Book Review: Partners in Command by Joseph Glatthaar

Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War
copyright 1994.

The Free Press

Partners in Command,  by Joseph Glatthaar, the author of fine works such as Forged in Battle and The March to the Sea and Beyond is the latest book I have read, and it is a good one. 

This book is both enjoyable and informative. Glatthaar has a nice writing style and his analysis throughout the book is impressive. The book details how various personalities and egos worked well or poorly with each other and also demonstrates how the military philosophies of the individuals did or did not mesh. Often these were clashes or accords of both personalities and military styles. Glatthaar's understandable way of telling and analyzing these stories makes this a pleasant book to read.

The relationships he chose to discuss in this book, giving each its own chapter, were those between Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson; Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan; Jefferson Davis and Joseph Johnston; Ulysses S. Grant and Wiliam Sherman; Grant, Sherman and David Dixon Porter; and Lincoln and Grant.

All were fine choices and made for entertaining and insightful reading, but I wish he had found room for even more. To his credit, the author mentioned in the preface that he also wished he had additional

 space and he suggested partnerships between Davis and Lee, Davis and Braxton Bragg and Grant and Henry Halleck among others worth discussing. Each one he mentioned would have been a great addition to this book, though I think analysis involving Bragg would have been especially fascinating.

Of the relationships he examined, I especially enjoyed the chapter on Davis and Johnston. His description of the difference between each one's preferred military strategies (Davis the politician wanted to protect as much territory as possible while Johnston the soldier preferred concentrating forces even if it meant leaving territory undefended) while showing how they shared similar personality flaws, especially their struggles to handle criticism, was excellent. It was not just a "personality clash" between these two. I also thought the chapter concerning Grant, Sherman and Porter stood out, explaining how the army generals cooperated with the admiral and how all three benefitted from and contributed to the effectiveness of their relationships, with Grant and Porter being business-like  professionals while Sherman and Porter had a more personal relationship.

This last point was one of this book's strengths, as the author pointed out that not all of these relationships were the same - some, like the one between Lee and Jackson were pure military partnerships existing only because of and for their military positions while others became more personal friendships, such as the one between Grant and Sherman.

Another part of this book was the appendix discussing McClellan and modern psychology, describing a couple of possible diagnoseses of Liitle Mac to try to explain the general's failure to be a more effective leader.

Overall, even though this book is now more than twenty years old, I enjoyed it and found it to be a good approach to an interesting topic. I would very much enjoy a "part 2" with explorations of even more such partnerships and I do recommend this book to anyone interested in the Civil War.

Book Review: General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse

General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse

Joseph T. Glatthaar

copyright 2008

Free Press

As I finally get the chance to do another book review, I have the pleasure to review this work by Joseph T. Glatthaar, noted author of Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers, of which I have heard many good things and which is sitting on my bookshelf currently.

In General Lee's Army, Glattharr undertook a major project that even one reviewer who did not share my enthusiasm of this book aptly described as "ambitious."


"Ambitious" is certainly an appropriate word for this book, which basically serves as a biography of the Army of Northern Virginia. This most famous of Confederate field forces began its life under the leadership of Joseph Johnston, but came of age and earned its name, reputation and fame under Robert E. Lee. This book describes the "hows and whys" of the army's development, and, especially, covers the "whos" that served as this army's proud fighters.


One thing that stands out as being different from other books was Glatthaar's detailed demographic study of the army. He delivers this information mostly in the opening chapters, but as the book moves forward to the war's later years, he adds more information about troops who had signed up or been drafted into the army after the initial patriotic rush of 1861.

I personally liked how he did this and thought this information - about the age, marital and family status, occupation and economic status of the soldiers - was something new that I had not read much of before and enjoyable. He shows that Lee's army came from a variety of social positions and the comments (common about the Civil War, North and South) about this being a "rich man's war, but poor man 's fight" proved to be untrue when  the demographics of this army were examined.

He does place a large emphasis on the role of slavery in the coming of the war, and many of his discussions of the soldiers' economic statuses rely on slave ownership or their relationships with slave owners  (such as their families, neighbors or the employers of soldiers' families) . Also, throughout the book, as he starts to introduce another soldier whose story or writings add to this book,  he usually includes their relationship to slavery in his description of them. For anyone who wishes to downplay the role of slavery, this book may prove to be more difficult to read or to appreciate.


The book's flow impressed me and added to my enjoyment of this work. It includes chapters about the demographic information the author found, mixed with chapters about various battles or military situations, as well as other chapters about aspects of the lives of the army and its soldiers, such as why men joined, discipline in the army (or lack thereof), religion, problems with leadership among Lee's officers, supply issues, and more.The military information is presented in chronological order and the author adds in the other information between them throughout the book. I can understand that some people may find this confusing, especially since some of the non-military chapters did include information from before the previously discussed battle, but this arrangement did not bother me.

I also liked the writing style and found it to be very enjoyable and easy to read. That certainly is something that helps form my opinion of books and it did add a positive feeling to this one.

Here is a link to a more critical review of this book by James W. Durney, a prolific book reviewer on Amazon.com and the popular blog TOCWOC, one of the first blogs I found when I discovered the Civil War blogosphere last year. I do think his comments are worth consideration, and his analysis on some of the military conclusions drawn by Glatthaar is certainly more in-depth than any I can produce, but sometimes a different perspective can be interesting to read.


One point I did find interesting throughout the book, was his perspectives of "groups" among the army. Most students who have studied the Civil War have heard that "peer pressure" was a major influence in convincing young men to join Civil War armies and then to conduct themselves well once in battle, but Glaathaar points out how the soldiers developed smaller groups of comrades - often just their messmates or perhaps a family member or two - to which they became especially closely attached. He managed to show the downside of such attachments - the feelings of loneliness or being lost that a soldier could experience when the rest of his close group of friends had  been killed, captured or wounded. (See pages 315-316 for his description of Private William A. Burke's experiences in this area.)  That was a perspective I  had never considered before reading this book and is something I will try to keep in mind during future readings. It may be the main new point of view I take from this work.


General Lee's Army is 470 pages long, so it's not a quick, easy read - at least not to me - but is an enjoyable look at what became the Army of Northern Virginia, the men who made up this army and who they were, why they joined and fought, and why many of them eventually deserted. I do recommend this book and think it is worth having on any Civil War bookshelf.