Lincoln and Grant: The Westerners Who Won the Civil War

by Edward Bonekemper, David Deis (Illustrator)

Overview

Incredibly, this is the first-ever book-length study of President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant. It explores the reasons for their successful teamwork as commander-in-chief and general-in-chief of the victorious Union forces in the American Civil War.
Building on his prior studies of Grant, Lee and McClellan, Ed Bonekemper has produced the first-ever book-length study of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. They formed one of the great teams in American history and were the primary players in the Union’s Civil War victory. This book examines their similar “Western” backgrounds, Civil War experiences on military and political battlefields, common personal traits (humility, decisiveness, clarity of communication, moral courage and perseverance), mutual respect and loyalty, and productive working relationship in areas of national policy, military strategy, military operations and tactics, and military personnel decisions concerning manpower in the field and Union generals. This book is a “must” for Civil War buffs, admirers of Lincoln and Grant, and students of military-civilian relations.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013530454
Publisher:	kimberly Hitchens, Booknook.biz
Publication date:	11/27/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ed Bonekemper is Book Review Editor of the Civil War News and a former adjunct lecturer in military history at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ed is a frequent Civil War speaker at Civil War Roundtables and similar historical groups (including the Smithsonian Institution [7 times], the Delta Queen, the Lincoln Group of Washington, Chautauqua Institute, and National Civil War Museum). He earned a B.A. cum laude in American history from Muhlenberg, an M.A. in American history from Old Dominion University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
He is the author of numerous Civil War articles and four prior Civil War books: How Robert E. Lee Lost the Civil War (Fredericksburg, Virginia: Sergeant Kirkland’s Press, 1998); A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant’s Overlooked Military Genius (Washington: Regnery Press, 2004) [Republished as Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor, Not a Butcher: The Military Genius of the Man Who Won the Civil War (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2010)]; McClellan and Failure: A Study of Civil War Fear, Incompetence and Worse (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2007, 2010); and Grant and Lee: Victorious American and Vanquished Virginian (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2008). All are available as e-books.
Ed is a frequent Civil War speaker to Civil War Roundtables and other groups. He served as a Federal Government attorney-manager for over 34 years, including 11 years on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard. He is a retired Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. Ed lives with his wife Susan and their Susan-trained therapy cockapoo Ruby in Willow Street, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

Among the great duos of American history, the unlikely partnership of Grant and Lincoln has received almost no direct examination. Here were two men from the same adopted state, with the same unusual capacity to absorb disappointment and failure, and the same single vision for winning the Civil War. As Bonekemper shows in his usual straightforward and uncluttered fashion, this odd couple brought together the political and military energies of the American Republic in an unstoppable combination.

Allen Guelzo

With this book, Bonekemper completes a hat trick on -- first a stand-alone study, then a study of Grant and his great adversary Lee and now a volume focused on the relationship between Grant and his commander-in-chief Lincoln. It is surprising that there has been no book-length study of this topic, and Bonekemper's sesquicentennial volume deserves attention for the heft of its subject and as a much-needed spark to more intense focus on the Civil War frontier between politics and generalship.

Carl Schenker

Nobody knows the Civil War -- or brings it alive so successfully -- as Ed Bonekemper. Thorough research and meticulous documentation always back up a clear, strong, unambiguous point of view about the War and the individuals who fought it. Lincoln and Grant is the latest addition to a distinguished collection of works exploring this watershed period in the history of our nation.

John Marszalek

Bonekemper's finely crafted, first-of-its kind analysis, ably illustrates how similar life experiences and shared values forged an iron-clad relationship between the indomitable duo of Lincoln and Grant. This book weaves together the complex tapestry of how these two Westerners were able to restore the Union and end the South's peculiar institution.

Jonathan Noyalas

Nobody knows the Civil War -- or brings it alive so successfully -- as Ed Bonekemper. Thorough research and meticulous documentation always back up a clear, strong, unambiguous point of view about the War and the individuals who fought it. Lincoln and Grant is the latest addition to a distinguished collection of works exploring this watershed period in the history of our nation.

Peyton Helm