Yearly Archives: 2020

Book review: River of Death–The Chickamauga Campaign: Volume 1

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River of Death–The Chickamauga Campaign: Volume 1: The Fall of Chattanooga by William Glenn Robertson. California: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. ISBN-10: 146964312X; ISBN-13: 978-1469643120. Photographs. Maps. Appendix. Pp. xvi, 680. $45.00. This highly detailed narrative of Union General William Rosecrans’ 1863 campaign against the key transportation center of Chattanooga, Tennessee, starts on July 4th of that year, just as his Tullahoma campaign—“a resounding success”—was prematurely stopped by the […]

An expanded review of Chernow’s Grant biography

 in Battles / Chattanooga / Generalship / Grant / Grant biographies / Grant's Memoirs / Historiography / Presidency / Reliability / Shiloh by

[So much is wrong with Chernow’s biography. This expanded review adds further examples of his mistakes and partisanship.] There is no doubt that Ron Chernow tells a beautiful story in his recent biography of Ulysses S. Grant. He is especially compelling in discussing the fight for Black civil rights during Reconstruction. But throughout, the author takes a highly partisan view of his subject in controversy after controversy when the evidence […]

Response to “The American Left Needs a History Lesson”

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Response to Dr. Williamson Murray’s essay, “The American Left Needs a History Lesson” https://www.newsweek.com/american-left-needs-history-lesson-opinion-1518488 When some of the participants in protest marches commit indiscriminate vandalism and engage in looting, there is little to defend it. That is insufficient reason to disparage the whole movement with accusations of historical ignorance. Dr. Williamson Murray’s essay, incidentally, has a few problems of its own. The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was not “the first Black […]

A critique of the History Channel’s Ulysses S. Grant miniseries 1 comment

 in Appomattox / Battles / Belmont / Chattanooga / Drinking / Generalship / Grant / Grant's Memoirs / Henry & Donelson / Historiography / Hooker / Horace / Lee / Lew Wallace / Lincoln / Longstreet / Meade / Petersburg / Porter / Presidency / Reliability / Sheridan / Sherman / Shiloh / Thomas / Vicksburg / Wilderness by

First, I’ll stipulate that Ulysses S. Grant had many good qualities as a person, a general, and even as a president. The History Channel’s recent three-part miniseries on Grant, however, contained a surprising number of egregious mistakes and strained arguments, especially given the prominent “talking heads” involved. Even though the long list of executive producers starred Grant biographer Ron Chernow, little comprehension of the American Civil War was shown. It […]

Myth & Mistake in U.S. Grant’s Civil War History 5 comments

 in Grant / Grant biographies / Grant's Memoirs / Historiography / Shiloh  tagged Fort Donelson / Hamlin Garland / John Thayer / Shiloh by

Shortly after General Ulysses S. Grant captured Fort Donelson in mid-February 1862, his superior, Henry Halleck, ordered Grant’s main force on an expedition up the Tennessee River under a subordinate, General Charles Smith. Grant was to remain downriver at Fort Henry. He was certainly not, however, “virtually in arrest and without a command,” as claimed in his Personal Memoirs. Such noted biographers as Ron Chernow, Dr. Brooks Simpson, and Bruce […]