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.

An account of the capture of Savannah

 Here is an article from the January 5, 1865 edition of the Youth's Companion. It is actually more about the campaign to capture this city and praising Sherman's ability to accomplish it.

The reference to the "grapes of Eshcol" is to a Biblical story about the Israelites finding and cutting down a large cluster of grapes in the valley of Eshcol while exploring the "promised land." 

The final paragraph makes reference to a General Xenophon, of Greece, and the group of mercenary soldiers known as the "Ten Thousand" whose march to battle at Cunaxa and back to Greece around the year 400 B.C.  was put into writing by Xenophon.

I have not found any information about the reference to "Gen. Morceau" yet.



Of all the Christmas presents that have been given this year, that received from Gen. Sherman by president Lincoln was assuredly the best. The gallant General's gift, was the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and 25,000 bales of cotton., and various other valuable accompaniments, too numerous to mention. Gen. Sherman's march from Atlanta, through the center of Georgia to Savannah, was a bold undertaking, and occasioned not a little uneasiness as to its result. The Southern papers indulged in a great deal of brag, and fired off many broadsides of bombast to keep up Southern courage, and to alarm, if possible, our officers. But brad and bombast are not deadly weapons, and do not frighten brave men. Sherman went on with his 60,000 soldiers, and soon found that the fierce Southern threatenings were something after the Chinese style of warfare, where grotesque warriors come out in front of an advancing army, and make fearful faces and beat ferocious gongs, at the approaching enemy.

Our forces, as they passed through Georgia, fared sumptuously every day. They found the keystone State of the South like the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. To be sure, they did not discover the grapes of Eshcol, but the fowls of Georgia were quite as good, and much more substantial eating. Many a plump turkey, that in the morning had possibly eaten a ragout of grasshoppers, and chuckled over his quiet life, was gobble up, and down, too, before night, without being embalmed, except in the memories of those in whose stomachs he was honored with a soldier's grave. Many an innocent pig, whose sensual days - before the Yankees came upon him, like marauders on the fold, with their cohorts all gleaming with purple and gold - had been passed in tranquility that a Turk might envy, was made to suffer as the innocent sometimes do, for being found in bad company. We are sure that the cackle of many a matronly hen was a mournful announcement of the "lay of the last minstrel" of man a Georgia barnyard.

Some of our readers have doubtless read of a famous campaign of old called "The Retreat of the Ten Thousand." It took place about twenty-two centuries ago, and has always been famous. Those who never heard of it must ask their fathers, who Gen. Xenophon was. History tells us also of the wonderful retreat of Gen. Morceau through the Black Forest.  Any reader ignorant of this great military achievement must stir up papa again for information. Gen. Sherman has equaled the exploits of both these great men, and won a name which history will be proud to honor. Never was a military expedition better managed than his. He and his troops lived on the country they passed through, so that Uncle Sam did not have to pay any thing for their board. They liberated thousands of negroes, and captured thousands of cattle. They have shown the Southern Confederacy to be, as Gen. Grant said, nothing but a shell. It is like a drum, all fun and noise outside, but empty within. Wilmington, we trust, will soon be ours, and our flag waves over Savannah. The Confederacy is crumbling and before long our noble country will be a unit again.

Wm T. Sherman in Atlanta, courtesy Library of Congress

Major General AJ Smith

Major General Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Smith


Here’s a brief biography of a general who seems to have earned a good reputation wherever he went, the respect of famed leaders he worked for and achieved a solid record of success, yet escaped the glare of fame. Some of his service was in the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati region, when he replaced Lew Wallace as head of local forces as the “Siege of Cincinnati” concluded and Wallace was assigned elsewhere. Below is some brief research I had done on him in the recent past.

If ever a man was born with a military career as his destiny, Andrew Jackson Smith was it. Born in Pennsylvania in 1815 to a father who was a veteran of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Smith was also named for a war hero and future President, Andrew Jackson, the Hero of New Orleans.

A.J. Smith was appointed to West Point in 1834, and graduated 4 years later, 36th in a class of 45. He joined the First Dragoons as a Second Lieutenant and served in Oregon and throughout the West. During the Mexican War, he was stationed mainly in California.

When the Civil War broke out, he was colonel of the California Cavalry, but resigned this commission to go east, where he was assigned as colonel of cavalry under Henry Halleck in Missouri. In May of 1862, he was promoted to Brigadier General and he continued to serve under Halleck through the advance on Corinth which ended at the end of May.

In late summer of this year, General Smith was ordered to Covington, KY, where he replaced Lew Wallace in command of local forces. One of his communications from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion was to General Wallace and mentioned a famed local group of militiamen:

Fort Mitchel, KY, September 17, 1862:
General Wallace:
Reports from the front state that the enemy are in full retreat. I ordered all the cavalry I have in front to follow up and ascertain the road and direction they were taking. Cannot I get rid of the Squirrel Hunters? They are under no control.
A.J. Smith,
Brigadier General

In the fall of this year, he served under Gordon Grange in the Army of Kentucky, before taking command of a division under William T. Sherman in December. He took part in the failed attack on Chickasaw Bluffs as the Union attempted to capture the key city of Vicksburg.

In early January, Smith was part of the successful attack on Arkansas Post in the Arkansas River. He then joined in the next Union attempt to capture Vicksburg, under Ulysses S. Grant.

This time the Union forces succeeded, and the Confederates in the city surrendered on July 4, 1863.

After this success, he also joined Sherman on the successful attack upon Jackson, the state capital of Mississippi.

In August of 1863, he was put in command at Columbus, Kentucky, where he stayed for several months before joining Sherman again in early 1864 for the campaign against Meridian, Mississippi, which ended in February with the destruction of much of that city.
After this assignment, he was ordered to the Army of the Tennessee as part of Nathan Bank’s Red River Campaign, which took place through most of March and April and even into early May. Smith’s men were at the front of the Union army and fought in every engagement of this campaign that resulted in failure for the Union forces.

In May, Smith received another promotion, this time to Major General of Volunteers.

During the summer of 1864, he and his men were stationed in La Grange Tennessee, before he led them on a expedition to Tupelo, Mississippi. It was here that General Smith and his men repulsed an attack by famed Confederate raider Nathan Bedford Forrest on July 14, inflicting perhaps as much as 40% casualties on the Rebels.

In the late summer, Smith was sent to Missouri to help repel the raid by Confederate General Sterling Price, but as fall arrived, he was quickly summoned to Nashville to assist in George Thomas’ defense against John Bell Hood’s Confederates. Smith was commended for his actions in this Union rout of their opponent and won brevet (temporary) promotion to Major General in the regular army.

In early 1865, his command had was designated the XVI Army Corps and took part in the campaign that captured the city of Mobile, Alabama.

The war ended soon after this, but Smith remained in the army, serving as Colonel of the 7th Cavalry. In 1869, President Grant offered him the position of postmaster of St. Louis, which Smith accepted after resigning his army commission. He served in many positions in this river city through the rest of his life.

In 1888, Congress passed an act reinstating Smith to the position of colonel of cavalry so he could retire at that rank, which he did later that same day.

Despite his many successes on military fields, and the trust he had earned from Generals like Grant and Sherman, A. J. Smith never received the same fame or glory as did many of his contemporaries. Part of this may have been due to how often he and his forces were moved around, which earned them nicknames like “the lost tribes of Israel” and “Smith’s Guerrillas.” Smith simply went where he was told and did his duty so well that superior officers constantly asked for his services.

A.J. Smith passed away in St. Louis in 1897 at 82 years of age.