One of the Civil War figures most frequently misrepresented and misunderstood is Ulysses S. Grant. The historical memory of Grant contains significant contradictions. His reputation in history ranges from extremely high highs to some very low lows.
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And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May-June 1864 is a campaign history, but a larger history than just of Grant's Overland Campaign of 1864, as it also discusses campaigning in the Shennandoah Valley and on the Peninsula; Grimsley is making the point that the Overland Campaign was part of a larger strategic concept, and Grant was General-in-Chief, not commander of the Army of the Potomac. It provides a good outline of the progress of the campaign, and some valuable analysis of the command structure and relationships in the Army of the Potomac. This analysis includes insights into why Grant's campaign failed in its intended purpose, but succeeded in that it ultimately trapped Lee's army in the entrenchments around Petersburg.
The book first appeared in 2002, but is still where I would send folks wishing to learn about this campaign. Grimsley's insights about the differences between Grant's command approach and those of the generals he inherited in the Army of the Potomac are quite valuable as they explain why it was so hard for Grant to get the army to execute his plans.
The Man Who Saved The Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace is a pop history of Grant. It is a decent book if you are looking for an introduction to Grant, but it contains no new information or analysis and is of no great interest to the serious student of the Civil War, who presumably is already familiar with McFeely, Simpson, etc. However, even for someone just looking for an introduction to Grant, I'm really much more inclined to recommend the following work:
U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth is not as detailed a biography of Grant. The book is in two parts, the first half being a biographical sketch of Grant which is a pretty fair introduction. The second half is a little different.
In 2002, David Blight's
Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory launched the modern study of Civil War Memory. Still a developing field, the idea is to examine the changes in our memory as a society of the Civil War, to look at the varying views of the war and its key figures and events, and to try to understand why those views have changed over time and how they originated. The second half of Waugh's book is an examination of how the memory of Grant changed over time, how a man who was nearly elected to the Presidency for a third term, and who was hugely popular at the time of his death somehow became Grant the Butcher and Grant, President in a corrupt administration, and continues by looking at how Grant's reputation seems to be on the rise. These insights are again, quite valuable and a good reason to pick up a copy of Waugh in preference to Brands.
Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder isn't directly about Grant, but it is very directly about Civil War Memory. The Battle of the Crater occurred towards the beginning of the ten month long "siege" of Petersburg. It was an attempt to breach the Confederate fortifications by detonating 8000lbs of gunpower in a tunnel which the Federal forces dug under a Confederate fortification. The detonation was tremendously destructive, but the Federal attack which followed up floundered due to various bad decisions on the part of the Federal command. One of the most notable features of the Federal attack was the extensive use of soldiers from the USCT (United States Colored Troops). The USCT troops were not correctly used, however (It's that bad decision making; Ferrero's USCT Division been trained to lead the assault and should have led it, but were replaced by untrained white troops the day before the battle, and a lack of training and leadership in that initial assault made all the difference. Ferrero's troops were instead in the later waves, fed into a attack that had already turned into a disaster.)
Levin's first chapter outlines the battle, but he is not attempting present a detailed history (Hess is good for that.) Levin focuses on what came after the war, how the memory of the battle evolved, how the role of the USCT was largely omitted from historical accounts until the 70s and 80s, and the reasons why that happened. This book is a fine and well focused example of the current state of the study of Civil War Memory.
