Synopses & Reviews
The Sword of Lincoln is the first authoritative single-volume history of the Army of the Potomac in many years.
From Bull Run to Gettysburg to Appomattox, the Army of the Potomac repeatedly fought -- and eventually defeated -- Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Jeffry D. Wert, one of our finest Civil War historians, brings to life the battles, the generals, and the common soldiers who fought for the Union and ultimately prevailed. The obligation throughout the Civil War to defend the capital, Washington, D.C., infused a defensive mentality in the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac. They began ignominiously with defeat at Bull Run. Suffering under a succession of flawed commanders -- McClellan, Burnside, and Hooker -- they endured a string of losses until at last they won a decisive battle at Gettysburg under a brand-new commander, General George Meade. Within a year, the Army of the Potomac would come under the overall leadership of the Union's new general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant. Under Grant, the army marched through the Virginia countryside, stalking Lee and finally trapping him and the remnants of his army at Appomattox.
Wert takes us into the heart of the action with the ordinary soldiers of the Irish Brigade, the Iron Brigade, the Excelsior Brigade, and other units, contrasting their experiences with those of their Confederate adversaries. He draws on letters and diaries, some of them previously unpublished, to show us what army life was like. Throughout his history, Wert shows how Lincoln carefully oversaw the operations of the Army of the Potomac, learning as the war progressed, until he found in Grant the commander he'd long sought.
With a swiftly moving narrative style and perceptive analysis, The Sword of Lincoln is destined to become the modern account of the army that was so central to the history of the Civil War.
Review
"Jeffry D. Wert's outstanding new study traces the development of the Army of the Potomac from a gathering of raw recruits into an effective military organization, all played out against a backdrop of competing political agendas in Washington. Wert offers fresh new insights into the character, competencies, and shortcomings of each commander. Just as important, however, he allows the enlisted men and junior officers who followed their generals from costly defeat to costlier defeat -- a string only rarely broken with an encouraging victory -- to explain why they nonetheless stayed the course and became the epitome of a people's army that fought to the end to ensure the success of a cause in which they believed."
-- Carol Reardon, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University, and authoe of Pickett's Charge in American History and Memory
Review
"Thoroughly researched and perceptively written, Jeffry Wert's
The Sword of Lincoln is an important contribution to the literature of the Civil War by one of our most rigorous Civil War historians. It deserves a spot on the bookshelf of all Civil War buffs."
-- Jay Winik, author of April 1865: The Month That Saved America
Review
"The Army of the Potomac was the Union's largest and best-equipped but least successful army. Jeffry Wert's fast-paced narrative and analysis of the army's campaigns and leaders explains this paradox by showing that its first commander, George B. McClellan, infused a defensive mentality into the officer corps that even Ulysses S. Grant could not fully overcome."
-- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Review
"The Sword of Lincoln offers a riveting ride through the campaigns of the North's greatest army, made richly entertaining with fresh sources and powerful conclusions. A great book!"
-- David J. Eicher, author of the Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War
Synopsis
From one of today's greatest Civil War historians comes the first authoritative history in decades of the Army of the Potomac. "Lively, informative . . . full of fresh detail . . . a page-turner. Wert is a fine scholar."--"The New York Times Book Review."