Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War - Hardcover

Hurst, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465031846 ISBN 13: 9780465031849

Publisher: Basic Books, 2007

Synopsis

Deep in the winter of 1862, on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, two extraordinary military leaders faced each other in an epic clash that would transform them both and change the course of American history forever. Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant had no significant military successes to his credit. He was barely clinging to his position within the Union Army-he had been officially charged with chronic drunkenness only days earlier, and his own troops despised him. His opponent was as untested as he was: an obscure lieutenant colonel named Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was a slaveholder, Grant a closet abolitionist-but the two men held one thing in common: an unrelenting desire for victory at any cost. After ten days of horrific battle, Grant emerged victorious. He had earned himself the nickname Unconditional Surrender” for his fierce prosecution of the campaign, and immediately became a hero of the Union Army. Forrest retreated, but he soon re-emerged as a fearsome war machine and guerrilla fighter. His reputation as a brilliant and innovative general survives to this day. But Grant had already changed the course of the Civil War. By opening the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to the Union Army, he had split Dixie in two. The confederacy would never recover. A riveting account of the making of two great military leaders, and two battles that transformed America forever, Men of Fire is destined to become a classic work of military history.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Hurst is a former journalist who has written for newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Nashville Tennessean. He is the author of Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. A descendant of both Union and Confederate military officers, he currently lives with his wife outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

From AudioFile

Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest both hated to lose. In the battle for Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1892, they fought not only each other but their own fellow generals, back-and-forth warfare, and miserable conditions. Tom Weiners narration reflects the accuracy and detail of Hursts research. Weiner has a newscasters timbre and delivery. He pauses before quotations and gets into the character of whoever is speaking--Southerner, Midwesterner, country boy, officer. Listening is like getting messages from the past. History buffs should love this chronicle of the lesser-known western war. The victorious Grant became president; Forrest went on to help found the Ku Klux Klan. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0465031846
• ISBN 13: 9780465031849
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464