Book Review: Partners in Command

I consider the purchasing of this book one of my fortuitous discoveries in recent memory. See, I'm thinking about going back to graduate school to study 19th century US military history (ie, the Civil War!) and I've been looking at programs that specialize in that. As such, I've learned about some scholars in the field who I want to read more by, but money is limited just now. Last month, I sold some used DVDs to a place I go sometimes that specializes in media and Japanese used books. For kicks, while I was waiting for them to process my order, I looked through their small selection of US History books, and - low and behold - on the shelf was a book by one of the Professor's I wanted to learn more about! Used and cheap, no less! I was very excited, and promptly bought it, and almost as promptly read it!

Book Review Glatthaar, Joseph T. Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War. The Free Press. 1994. 286p. Photographs, bibliography, maps, index. ISBN: 0029118174.

Without understanding the relationships between important figures in the Civil War, it is difficult to really grasp how events unfolded and why they unfolded as they did. There are a multitude of relationships that would be fascinating to scrutinize, and no way that any author could tackle them all in one book. Glatthaar doesn't attempt to draw broad generalizations or to analyze every important relationship in the war; instead, he isolates six specific interactions and writes essays on each one, linking them by drawing on common themes and pointing out which factors made the relationships successful or unsuccessful. These conclusions are supported by extensive research, and it's especially fascinating in each essay to see that there is always a turning point - when the relationship went from cordial to antagonistic, or from neutral to positive. Two of the essays focus on Confederate relationships: Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee; and Joseph Johnston and Jefferson Davis. The other four focus on Union relationships: Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan; Ulysses Grant and William Sherman; Grant, Sherman and David Porter; and Lincoln and Grant. All of the essays were interesting in their own ways, and which appealed to any given reader most would depend on their interests and focus of their studies. I was particularly fascinated by his analysis of Johnston and Davis' relationship, as I have an enduring fascination with Johnston. The essay on Grant, Sherman and Porter highlighted some very interesting inter-service issues and successes, and the psychological analysis of McClellan was very interesting to read and informative. The only significant downside to this book was all of the areas it didn't explore and cover, and the questions it left me with concerning other relationships - specifically, I wish there had been a discussion of the relationship between Henry Halleck and Grant, but there is fertile ground for essays on many other topics.

Not a book for someone looking for very in-depth analysis, Partners in Command assumes that the reader has a framework of knowledge about the war, and focuses immediately on the relationships in question with a loose, readable style that is almost conversational at points, while using extensive research to support the conclusions drawn about the relationships between the individuals discussed. The essays were thought-provoking, and left me wanting more - and what more can a book really hope for than that?

Rating: 4 out of 5.