The conflict of 1861-1865 provides an excellent field for the study of the basic principles of strategy. This field has been discriminatingly tilled by Barron Deaderick in a well-reasoned analysis of the strategy pursued by the top commanders of the North and of the South. The result is a book of value not only to the student of the military art but also to the citizen interested in his Nation’s military history.

Owing to his position as Assistant Historian-in-chief to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the author and compare the strategy used by the field commanders of both the blue and the gray. He shows how the basic principles of strategy were observed—or disregarded—by Lee, Grant, Sherman, Bragg, Jackson, Hooker, McClellan, Thomas, and others, in the bloodiest war on the American continent. From long study of the decisive battles of the Civil War he has drawn conclusions with reasoned judgment and clarity, written in a style that makes for easy reading.

The official records and original sources of information have been freely drawn upon to give Strategy in the Civil War the solid ground demanded by the serious student.