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George Gordon Meade and the War in the East
Ethan S. Rafuse
Even though he defeated Robert E. Lee in the Civil War's greatest
battle, George Gordon Meade has never enjoyed a prominent place
in the pantheon of Union war heroes. To most students of the Civil
War, he is merely the man who was lucky enough to benefit from
Confederate mistakes at Gettysburg, but whose shortcomings as a
commander compelled Abraham Lincoln to bring in Ulysses S.
Grant from the West to achieve victory.
In this, the first book-length study of the general to appear in a
generation, Ethan S. Rafuse challenges the notion that Meade was
simply the last in a long line of failed Union commanders in the
East. Instead, George Gordon Meade and the War in the East offers
a balanced, informative, and complete, yet concise, reconsideration
of the general's life and career. It also provides keen analysis of the
military and political factors that shaped operations in Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and delineates the sources of tension
between Washington and the Army of the Potomac high command
that played such an important role in shaping the war in the Eastern
Theater. This study will appeal to anyone with an interest in Meade
and the politics of command in the Civil War, and encourage
reconsideration of traditional interpretations of the Union war effort in
the East.
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ETHAN S. RAFUSE is the author of A Single Grand Victory: The
First Campaign and Battle of Manassas (2002), and more than a
hundred articles, essays and reviews in scholarly and popular history
publications, including Civil War History, Lincoln Herald, Civil War
Times Illustrated, and Ohio History. He has taught history at the
University of Missouri in Kansas City and the United States Military
Academy at West Point, New York.
Number Twenty-three: Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series
What people are saying about this book
"an excellent series [that] should be in every Texas school!"—Empire
Books
". . . what is so inviting about the entire series is the depth and
length to which Civil War Campaign and Commanders writers go to
tell more than just battlefield statistics."—Eclectic Homeschool
Online
"This is a well-researched, important work with a provocative
argument, and it therefore deserves the attention of anyone with a
serious interest in the Civil War."—Journal of Military History
Look for a review of this book in Reference & Research Book News
(August 2004) at www.booknews.com and clicking on "View Current
Issues."
Other Biographies in the Civil War Campaigns &
Commanders Series
For a
complete list of the books in the Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series
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