Grant under fire

About this book

"He has a sterling reputation as an officer and a gentleman, despite suffering the biggest surprise of the war, initiating the worst official act of anti-Semitism on U.S. soil, and coming closest of all Union commanders to losing Washington. Defenders rank his generalship above Robert E. Lee's, but in doing so, they ignore his simplistic, pugnacious strategies that led to a war of attrition and his amateurish tactics of impetuous frontal assaults, all along the line against fortified positions. He relied on favoritism to decide military matters, trashing personal enemies, unreasonably elevating friends, and arranging battle plans to fit his prejudices. Rigorously based on primary sources, [the book] resolves such controversies as Grant's drunken partying with the enemy on flag-of-truce boats, blaming Lew Wallace for a slow march to Shiloh, pretending he had a plan to pass Vicksburg all along, taking credit for the charge up Missionary Ridge, and leaving wounded men to suffer and die between the lines at Cold Harbor ..."--Jacket.