
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bob Neufeld
-
By:
-
Chris Mackowski
About this listen
From the award-winning Emerging Civil War series.
Soldiers called it one of the “waste places of nature” and “a region of gloom” - the wilderness of Virginia, 70 square miles of dense second-growth forest known as “the dark, close wood”.
“A more unpromising theater of war was never seen,” said another.
Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror.
Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the wilderness to block Grant’s advance. Immovable object intercepted irresistible force - and the wilderness burst into flame.
With the forest itself burning around them, men died by the thousands. The armies bloodied each other without mercy and, at times, without any semblance of order. The brush grew so dense, and the smoke hung so thick, men could not see who stood next to them - or in front of them. “This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal,” a Union soldier later said.
It was, said another, “hell itself”.
Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive.
For more than a decade, Chris Mackowski has guided visitors across the battlefields of the Overland Campaign. Now, in Hell Itself, he invites followers of the Emerging Civil War series to join him in the wilderness - one of the most storied battlefields of the entire Civil War.
©2016 Savs Beatie (P)2019 Savas BeatieListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2, 1863
- Emerging Civil War Series
- By: Chris Mackowski
- Narrated by: Chris Mackowski
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2 1863 recounts the final chapter of the forgotten fall of 1863 - when George Gordon Meade made one final attempt to save the Union and, in doing so, save himself.
By: Chris Mackowski
-
Mr. Lincoln's Army
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A magnificent history of the opening years of the Civil War by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bruce Catton. The first book in Bruce Catton's Pulitzer Prize-winning Army of the Potomac Trilogy, Mr. Lincoln's Army is a riveting history of the early years of the Civil War, when a fledgling Union Army took its stumbling first steps under the command of the controversial general George McClellan.
-
-
Very poor reader with great material
- By L Day on 07-28-16
By: Bruce Catton
-
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
-
-
OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Meade at Gettysburg
- A Study in Command
- By: Kent Masterson Brown
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although he took command of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the first shots were fired at Gettysburg, Union general George G. Meade guided his forces to victory in the Civil War's most pivotal battle. Commentators often dismiss Meade when discussing the great leaders of the Civil War. But in this long-anticipated book, Kent Masterson Brown draws on an expansive archive to reappraise Meade's leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg.
-
-
Fantastic Book
- By Taylor Boulet on 04-14-22
-
Grant Moves South
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's acclaimed Civil War history of the complex man and controversial Union commander whose battlefield brilliance ensured the downfall of the Confederacy. Preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton narrows his focus on commander Ulysses S. Grant, whose bold tactics and relentless dedication to the Union ultimately ensured a Northern victory in the nation's bloodiest conflict.
-
-
Riveting history with a great narration
- By Roberta Rothwell on 01-11-18
By: Bruce Catton
-
The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2, 1863
- Emerging Civil War Series
- By: Chris Mackowski
- Narrated by: Chris Mackowski
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2 1863 recounts the final chapter of the forgotten fall of 1863 - when George Gordon Meade made one final attempt to save the Union and, in doing so, save himself.
By: Chris Mackowski
-
Mr. Lincoln's Army
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A magnificent history of the opening years of the Civil War by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bruce Catton. The first book in Bruce Catton's Pulitzer Prize-winning Army of the Potomac Trilogy, Mr. Lincoln's Army is a riveting history of the early years of the Civil War, when a fledgling Union Army took its stumbling first steps under the command of the controversial general George McClellan.
-
-
Very poor reader with great material
- By L Day on 07-28-16
By: Bruce Catton
-
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
-
-
OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
-
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
Meade at Gettysburg
- A Study in Command
- By: Kent Masterson Brown
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Although he took command of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the first shots were fired at Gettysburg, Union general George G. Meade guided his forces to victory in the Civil War's most pivotal battle. Commentators often dismiss Meade when discussing the great leaders of the Civil War. But in this long-anticipated book, Kent Masterson Brown draws on an expansive archive to reappraise Meade's leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg.
-
-
Fantastic Book
- By Taylor Boulet on 04-14-22
-
Grant Moves South
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's acclaimed Civil War history of the complex man and controversial Union commander whose battlefield brilliance ensured the downfall of the Confederacy. Preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton narrows his focus on commander Ulysses S. Grant, whose bold tactics and relentless dedication to the Union ultimately ensured a Northern victory in the nation's bloodiest conflict.
-
-
Riveting history with a great narration
- By Roberta Rothwell on 01-11-18
By: Bruce Catton
-
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
- By: Ulysses S. Grant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 29 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically rescued him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man told with great courage.
-
-
Surprisingly funny and very informative.
- By Trent on 08-20-12
By: Ulysses S. Grant
-
The Heart of Hell
- The Soldiers' Struggle for Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle
- By: Jeffry D. Wert
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The struggle over the fortified Confederate position known as Spotsylvania's Mule Shoe was without parallel during the Civil War. A Union assault that began at 4:30 A.M. on May 12, 1864, sparked brutal combat that lasted nearly twenty-four hours. By the time Grant's forces withdrew, some 55,000 men from Union and Confederate armies had been drawn into the fury, battling in torrential rain along the fieldworks at distances often less than the length of a rifle barrel. One Union private recalled the fighting as a "seething, bubbling, soaring hell of hate and murder."
-
-
The soldier’s’ perspectives
- By Amanda Tyler on 03-01-23
By: Jeffry D. Wert
-
To the Gates of Richmond
- The Peninsula Campaign
- By: Stephen Sears
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the largest campaign ever attempted in the Civil War: the Peninsula campaign of 1862. General George McClellan planned to advance from Yorktown up the Virginia Peninsula and destroy the Rebel army in its own capital. But with Robert E. Lee delivering blows to the Union army, McClellan’s plan fell through at the gates of Richmond.
-
-
Magnificent chronicle of mismanagement
- By Triceracop on 10-08-13
By: Stephen Sears
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
-
Six Armies in Tennessee
- The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns
- By: Steven E. Woodworth
- Narrated by: Bill Nevitt
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Vicksburg fell to Union forces under General Grant in July 1863, the balance turned against the Confederacy in the trans-Appalachian theater. The Federal success along the river opened the way for advances into central and eastern Tennessee, which culminated in the bloody battle of Chickamauga and then a struggle for Chattanooga. Chickamauga is usually counted as a Confederate victory, albeit a costly one.
-
-
Excellent excellent accounting of the fighting in Tennessee.
- By S. H. Moore on 07-22-20
-
Rebel Yell
- The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: Cotter Smith
- Length: 24 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
General Stonewall Jackson was like no one anyone had ever seen. In April of 1862 he was merely another Confederate general with only a single battle credential in an army fighting in what seemed to be a losing cause. By middle June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western World. He had given the Confederate cause what it had recently lacked: hope.
-
-
Candidate for "My Daguerreotype Boyfriend"
- By Dorothy on 01-10-15
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
The Coming Fury
- The Centennial History of the Civil War, Volume 1
- By: Bruce Catton
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
> The New York Times hailed this trilogy as “one of the greatest historical accomplishments of our time”. With stunning detail and insights, America’s foremost Civil War historian recreates the war from its opening months to its final, bloody end. Each volume delivers a complete listening experience. The Coming Fury (Volume 1) covers the split Democratic Convention in the spring of 1860 to the first battle of Bull Run.
-
-
History As It Should Be
- By Bryan on 07-19-11
By: Bruce Catton
-
Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
- By: Kenneth W. Noe
- Narrated by: Tom Sleeker
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in Northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders' confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy.
-
-
Pitiful narration
- By Charles on 10-22-17
By: Kenneth W. Noe
-
Waterloo
- The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles
- By: Bernard Cornwell
- Narrated by: Bernard Cornwell, Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times best-selling author comes the definitive history of one of the greatest battles ever fought - a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's last stand.
-
-
Not a close run thing!
- By carl801 on 05-13-15
By: Bernard Cornwell
-
Betrayal at Little Gibraltar
- A German Fortress, a Treacherous American General, and the Battle to End World War I
- By: William Walker
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1918. German engineers have fortified Montfaucon, a rocky butte in Northern France, with bunkers, tunnels, trenches, and a top-secret observatory capable of directing artillery shells across the battlefield. Following a number of unsuccessful attacks, the French deem Montfaucon impregnable and dub it the Little Gibraltar of the Western Front. Capturing it is a key to success for AEF commander in chief John J. Pershing's 1.2 million troops.
-
-
Compelling narrative, meticulous research
- By JKW on 07-18-16
By: William Walker
-
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
- By: Allen C. Guelzo
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed Civil War historian, a brilliant new history–the most intimate and richly readable account we have had–of the climactic three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), which draws the reader into the heat, smoke, and grime of Gettysburg alongside the ordinary soldier, and depicts the combination of personalities and circumstances that produced the greatest battle of the Civil War, and one of the greatest in human history.
-
-
A Fresh Look at a Famous Battle
- By W. F. Rucker on 07-03-13
By: Allen C. Guelzo
-
Bloody Spring
- Forty Days That Sealed the Confederacy's Fate
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4th, Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They fought for 40 days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg. The campaign cost 90,000 men - the largest loss the war had seen.
-
-
Skip this! Get Catton's Stillness at Appomattox
- By BVerité on 10-19-14
By: Joseph Wheelan
What listeners say about Hell Itself
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- aaroncoal
- 04-18-19
Quick, Satisfying Read
The information in this series is compelling and rich. Mr. Neufeld, the narrator has a classic style and holds the listener from start to finish. I highly recommend checking out his other reads as well. All in all this is a Civil War series that gives details you won't read in other books, and it's done in a way that makes it an easy read in one setting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!