Windmill Point (Stempel)

Book Reviews
Stempel takes us inside the minds of field commanders, such as George Armstrong Custer, as well as snipers, artillery officers, cavalry riders, and simple grunts. We come to know many of these soldiers very well as they endure the heat, homesickness, and exhaustion of war. Stempel paints the shifting settings with the sounds and smells of what is happening on the frontline, in the camps, and in the tents of the commanding officers. We hear the clang of canteens and smell the cooking fires, at least when there are rations to cook. We see the impact of devastating artillery barrages, cringe at deadly blunders, and experience the resulting carnage on the fields. .I can easily say Windmill Point is now my favorite novel dealing with the War Between the States.
Dr. Wesley Britton – Book Pleasures


Stempel’s approach may be similar to Shaara’s, but he is a much better wordsmith than Shaara. His prose has the evocative power of Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote. His battle descriptions are brutal, gritty, and compelling. You almost feel compelled to duck as you read. You can hear the boom of cannons, smell the gun smoke, and feel the ground vibrating from the feet of thousands of soldiers..Brutal, yet sentimental, grandly sweeping, yet highly intimate, this is a splendid book for those who truly wish to understand the great and terrible spectacle that was the American Civil War.
John Danielski - Author, Active’s Measure


Jim Stempel’s Windmill Point captures the dreadful fury and desperate humanity of the American Civil War with a power and immediacy few authors have been able to achieve. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in a vivid portrayal of that violent crucible from which our modern society ultimately emerged.
Mark Robert Waldman - Executive MBA Faculty, Loyola Marymount and Author of Words Can Change Your Brain


Jim Stempel, quite masterly, allows you to gaze out from the eyes of the great generals and what is going through their minds as well as ordinary soldiers. Jim paints such vivid evocative pictures, that I felt that I was advancing to the enemy lines with the threat of artillery and gunpowder flaying my nostrils, my ears twitching as men were felled beside men, the screams of the dying and the thump as the regiments marched and charged over hallowed ground.. I want to thank Jim for educating me about a battle I did not know about and for nourishing the love that I have for the people of America and its history.
English Author, David Cook, The Soldier’s Chronicles