Major General John Alexander Mcclernand

A sympathetic assessment of Major General John Alexander McClernand, a highly controversial individual who served his country as soldier and statesman. It sheds light on the Union command systems and the politics of war, as well as the personalities and relationships among senior officers.

John A. McClernand was a career politician, and those ambitions and qualities continued during his Civil War service. A member of the Illinois General Assembly and a U.S. Representative for 10 years, McClernard was connected to other prominent figures of the time such as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. However, he is best known for his rivalry with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and this biography balances McClernard's political career with his military leadership and his place in the Union command structure.

The history of an artillery unit and its role in the Civil War, at Vicksburg and beyond, with photos, maps, and illustrations. The celebrated Chicago Mercantile Battery was organized by the Mercantile Association, a group of prominent Chicago merchants, and mustered into service in August of 1862. The Chicagoans would serve in many of the Western theater’s most prominent engagements until the war ended in the spring of 1865. The battery accompanied Gen. William T. Sherman during his operations against Vicksburg as part of the XIII Corps under Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith. The artillerists performed well throughout the campaign at such places as Chickasaw Bluff, Port Gibson, Champion Hill, Big Black River, and the siege operations of Vicksburg. Ancillary operations included the reduction of Arkansas Post, Fort Hindman, Milliken’s Bend, Jackson, and many others. After reporting to Gen. Nathaniel Banks, commander of the Department of the Gulf, the Chicago battery transferred to New Orleans and ended up taking part in Banks’s disastrous Red River Campaign in Louisiana. The battery was almost wiped out at Sabine Crossroads, where it was overrun after hand-to-hand fighting. Almost two dozen battery men ended up in Southern prisons. Additional operations included expeditions against railroads and other military targets. Chicago’s Battery Boys is based upon many years of primary research and extensive travel by the author through Illinois, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Richard Williams skillfully weaves contemporary accounts by the artillerists themselves into a rich and powerful narrative that is sure to please the most discriminating Civil War reader. “Measures up to the standard of excellence set for this genre by the late John P. Pullen back in 1957 when he authored The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War.” —Edwin C. Bearss, from the Foreword

Lincoln's most controversial generals--his so-called "political generals"--were appointed, promoted or kept in service for political purposes without regard for their competence. "It seems but little better than murder," the Army's general in chief, Henry Halleck, protested, "to give important commands to such men." The book shows these seven generals--Butler, Banks, Sigel, Fremont, McClernand, Hurlbut and Wallace--in action, allowing readers to decide for themselves if Halleck was right in his withering assessment of Lincoln's political generals.

The Vicksburg Campaign, argues Timothy B. Smith, is the showcase of Ulysses S. Grant's military genius. Showing how and why Grant became such a successful general, Smith presents a fast-paced reexamination of the commander and the campaign. His analysis of Grant's decision-making process details the process of campaigning on military, political, administrative, and personal levels.

No one succeeds alone, and Ulysses S. Grant was no exception. From the earliest days of the Civil War to the heights of Grant's power in the White House, John A. Rawlins was ever at Grant's side. Yet Rawlins's role in Grant's career is often overlooked, and he barely received mention in Grant's own two-volume Memoirs. General John A. Rawlins: No Ordinary Man by Allen J. Ottens is the first major biography of Rawlins in over a century and traces his rise to assistant adjutant general and ultimately Grant's secretary of war. Ottens presents the portrait of a man who teamed with Grant, who submerged his needs and ambition in the service of Grant, and who at times served as the doubter who questioned whether Grant possessed the background to tackle the great responsibilities of the job. Rawlins played a pivotal role in Grant's relatively small staff, acting as administrator, counselor, and defender of Grant's burgeoning popularity. Rawlins qualifies as a true patriot, a man devoted to the Union and devoted to Grant. His is the story of a man who persevered in wartime and during the tumultuous years of Reconstruction and who, despite a ravaging disease that would cut short his blossoming career, grew to become a proponent of the personal and citizenship rights of those formerly enslaved. General John A. Rawlins will prove to be a fascinating and essential read for all who have an interest in leadership, the Civil War, or Ulysses S. Grant.

Hurst shows how Grant and Forrest brought to the battlefield the fabled virtues of the American working-class: hard work, ingenuity, and intense determination. Each man's background contributed to his triumphs on the battlefield, but the open-mindedness of his fellow commanders proved just as important. When the North embraced Grant, it won a stalwart defender. When the South rejected Forrest, by contrast, it sealed its fate.