The Last Full Measure was published by Ballantine Books in 1998, completing the Civil War trilogy that began with Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels and continued with Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals. The novel covers the final two years of the war — from the aftermath of Gettysburg through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and finally Appomattox.
The primary perspectives shift to reflect the war’s changed character: Ulysses S. Grant arrives from the Western Theater to take command of all Union forces, and the war becomes a grinding contest of attrition that both he and Lee understand with terrible clarity. Grant knows he has the numbers and the resources; Lee knows he does not. The genius of Shaara’s treatment is showing how this mathematical certainty did not reduce the human cost — if anything, it amplified it, because both men understood that every battle was a transaction in lives, and Grant was willing to spend them.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s perspective provides the human scale: the decorated hero of Little Round Top becomes a division commander, is grievously wounded at Petersburg (so badly that Grant promotes him to brigadier general on what everyone assumes will be his deathbed), survives, and is present at Appomattox to receive the Confederate surrender.
The title, drawn from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, captures the novel’s central theme: the full measure of devotion that the war demanded, and the question of whether anything could justify its cost.
Collecting The Last Full Measure
First edition (Ballantine Books, New York, 1998): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$25
- Signed first edition: $30–$75
- Complete Civil War trilogy set (first editions): $50–$150