Military profiles

"Most students of the American Civil War know the name George Gordon Meade, but few can tell you about the man. Rising from the Union officer corps to lead the previously ill-fated Army of the Potomac, Meade took overall command only hours before his forces encountered Robert E. Lee's Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1863." "Historian Richard Sauers shows that while Meade led his men to victory in one of the most famous battles in history, he was soon embroiled in political battles with fellow generals and Washington politicians. Despite detractors' efforts to question Meade's judgment and smear his reputation - efforts often exacerbated by the general's own volatile temper and undiplomatic behavior - he continued to put duty to his country and his men first. When Ulysses S. Grant was named lieutenant general in charge of all Union forces, Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and soon overshadowed Meade. Sauers chronicles the tense relationship that developed between the two men and the effect it had on the crucial last days of the war." "This concise but authoritative account is the only recent biography of Meade and should spark renewed study of one of the Civil War's most underrated leaders."--Jacket.

"Historians consider Douglas Haig one of the most controversial military leader in British history. Today his career is at the center of a swirling debate concerning the nature of the First World War. The traditional school contends that, like the majority of generals from both sides, he was an overmatched, hidebound relic of a bygone military age who could not come to grips with modern war. Such men allegedly sent their soldiers "over the top" in pointless attacks, with a criminal disregard for the enormous cost in lives. A new revisionist school now contends that many Great War leaders, including Haig, stood at the center of a phenomenal period of military innovation, one that laid the foundations for modern warfare. This learning curve led from the killing fields of the Somme to the protoblitzkrieg tactics of the Hundred Days Battles." "Haig had achieved a measure of fame in Britain's colonial wars and began the First World War as a corps commander. He obtained command of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France in 1915. Under his leadership, the BEF fought its two signature battles of the war at the Somme and Passchendaele, earning him a reputation as a "butcher and bungler." The slaughter at the Somme and the muddy hell of Passchendaele forever tarnished his reputation; however, as Andrew Wiest points out, in 1918 Haig proved instrumental in winning one of the greatest victories in British military history. While the Hundred Days Battles often go unnoticed or unappreciated in the history of the First World War, obscured as they were by the failures of earlier campaigns, here modern war came of age. Haig's role in that transformation makes him the central figure of the war on the Western Front."--Jacket.

"Revered by some, loathed by others, Nathan Bedford Forrest has long been considered one of the greatest soldiers of the American Civil War. Responsible for his family at a young age, he quickly developed traits - self-reliance, decisiveness, and assertiveness - that would later make him famous. In business, the uneducated Forrest quickly made a fortune in various endeavors, including the slave trade. When the Civil War began, Forrest became an adept recruiter and leader, despite his lack of training in military science. His cavalrymen became famous for the forced marches, deception, and audacious battlefield maneuvers they used to defeat forces that often outnumbered them. In 1864, Forrest gained notoriety for his participation in the battle for Fort Pillow, Tennessee. In a controversy that persists today, the high casualty rate among African-American troops who surrendered there led to charges that Forrest's men had perpetrated a racially motivated massacre. After the war, Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan while promoting reconciliation between North and South amid the chaos of Reconstruction."--Jacket.