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Grant's Lieutenants

From Cairo to Vicksburg

Edited by Steven E. Woodworth

October 2001
264 pages, 6 x 9
Modern War Studies
Cloth ISBN 978-0-7006-1127-0, $29.95 (t)

Book Cover ImageUlysses S. Grant did more than any other single Union general to secure the North's victory in the Civil War, but he did not achieve that victory alone. Grant's ability to inspire and cultivate the talents of the officers serving under him was a key factor in his remarkable military success. Steven Woodworth and his fellow authors provide ample evidence for that in this first of a two-volume reassessment of Grant's officer corps from Cairo to Appomattox.

Covering the war's western theater through July 1863, Woodworth et al. highlight the character and accomplishments of these men and show how their individual relationships with Grant helped pave the way to Union victory. They demonstrate how each officer's service contributed to Grant's success and development as a general, how interaction with Grant affected each officer's career, and how the relationship ultimately contributed to the course of battle and the war's final outcome.

These portraits include the most important of Grant's lieutenants as well as some who are representative of various officer types. Here are William T. Sherman and Grant's other trusted commanders from the Army of the Tennessee, revered mentor Charles F. Smith, and difficult subordinate William S. Rosecrans. Here too are such citizen soldiers as Lew "Ben Hur" Wallace and Peter Osterhaus, de facto intelligence chief Grenville Dodge, and naval officers Andrew Foote and David Dixon Porter, whose relationships with Grant proved crucial to the war effort.

Full of revealing insights regarding military leadership and the special problems of Civil War command, Grant's Lieutenants adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Union road to victory and gives us the true measure of these dedicated men.

"In the long run, the relationships commanders forge with subordinates are no less important than the decisions they make on a battlefield. Informed, insightful and sometimes surprising, these eleven essays extend and revise our perspective on Grant during the first three years of the Civil War. Highly recommended."--Mark Grimsley, author of The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865

STEVEN E. WOODWORTH is associate professor of history at Texas Christian University. He is the author of While God Is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers, Civil War Generals in Defeat, and a two-time winner of the prestigious Fletcher Pratt Award, for his books Davis and Lee at War and Jefferson Davis and His Generals.

Contributors: Stacy D. Allen, Benjamin Franklin Cooling, Blake Dunnavent, William B. Feis, Lesley J. Gordon, Earl J. Hess, John F. Marszalek, Tamara A. Smith, Terrence J. Winschel, Steven E. Woodworth