Articles of War

The American Civil War Characters

This collection of biographical essays on the winners and losers of the Civil War covers some of the most intriguing figures: Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, Sam Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and William Clarke Quantrill, to name just a few.

In Articles of War you’ll discover:

Some Winners

• Ulysses S. Grant, whose brilliant Vicksburg Campaign was a model of military strategy
• John A. “Black Jack” Logan, one of the war’s few successful political generals
• Nathan Bedford Forrest, a natural military genius despite his “Lost Cause”

Some Losers

• George B. McClellan, whose lack of eagerness cost the Union two opportunities to win the war
• Earl Van Dorn, a victim of sheer bad luck
• Theophilus H. Holmes, the little-known incompetent, called “granny Holmes” by his own men

Some Winners Who Became Losers

• Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy’s “General Who Might Have Been”
• Leonidas Polk, whose initial good luck eventually ran out
• William Clarke Quantrill, a winner in death but a loser in life

And Some Losers Who Became Winners

• Sam Houston, who, had he lived longer, could have been a winner in Texas
• William Tecumseh Sherman, an exceptional man; a capable, but flawed, commander