"So it was that Sam Grant and Jeff Davis rode into battle together"
As far as I can tell, Martin Dugard wrote The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848 just for me. It was the perfect bridge between all that I learned while obsessing over Napoleonic naval warfare to what I'd learned about Confederate generals and I repaid Dugard by squeeing regularly while running. I hadn't known much about the country at that time, so I learned about how Texas joined the Union and the politics of the era. e.g. I'd never realized that what I'd read in grade school about Abraham Lincoln's upbringing was a function of frontier living, not the time or even America in the first half of the 19th century. I was also surprised by how politically the war was carried out, with generals hired and fired based on their party.
Despite the subtitle, the book focuses mostly on Grant; I hadn't figured out why half the book quoted letters from Grant to his beloved Julia until I remembered he'd written his memoirs. The book also mentions a great many other participants in the Civil War and not all that much about Sherman, although it was interesting to hear what forces shaped him. At times, it was a little hard to follow, bc the author liked giving history about a great many characters, many of whom I had to subsequently Google to find out exactly why we care. e.g. I couldn't figure out why Napoleon Dana kept getting mentioned (bc I've read more about the Confederacy than the Union) and I still haven't figured out why we got such a complete bio on the cavalry officer who kicked off the Mexican-American War by getting caught in an ambush.
The premise of the book, of which you are leadenly reminded, is that you cannot understand the Civil War without knowing the history of how its major actors earned their spurs in the earlier conflict. e.g. I didn't know that Abraham Lincoln had fought or that Jefferson Davis had been career military. And the book makes a good argument that the reason Grant and Lee rose to their positions of authority is that they really did receive the best training possible for running a war while fighting in Mexican-American War; the former learning a thing or two about logistics as quartermaster and the latter on Winfield Scott's staff as resident miracleworker.
It was also an excellent companion to the Grant & Lee exhibit at the NY Historical Society. I've written about it previously, but I did want to add a few further observations. I hadn't known that posse comitatus came in after Harper's Ferry, so I was awfully surprised to see depictions of US troops in US streets. Thinking about Grant's presidency, y'gotta wonder why would you want someone who couldn't make his businesses successful running your freakin' country. The other problem with Grant's presidency of course is that while outsiders are less likely to already be corrupted by the system, they also aren't as good at getting things done in that system.
Anyhow, excellent book, recommended to people who enjoy stranger-than-fiction history. I'm not allowed to read any more non-fiction before the exam, but ideally I'd like to find a book about a history of guerrilla warfare in the US. The closest I've come is maybe I should read a bio about Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion (although most books about him seem to be for children wtf?) or Edward Porter Alexander's memoirs.
Despite the subtitle, the book focuses mostly on Grant; I hadn't figured out why half the book quoted letters from Grant to his beloved Julia until I remembered he'd written his memoirs. The book also mentions a great many other participants in the Civil War and not all that much about Sherman, although it was interesting to hear what forces shaped him. At times, it was a little hard to follow, bc the author liked giving history about a great many characters, many of whom I had to subsequently Google to find out exactly why we care. e.g. I couldn't figure out why Napoleon Dana kept getting mentioned (bc I've read more about the Confederacy than the Union) and I still haven't figured out why we got such a complete bio on the cavalry officer who kicked off the Mexican-American War by getting caught in an ambush.
The premise of the book, of which you are leadenly reminded, is that you cannot understand the Civil War without knowing the history of how its major actors earned their spurs in the earlier conflict. e.g. I didn't know that Abraham Lincoln had fought or that Jefferson Davis had been career military. And the book makes a good argument that the reason Grant and Lee rose to their positions of authority is that they really did receive the best training possible for running a war while fighting in Mexican-American War; the former learning a thing or two about logistics as quartermaster and the latter on Winfield Scott's staff as resident miracleworker.
It was also an excellent companion to the Grant & Lee exhibit at the NY Historical Society. I've written about it previously, but I did want to add a few further observations. I hadn't known that posse comitatus came in after Harper's Ferry, so I was awfully surprised to see depictions of US troops in US streets. Thinking about Grant's presidency, y'gotta wonder why would you want someone who couldn't make his businesses successful running your freakin' country. The other problem with Grant's presidency of course is that while outsiders are less likely to already be corrupted by the system, they also aren't as good at getting things done in that system.
Anyhow, excellent book, recommended to people who enjoy stranger-than-fiction history. I'm not allowed to read any more non-fiction before the exam, but ideally I'd like to find a book about a history of guerrilla warfare in the US. The closest I've come is maybe I should read a bio about Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion (although most books about him seem to be for children wtf?) or Edward Porter Alexander's memoirs.