)“After some minutes of Grant trying to ease the situation by talking about the Mexican War, to which Lee responded in a polite, abstracted fashion, Lee reminded Grant of the reason for their meeting.”“During the fight Geary’s teamsters became scared, and had deserted their teams, and the mules, stampeded by the sound of battle raging around them, had broken loose from their wagons and run away. Grant and Sherman's incredible victories combined to crush the game but overmatched Confederate Army led by who was considered the War's best Generals Robert E . Nice mixture of military history & biography.Very readable style.

The Union was on its way to bungling the whole thing with generals minus military experience appointed by cronies; all with mighty career agendas. “I knew wherever I was that you thought of me,” Sherman wrote Grant in reference to their campaigns of 1862-63, “and if I got in a tight place you would come—if alive.”They fought together from the spring of 1862 until the end, directing storied campaigns in the Western and Eastern theaters and presiding over the surrenders of the two principal Rebel armies in April 1865. As the president explained in March 1864, Grant’s elevation to lieutenant general represented the “nation’s appreciation of what you have done and its reliance upon you for what remains to do in the existing great struggle….I scarcely need to add that with what I here speak for the nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence.” A newspaper account of the Grand Review in Washington at the close of the war captured the pervasive opinion across the North that Grant’s and Sherman’s veterans, more than 150,000 of whom had marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, “are the champions of free governments” who “have saved the world as they have saved the Union.”Success during the war did not come immediately—especially for Sherman. Absolutely impressive amount of research and supporting evidence! Flood writes a sophisticated and convincing work on that aspect and I enjoyed his book immensely. Sherman’s assessment got to the heart of Grant’s greatness—steady confidence, imperturbable will and tenacity that, together with a willingness to shoulder ultimate responsibility, provided a calming framework within which Sherman thrived. It was hardly irrelevant, of course, but the subtitle's claim sets a high standard to meet. I also admire that this book does not whitewash the darker aspects of the character of these men - such as Sherman’s view of slavery and African-Americans in general.A really great read! In any event Flood has written an outstanding book by enabling us to look over the shoulders of these two flawed but driven characters as well as the other political, military and civilian individuals who make up the story. It turned out to be even better than I anticipated.Grant and Sherman are my favorite generals of all time, and Flood is a highly respected author. It’s a good introduction for readers and armchair historians of the Civil War.

They began their unique collaboration ten months into the war, at the Battle of Shiloh, each carefully taking the other'sThey were both prewar failures—Grant, forced to resign from the Regular Army because of his drinking, and Sherman, holding four different jobs, including a much-loved position at a southern military academy—in the years before the firing on Fort Sumter.

Egos are evident and loud. In looking at this famous and fateful friendship, the book also reminds the reader of the importance of having a good suIt is not uncommon for students of the Civil War to be familiar with the writings of either Grant or Sherman or writings about either of them [1]. Otherwise, the book is marginally good.The story recalls the past glory of the two greatest leaders of the Civil War and their relationship. Both were considered failures before the War began, both had left the army, Grant was considered a drunk and Sherman a lunatic, but the Civil War was really the making of them.

Grant and Sherman, two generals from Ohio. Mr. Together they were an unstoppable force. Charles Bracelen Flood was born in Manhattan, and graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of Archibald MacLeish’s noted creative writing seminar, English S, and was on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon.

Halleck, too.

I put this at the top of the books I've read about the Civil War.