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5 - Union Military Leadership

from Part II - Managing the War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2019

By
Ethan S. Rafuse
Edited by
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
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Summary

“The progress of our arms,” Abraham Lincoln declared in his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, “upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself.” The president made this statement eminently satisfied with the work of recent months done by the men who led the forces that had been raised to persuade the South that their bid for independence was a doomed enterprise. Lincoln’s satisfaction was undoubtedly all the sweeter due to the fact that he had not always felt that way about his military’s leadership. Indeed, as recently as August 1864, Lincoln had felt great trepidation over the prospects for his reelection due to a sense that the public was dissatisfied with the results the Union war effort had produced to that point. Yet, by March 1865, under the leadership of men like Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and David Farragut, Union military forces had driven their Confederate counterparts to the brink of total defeat.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War , pp. 90 - 117
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Key Works

Bledsoe, Andrew S. Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2015).Google Scholar
Goss, Thomas J. The War Within the Union High Command: Politics and Generalship During the Civil War (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004).Google Scholar
Grant, Ulysses S. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, 2 vols. (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).Google Scholar
Hattaway, Herman and Jones, Archer, How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Rafuse, Ethan S. (ed.). Corps Commanders in Blue: Union Major Generals in the Civil War (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2014).Google Scholar
Ritter, Charles F. and Wakelyn, Jon L. (eds.). Leaders of the American Civil War: A Biographical and Historiographical Dictionary (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998).Google Scholar
Sears, Stephen W. Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2017).Google Scholar
Skelton, William B. An American Profession of Arms: The Army Officer Corps, 1784–1861 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1992).Google Scholar
Symonds, Craig L. Lincoln and His Admirals: Abraham Lincoln, The U.S. Navy and the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Taaffe., Stephen R. Commanding Lincoln’s Navy: Union Naval Leadership During the Civil War (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009).Google Scholar
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1964).Google Scholar
Williams, T. Harry Lincoln and His Generals (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952).Google Scholar
Woodworth, Steven E. (ed.). Grant’s Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001).Google Scholar
Woodworth, Steven E. (ed.). Grant’s Lieutenants: From Chattanooga to Appomattox (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2008).Google Scholar
Work, David Lincoln’s Political Generals (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009).Google Scholar

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