LINCOLN FINDS A GENERAL Vol. III: Grant's First Year in the West

This can be read independently of Volumes I & II (published in Nov. '49 and reviewed on P. 491 of that year), but seems to end very abruptly almost at the gates of vicksburg, which, presumably, will be covered in a subsequent volume. This is more specifically a military study than even Vols. I & II, and virtually demands close scrutiny of the military maps by Clark Ray which will be in the finished book. Not since Horn's Army of the Tennessee (Bobbs- 1941) has the almost day by day procedure of the war in the been so meticulously analyzed. The importance of the months which included Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth and Vicksburg saw also the rapid growth of the potentials in the man and the general, as Grant's assignments to tougher and yet tougher jobs, his quiet and positive performance in decision and action, his acceptance of the rudging credit on the part of his superiors, his objective handling of the storm of conflict within commands, as Polk, Halleck, Pope, Sherman etc. seemed unable to bring rapport to the disunity of command (while Grant went his competent way)- all this was proving ground for the man Lincoln finally recognized. One gets too a foretaste of modern techniques in Grant's conception of total war, in his procedure of staff and officer indoctrination and training. But first and last, this is military history, with little of he periphery of economic and political issues, and less of the human aspects which gave he earlier volumes their wider market... This is not to be confused with T. Harry Williams' Lincoln and His Generals (Knopf- reported P. 696-1951), nor yet with Bruce Mr. Lincoln's Army (Doubleday- reported P. 744, 1951), though the books taken together enrich understanding of the whole.