Grant's Lieutenants

A companion to Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg, this new volume assesses Union generalship during the final two years of the Civil War. Steven Woodworth, one of the wars premier historians, is joined by a team of distinguished scholarsMark Grimsley, John Marszalek, and Earl Hess, among otherswho critique Ulysses S. Grants commanders in terms of both their working relationship with their general-in-chief and their actual performances.The book covers well-known Union field generals like William T. Sherman, George Thomas, George Meade, and Philip Sheridan, as well as the less-prominent Franz Sigel, Horatio Wright, Edward Ord, and Benjamin Butler. In addition, it includes an iconoclastic look at Grants former superior and wartime chief of staff Henry W. Halleck, focusing on his wise counsel concerning Washington politics, the qualities of various subordinates, and the strategic environment. Each of these probing essays emphasizes the character and accomplishments of a particular general and shows how his relationship with Grant either helped or hindered the Union cause.The contributors highlight the ways Grants lieutenants contributed to or challenged their commanders own success and development as a general. In addition to revisiting Grants key collaboration with Sherman, the essays illuminate the hostile relationship between Grant and Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland; Grants almost daily contact with Old Snapping Turtle Meade, whose expertise relieved Grant of the close tactical direction of the Army of the Potomac; and the development of a highly successful command partnership between Grant and Sheridan, his new commander of the Army of the Shenandoah. Readers will also learn how Grant handled the relative incompetence of his less sterling leadersperhaps failing to give Butler adequate direction and overlooking Ords suspect political views in light of their long relationship.Like its companion volume, Grants Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox is an essential touchstone for Civil War scholars and aficionados. It offers new and profound insights into the command relationships that fundamentally shaped both the conduct of the war and its final outcome.