The Fires of Pride: A Novel of the Civil War.(Book Review)(Brief Review)

WILLIAM R. TROTTER. Carroll & Graf, $26 (576p) ISBN 0-7867-1223-6

* Trotter concludes his epic tale of Civil War North Carolina with a sequel as splendid as its predecessor, The Sands of Pride (2002). The large cast of characters ranges from fearless Union naval officer William Cushing, who brings home the body of his brother killed at Gettysburg at the book's start, to the inept Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, for whose fumbling defense of Wilmington, N.C., at war's end Trotter provides a plausible explanation. The author does an excellent job of keeping tip interest between battles: sexually liberated Largo Landau, the daughter of a prominent Wilmington merchant, …