Michael David Kaplan

The Sword of the Republic Michael David Kaplan

This volume, solidly grounded in extensive research conducted over several decades, firmly puts to rest deeply controversial questions about Grant and the Civil War and explains his development as one of the greatest generals in history. Almost everything taught or widely understood about the Civil War and Grant's role in it is wrong. For example, the Northern victory over the South was not due to superior numbers but to poor Rebel generalship. Grant's victories were a result of him applying higher mathematics to an updated version of the methods Wellington used to beat Napoleon and his armies. Gettysburg, which Grant convincingly argued was a Northern loss, was not the critical battle of the war, Shiloh was. Robert E. Lee was not a great commander, but a third-rate one whose overly aggressive tactics eventually ruined the Confederacy. Grant was not an alcoholic and was abstemious for the last thirty-five years of his life. And Rawlins was totally responsible for the notorious General Order No. 11 which banned Jews from Grant's military district. He had been appointed to Grant's staff to spy on him at the request of Congressman Elihu Washburne, the most significant neglected figure of the war and perhaps of American history. All these topics and many others are treated in this groundbreaking volume,