Download or read book Commander of All Lincoln s Armies written by John F. Marszalek and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the summer of 1862, President Lincoln called General Henry W. Halleck to Washington, D.C., to take command of all Union armies in the death struggle against the Confederacy. For the next two turbulent years, Halleck was Lincoln's chief war advisor, the man the President deferred to in all military matters. Yet, despite the fact that he was commanding general far longer than his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, he is remembered only as a failed man, ignored by posterity. In the first comprehensive biography of Halleck, the prize-winning historian John F. Marszalek recreates the life of a man of enormous achievement who bungled his most important mission. When Lincoln summoned him to the nation's capital, Halleck boasted outstanding qualifications as a military theorist, a legal scholar, a brave soldier, and a California entrepreneur. Yet in the thick of battle, he couldn't make essential decisions. Unable to produce victory for the Union forces, he saw his power become subsumed by Grant's emergent leadership, a loss that paved the way for Halleck's path to obscurity. Harnessing previously unused research, as well as the insights of modern medicine and psychology, Marszalek unearths the seeds of Halleck's fatal wartime indecisiveness in personality traits and health problems. In this brilliant dissection of a rich and disappointed life, we gain new understanding of how the key decisions of the Civil War were taken, as well as insight into the making of effective military leadership.
Download or read book Tried by War written by James M. McPherson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-10-07 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "James M. McPherson’s Tried by War is a perfect primer . . . for anyone who wishes to understand the evolution of the president’s role as commander in chief. Few historians write as well as McPherson, and none evoke the sound of battle with greater clarity." —The New York Times Book Review The Pulitzer Prize–winning author reveals how Lincoln won the Civil War and invented the role of commander in chief as we know it As we celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, this study by preeminent, bestselling Civil War historian James M. McPherson provides a rare, fresh take on one of the most enigmatic figures in American history. Tried by War offers a revelatory (and timely) portrait of leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever endured. Suspenseful and inspiring, this is the story of how Lincoln, with almost no previous military experience before entering the White House, assumed the powers associated with the role of commander in chief, and through his strategic insight and will to fight changed the course of the war and saved the Union.
Download or read book Lincoln and His Generals written by T. Harry Williams and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-07-27 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since it was first published in 1952, Lincoln and His Generals has remained one of the definitive accounts of Lincoln’s wartime leadership. In it T. Harry Williams dramatizes Lincoln’s long and frustrating search for an effective leader of the Union Army and traces his transformation from a politician with little military knowledge into a master strategist of the Civil War. Explored in depth are Lincoln’s often fraught relationships with generals such as McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Fremont, and of course, Ulysses S. Grant. In this superbly written narrative, Williams demonstrates how Lincoln’s persistent “meddling” into military affairs was crucial to the Northern war effort and utterly transformed the president’s role as commander-in-chief.
Download or read book Abraham Lincoln And Jefferson Davis A Comparison Of Civil War Commanders In Chief written by L-Cmdr Michael S. Trench and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of the effectiveness of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as Commanders in Chief during the Civil War. It begins by comparing their backgrounds prior to assuming the Presidency; then comparing their military strategies and command structures. The final area of comparison is their involvement in the first military draft in American history. Davis had extensive government and military experience, but exhibited personality traits early on that later hampered his performance as a war-time Commander in Chief. Lincoln had very little experience, but excelled at dealing with people. Lincoln tried several staff arrangements before finally appointing Grant as General in Chief. Davis changed his structure very little throughout the war. Although he appointed Lee as General in Chief in the first year, he lost his services by placing him in command of a field army. Both faced strong challenges from a powerful governor over the draft. Davis first tried to win over the governor, then appealed directly to the people. Lincoln publicly kept distant from the draft and worked behind the scenes.
Download or read book Lincoln s Lieutenants written by Stephen W. Sears and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 901 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A multilayered group biography of the Civil War commanders who led the Army of the Potomac: “a staggering work . . . by a masterly historian” (Kirkus, starred review). The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War. President Lincoln oversaw, argued with, and finally tamed his unruly team of lieutenants as the eastern army was stabilized by an unsung supporting cast of corps, division, and brigade generals. With characteristic style and insight, Stephen Sears brings these courageous, determined officers, who rose through the ranks and led from the front, to life and legend. “A masterful synthesis . . . A narrative about amazing courage and astonishing gutlessness . . . It explains why Union movements worked and, more often, didn’t work in clear-eyed explanatory prose that’s vivid and direct.” —Chicago Tribune
Download or read book Lincoln and His Generals written by Thomas Harry Williams and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1952 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluates Lincoln's ability as a director of war and his influence on the development of a modern command system.
Download or read book Mr Lincoln s Army written by Bruce Catton and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid account of the early battles, first in the Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy: “One of America’s foremost Civil War authorities” (Kirkus Reviews). The first book in Bruce Catton’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Army of the Potomac Trilogy, Mr. Lincoln’s Army is a riveting history of the early years of the Civil War, when a fledgling Union Army took its stumbling first steps under the command of the controversial general George McClellan. Following the secession of the Southern states, a beleaguered President Abraham Lincoln entrusted the dashing, charismatic McClellan with the creation of the Union’s Army of the Potomac and the responsibility of leading it to a swift and decisive victory against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Although a brilliant tactician who was beloved by his troops and embraced by the hero-hungry North, McClellan’s ego and ambition ultimately put him at loggerheads with his commander in chief—a man McClellan considered unworthy of the presidency. McClellan’s weaknesses were exposed during the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history, which ended in a stalemate even though the Confederate troops were greatly outnumbered. After Antietam, Lincoln ordered McClellan’s removal from command, and the Union entered the war’s next chapter having suffered thousands of casualties and with great uncertainty ahead. America’s premier chronicler of the nation’s brutal internecine conflict, Bruce Catton is renowned for his unparalleled ability to bring a detailed and vivid immediacy to Civil War battlefields and military strategy sessions. With tremendous depth and insight, he presents legendary commanders and common soldiers in all their complex and heartbreaking humanity.
Download or read book Lincoln s Men written by William C. Davis and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LINCOLN'S MEN offers a fascinating account of the emotional bonds forged between the average Union soldier and 'Father Abraham' Lincoln. William C. Davis bases his study on the correspondence and diaries of Union soldiers to argue that Lincoln was revered by his troops as a kind-hearted father figure. Although few ever met, or even saw Lincoln, he left an enduring impression on them as his mesmerising eloquence, combined with his melancholy face, convinced them he was just like them. In return for this loyalty, Lincoln looked after them, provided for their families with the nations' first veterans' benefits system, and offered the exemplary leadership that molded and sustained their resolve to bring the Union to victory. Davis tracks the war chronologically, highlighting events that inspired ordinary soldiers to comment upon their commander and chief, including his spats with General McClellan, calls for more recruits and his decision to free the slaves. William C. Davis offers a captivating study of the powerful and symbolic relationship between Lincoln and his men as he sustained them though the most brutal war in American history.
Download or read book Lincoln and the Military written by John F. Marszalek and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2014-11-03 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in 1860, he came into office with practically no experience in military strategy and tactics. Consequently, at the start of the Civil War, he depended on leading military men to teach him how to manage warfare. As the war continued and Lincoln matured as a military leader, however, he no longer relied on the advice of others and became the major military mind of the war. In this brief overview of Lincoln’s military actions and relationships during the war, John F. Marszalek traces the sixteenth president’s evolution from a nonmilitary politician into the commander in chief who won the Civil War, demonstrating why Lincoln remains America’s greatest military president. As tensions erupted into conflict in 1861, Lincoln turned to his generals, including Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, and Henry W. Halleck, for guidance in running the war. These men were products of the traditional philosophy of war, which taught that armies alone wage war and the way to win was to maneuver masses of forces against fractions of the enemy at the key point in the strategic area. As Marszalek shows, Lincoln listened at first, and made mistakes along the way, but he increasingly came to realize that these military men should no longer direct him. He developed a different philosophy of war, one that advocated attacks on all parts of the enemy line and war between not just armies but also societies. Warfare had changed, and now the generals had to learn from their commander in chief. It was only when Ulysses S. Grant became commanding general, Marszalek explains, that Lincoln had a leader who agreed with his approach to war. Implementation of this new philosophy, he shows, won the war for the Union forces. Tying the necessity of emancipation to preservation of the Union, Marszalek considers the many presidential matters Lincoln had to face in order to manage the war effectively and demonstrates how Lincoln’s determination, humility, sense of humor, analytical ability, and knack for quickly learning important information proved instrumental in his military success. Based primarily on Lincoln’s own words, this succinct volume offers an easily-accessible window into a critical period in the life of Abraham Lincoln and the history of the nation.
Download or read book Commander in Chief written by Geoffrey Perret and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning presidential biographer and military historian explains that in choosing to fight un-winnable wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq, Presidents Truman, Johnson, and George W. Bush collectively sought to establish a presidency so powerful that they have created a permanent threat to the Constitution.
Download or read book With Malice Toward None written by Stephen B. Oates and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1994-01-05 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive life of Abraham Lincoln, With Malice Toward None is historian Stephen B. Oates's acclaimed and enthralling portrait of America's greatest leader. Oates masterfully charts, with the pacing of a novel, Lincoln's rise from bitter poverty in America's midwestern frontier to become a self-made success in business, law, and regional politics. The second half of the book examines his legendary leadership on the national stage as president during one of the country's most tumultuous and bloody periods, the Civil War years, which concluded tragically with Lincoln's assassination. In this award-winning biography, Lincoln steps forward out of the shadow of myth as a recognizable, fully drawn American whose remarkable life continues to inspire and inform us today.
Download or read book Lincoln s War written by Geoffrey Perret and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full-length account of Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief shows how Lincoln created this role, and, in doing so, saved the Union, transformed the presidency, shaped a nation, and found himself.
Download or read book Lincoln Commander in chief of the Army and Navy and of All the Armed Forces of the United States written by I. W. Heysinger and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Lincoln Takes Command written by Steve Norder and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed history of one week during the Civil War in which the American president assumed control of the nation’s military. One rainy evening in May, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln boarded the revenue cutter Miami and sailed to Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There, for the first and only time in our country’s history, a sitting president assumed direct control of armed forces to launch a military campaign. In Lincoln Takes Command, author Steve Norderdetails this exciting, little-known week in Civil War history. Lincoln recognized the strategic possibilities offered by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s ongoing Peninsula Campaign and the importance of seizing Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the Gosport Navy Yard. For five days, the president spent time on sea and land, studied maps, spoke with military leaders, suggested actions, and issued direct orders to subordinate commanders. He helped set in motion many events, including the naval bombardment of a Confederate fort, the sailing of Union ships up the James River toward the enemy capital, an amphibious landing of Union soldiers followed by an overland march that expedited the capture of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the navy yard, and the destruction of the Rebel ironclad CSS Virginia. The president returned to Washington in triumph, with some urging him to assume direct command of the nation’s field armies. The week discussed in Lincoln Takes Command has never been as heavily researched or told in such fine detail. The successes that crowned Lincoln’s short time in Hampton Roads offered him a better understanding of, and more confidence in, his ability to see what needed to be accomplished. This insight helped sustain him through the rest of the war.
Download or read book Abraham Lincoln written by William H. Lambert and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, of the United States; Annual Oration Delivered Before the Society of the Army of the Potomac, at Pittsburg October 11 1899 And surely he deserves well of The Union League, as in his early life he exemplified in his own person the principles on which this League is founded, love of country and aid in preserving the Union of the United States. Surely the man who offered himself for the cause, the man who enlisted as a private in 1862, served through the war with distinction and was mustered out as a Major in July, 1865, receiving a medal of honor for bravery on the field, should be and is an ideal member of this Union League, deservedly held in high esteem by his fellow members and is a bright example to the pres ent and future members of this institution. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book Abraham Lincoln Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania Memorial Meeting Fe written by U. S. Military Order Of The Loya Legion and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-02-03 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States; Commandery of the State of Pennsylvania; Memorial Meeting, February 12, 1908 I did not see President Lincoln again until after the Atlanta campaign. While I was convalescing from wounds received at Atlanta, General Grant invited me to visit him at City Point. It was at a time when everything around Petersburg looked blue. The desertions from our army were about equal to the enlistments, and there was a general demand that Grant should move. I spent two weeks looking at the Army of the Potomac, the finest and best equipped army I ever saw. I visited all the commands of the Armies of the James and Potomac as they surrounded Petersburg and held the north side of the James River, and became acquainted with most of its army and corps commanders. Evenings we would sit around the camp fire at City Point, and General Grant in that comprehensive and conversational way he had of describing any event, when he felt at liberty to talk freely, which is shown so plainly in his Memoirs, told me of his campaign from the Wilderness to City Point, of many of his plans that failed to materialize for various reasons that he gave. After listening several evenings to the discussion of these matters I asked General Grant very innocently and naturally who was responsible for the failure of these plans, and looking at me in that humorous way which was in his disposition he replied: That, General, has not yet been determined. While at City Point I visited the Army of the James, then commanded by General Butler, when he attempted to break through the enemy's lines on the north side of the James, and saw the attack and failure. I was greatly im pressed as I saw the troops move up to the attack, and stand so steadily, and receive the destructive fire of the enemy without taking cover. In the West, under similar conditions, our men would have gone to cover when they saw there was no possibility of carrying the works before them, but here they seemed to wait for an order, and my anxiety for them was such that I could not help expressing my surprise that they did not either charge or cover, but they st00d there taking a murderous fire until the command to retire was given. In the West while they stood there our whole line would have found shelter behind trees, or buried themselves. As I was leaving City Point Gen eral Grant suggested I should call on' President Lincoln as I returned to my command in the Army of the Tennessee. General Rufus Ingalls, Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, and major-general Burk, of the British Army, who commanded in Canada, were on the headquarters boat that took me to Washington. When I arrived I went immediately to the White House. In the ante-room I met Senator Harlan of Iowa, who took me im mediately to President Lincoln. He had a room full of callers, and asked me to sit down until he disposed of the waiting crowd. I sat there and watched President Lincoln dispose of one after another, always in a kindly way. After waiting a long time I felt that, perhaps, he had disposed of me in the same way he had the others, and I took occasion to say to him that I had only called to pay my respects, and unless he desired me to wait longer, I would bid him good-bye. He immediately asked me to wait, saying he desired to see me if I had the time to spare. After the crowd had gone the doors were closed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
Download or read book Abraham Lincoln Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States written by William Harrison Lambert and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-01-18 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States: Annual Oration Delivered Before the Society of the Army of the Potomac When forty thousand Frenchmen, chafing under the impe rial rule that had overthrown their loved Republic, sought to express their sympathy with the American people in the hour of its profound grief, they presented to the widow Of the martyred President a massive gold medal, upon which was inscribed this summary Of his work, this legend Of his eternal fame: lincoln the honest man - abolished slavery, RE established the union - saved the republic - without veil ing the form OF liberty. From the highest reach that Mr. Lincoln had attained before his accession to the Presidency to the zenith of his career, the space seems incalculable. The study Of his earlier life shows indeed that he possessed clearness of thought, remarkable gift Of expression, native sagacity, honesty Of purpose, and courage Of conviction that he was devoted to the rights Of man, and that he loved his country; but that he possessed elementsof greatness in such degree as was revealed by the war, could not have been surmised from aught he had said or done. And that he should manifest so soon and so signally his ability to rule a great nation in the most dangerous period Ofits existence; that he should overtower his associates, and prove that more than they he was fitted to save the government; that he could wield a power vastly greater than that which had been possessed by his predecessors and surpassing that exercised by any contemporary ruler, king or emperor, could not have been foreseen by any lacking divine inspiration. Not by graded steps, but by giant stride, Lincoln reached the height of power, achievement, and fame. True, the progress Of the war revealed growth in his charac ter, thought, and force, and he stood conspicuously higher at its close than at its beginning; but at its opening it was apparent that Providence had so shaped the country's destiny that the man who had been chosen mainly because of his availability as a presidential candidate was far and away the one man for the Office and the work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
