The best Civil War book I have read. An excellent look at the unlikely paring of Sherman and Grant - both men of limited or no success prior to the Civil War, both military men who left the military and then found their way back to become the most significant figures in the war.
They came together on the western front in Shiloh, they expanded their relationship at Vicksburg, and developed a partnership and friendship that would last throughout the war. They began in the west and both ended in the East - Grant the bulldog fighting Lee in an offensive that is one of attrition rather than movement and Grant's counterpart - Sherman moving as an offensive force against the elusive Joe Johnston.
Sweeping through the south Sherman isolated Lee and the end of the war was inevitable. But rather than just repeating the stories and the battles, this book looks at the men and their growing relationship and complexity. As Grant got criticism because he did not move fast against Lee - despite the positions of the armies - Sherman ultimately got criticism for his offer to Johnston to end the war.
The Radicals in congress were angered because he offered to much leniency and for a while the press vilified Sherman for his softness on the south despite the destruction of his march to Savannah.
It is a complex combination of personalities and a look at the history of press and politics as they relate to the military.
Ultimately Grant's understated personality becomes the winning formula as he heads to the white house having worked with Sherman to keep him from self destructing.
Sherman goes to the West where he shows his inability to sympathize with people of color, while grant agonizes over the Indians and the fact that the real need is to protect the Indians from bad whites. But still he and Sherman continue a lifetime friendship that diminishes but does not disappear after the civil war.
The book is a wonder story telling and covers the war from a very fresh, but significant angle.
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