Born to Battle: Grant and Forrest: Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga: The Campaigns That Doomed the Confederacy
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Analyzing Civil War Leadership Both Ulysses Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest left indelible legacies during the American Civil War.Both men came from humble beginnings, although Forrest earned a fortune in slaves and cotton and Grant attended the United States Military Academy at West Point.With their natural military abilities, both men rose rapidly through the ranks in the Western Theater, from Fort Donelson to Shiloh, the Vicksburg Campaign and the Siege of Chattanooga.Author Jack Hurst traces the careers of these two men through the early years of the war contextualizing their experiences through descriptions of the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chattanooga.The author does a superb job of describing these battles and campaigns, writing about the engagements in their entirety while emphasizing the roles of Grant and Forrest.Hurst emphasizes the "common' background of both of these legendary military men, and how the relative attitudes of the Union and Confederate high commands affected their careers.Hurst maintains that the Union high command and Abraham Lincoln were more accepting of Grant's "common" background and this allowed him to rise through the ranks, while the Confederacy's insistence on having "blue blooded" commanders kept Forrest from higher command and greater responsibility.This, Hurst maintains, elevated the Union to victory over the Confederacy, arguing that If the Confederates had promoted Forrest as far as the Union promoted Grant, the rebel raider might have saved his cause from ultimate defeat.Hurst's book is well-researched and documented and he has all the natural flair of a storyteller, but the main argument he sets forward is problematic.Neither Lincoln nor Davis set out consciously to wage class warfare with any of 1
Source: Civil War Book Review
Author: John R. Lundberg
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2944890871