Civil War High Commands

“Here is the reference work that Civil War historians have been waiting for. All arguments and confusion about full vs. brevet rank, seniority, jurisdiction, and dozens of other matters concerning military commanders and civilian officials in the Union and Confederacy are cleared up in this volume, which would have been as useful to Civil War contemporaries, if it had existed then, as it will be to modern students of the war.”—James M. McPherson, Professor of History, Princeton University, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
“It is difficult to imagine the staggering amount of research that must have gone into the creation of this highly valuable reference work. All students of the military side of the Civil War, and especially those interested in the organizational structures and leading figures of the Union and Confederate high commands, should keep this volume near at hand.”—Gary W. Gallagher, Nau Professor of History, University of Virginia

Based on nearly five decades of research, this magisterial work is a biographical register and analysis of the 3,396 people who most directly influenced the course of the Civil War, its high commanders: presidents and cabinet members, state governors, general officers of the Union and Confederate armies, and admirals and commodores of the two navies.

Library Journal

Though the literature documenting Civil War military leaders is extensive, a one-volume reference that provides comprehensive biographical and background information on the thousands of leaders and complex military structure of the Union and the Confederacy would be a welcome addition to many libraries. Here, John H. Eicher (chemistry, emeritus, Miami Univ. of Ohio) and David J. Eicher (managing editor, Astronomy magazine; Mystic Chords of Memory) have combined brief biographical entries on over 3000 Union and Confederate military commanders with extensive background information. Even libraries that own Ezra J. Warner's Generals in Blue (1964) and Generals in Grey (1959) or William C. Davis's more recent The Confederate General (National Historical Society, 1991) will find this a useful reference source. Recommended for larger public, academic, and specialized Civil War collections. Theresa McDevitt, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

John H. Eicher is Professor of Chemistry Emeritus at Miami University of Ohio and a lifelong student of the Civil War. David J. Eicher is Managing Editor of Astronomy magazine and a well-known non-academic Civil War historian. He is the author of several books on the war, most recently Mystic Chords of Memory: Civil War Battlefields and Historic Sites Recaptured and The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography.