Leaders Of The American Civil War

Covering both the great military leaders and the critical civilian leaders, this book provides an overview of their careers and a professional assessment of their accomplishments. Entries consider the leaders' character and prewar experiences, their contributions to the war effort, and the war's impact on the rest of their lives. The entries then look at how history has assessed these leaders, thus putting their longtime reputations on the line. The result is a thorough revision of some leaders' careers, a call for further study of others, and a reaffirmation of the accomplishments of the greatest leaders.

Analyzing the leaders historiographically, the work shows how the leaders wanted to be remembered, how postwar memorists and biographers saw them, the verdict of early historians, and how the best modern historians have assessed their contributions. By including a variety of leaders from both civilian and military roles, the book provides a better understanding of the total war, and by relating their lives to their times, it provides a better understanding of historical revisionism and of why history has been so interested in Civil War lives.

Covering both the great military leaders and the critical civilian leaders, this book provides an overview and a professional assessment of their accomplishments.

Library Journal

Civil War buffs will welcome this biographical dictionary, edited by Ritter (Coll. of Notre Dame) and Wakelyn (Kent State Univ.), which includes 47 articles on outstanding military and civilian Union and Confederate leaders as well as entries for other significant figures, including Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and even Walt Whitman (a volunteer nurse in Washington). Missing, however, is Admiral David Farragut, the Union's most successful naval officer. Each article discusses prewar and wartime careers as well as postwar activities. A valuable feature is an extended commentary and analysis of some of the outstanding items of the vast historiography about the Civil War. For Civil War collections in academic and larger public libraries.--Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., New York

CHARLES F. RITTER is Professor and Chairperson of History at the College of Notre Dame in Maryland.

JON L. WAKELYN is Professor of History at Kent State University.