Articles of War

The American Civil War is filled with fascinating characters. This collection of biographical essays on the “winners and losers” of the Civil War covers some of the most intriguing: Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, Sam Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and William Clarke Quantrill, to name just a few.
In Articles of War you’ll discover:
Some Winners

• Ulysses S. Grant, whose brilliant Vicksburg Campaign was a model of military strategy
• John A. “Black Jack” Logan, one of the war’s few successful political generals
• Nathan Bedford Forrest, a natural military genius despite his “Lost Cause”

Some Losers

• George B. McClellan, whose lack of eagerness cost the Union two opportunities to win the war
• Earl Van Dorn, a victim of sheer bad luck
• Theophilus H. Holmes, the little-known incompetent, called “granny Holmes” by his own men

Some Winners Who Became Losers

• Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy’s “General Who Might Have Been”
• Leonidas Polk, whose initial good luck eventually ran out
• William Clarke Quantrill, a winner in death but a loser in life

And Some Losers Who Became Winners

• Sam Houston, who, had he lived longer, could have been a winner in Texas
• William Tecumseh Sherman, an exceptional man; a capable, but flawed, commander