‘I never ranked Lee as high as some others in the army,” Ulysses S. Grant said of his legendary Confederate adversary after the war. “I could never see in his achievements what justified his reputation.” The former general-in-chief insisted, apparently with a straight face, that he was more anxious against Joseph E. Johnston, a gamecock better known for orderly retreats than daring victories. For his part, Robert E. Lee treated Grant with similar disdain. Asked to name the best Union general, the Virginian would point to George McClellan or George Meade, ignoring the man who accepted his surrender. In their postwar years, both Grant and Lee stubbornly refused to admit the obvious—that each was the other’s greatest opponent.
Countless authors have paired the two men. There have been dual biographies, from J.F.C. Fuller’s “Grant and Lee: A Study of Personality and Generalship” (1933) to Edward H. Bonekemper III’s “Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian” (2008)—both heavily slanted in Grant’s favor—as well as narratives and campaign studies, from Bruce Catton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic “A Stillness at Appomattox” (1953) to Gordon C. Rhea’s compelling series on the Overland Campaign (1994-2002). Now William C. Davis brings the two iconic commanders together in the brilliant and balanced “Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—The War They Fought, the Peace They Forged.” Mr. Davis makes it his mission to dispel myths and postwar spin, relying on primary sources throughout (though not Grant’s classic memoirs, which suffer from inevitable bouts of self-justification).
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