Download The Barefoot Brigade epub

Jones is a great writer and I enjoyed The Barefoot Brigade. I read all of his books out of chronological order but they all still tied together well. Not your run of the mill Civil War story yet very convincing as historically accurate.

This probably isn't for the first time Civil War reader, but has some nice insights. Can get a little tedious at times, but most writers have their tendencies.

Great book about the civil war with an entirely different viewpoint than other fiction I've read. Have started to read all his novels.

Well written and easy reading. Certainly illuminates another point of view concerning troops in the Civil War. Felt very realistic for historical fiction. Interesting approach, well executed.

Excellent follow up to Elkhorn Tavern.

Jones is an excellent writer. It was interesting to read about soldering by the common man. Or in this case boys.

I highly recommend to any history or civil war reader, I truly enjoyed the journey taken by these two brothers.

No, this is not a great literary work. But, it is a good book. It's a work of fiction about fellows with the 3rd Arkansas and Hood's Texas Brigade. It's a good read and I have gone through it a number of times. Unlike one reviewer, I have no problem following events and the characters. The book follows one mess (a group of soldiers assigned to work and eat together in camp which forms an unshakable bond that carries over on to the march and battlefield) of the 3rd Arkansas which was to eventually be assigned to Hood's Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia and together were the only westerners remaining in Lee's army after a reorganization that moved other western troops such as Mississippians and Tennesseans to the Trans-Mississippi area of operation.
Even though concerned with one mess there is one character in particular who is perhaps the "main character." He is probably the one seen as "impossible to empathize with" because basically, he is an overly naive and immature Ozark hillbilly whose older brother goes along to watch over. We join this mess as an invisible participant and follow it and Lee's army through it's days of seeming invincibility through days of inevitable defeat and finally to the bitter end. As time progresses, as does the army, so to does our mess begin to crumble. Since the story is as much about the mess as a whole besides the "main character," the book does take us in different directions sometimes necessarily overlapping events. The intent, I believe is to present as completely as possible an image of a Confederate soldier of Lee's army and the many fates that might befall him in his service. I'd say the book does it well. I like this book well enough to have read it not once or twice but many times.
It's an especially readable book for those, as another reviewer noted, who tire from the view from the mighty ranks of Blue. But since the ending is the same, it is not a happy one. the book brings you to an end with heavy heart. And that's as it should be. It also pictures the Confederate soldier in a light to often ignored. Simple farmers most of them, neither dedicated nor even caring about slavery but drawn together for various personal reasons but mostly to defend against what they saw as an invasion of foreigners. Once assembled they became an army dedicated to their commanders, and each other. Greater issues such as "The Cause" were immaterial. That is not what they fought and suffered horrors we can't even begin to imagine (thank God!) for. But for duty. And they gave it to their "last full measure of devotion." It is these men who we read about. It does a pretty good (and heart rending) job of telling their story.
The author referenced the history of the 3rd Arkansas, "They'll Do to Tie To" and it is a fairly reasonably accurate portrayal of that unit and it's actions allowing for some literary license. It's a work of fiction, not a unit history.