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Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
Penguin Press
October 2008
On Sale: October 7, 2008
384 pages
ISBN: 1594201919
EAN: 9781594201912
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
James McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War,
illuminates how Lincoln worked with—and often against— his
senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the
role of commander in chief as we know it. Though Abraham Lincoln arrived at the White House with no
previous military experience (apart from a couple of months
spent soldiering in 1832), he quickly established himself
as the greatest commander in chief in American history.
James McPherson illuminates this often misunderstood and
profoundly influential aspect of Lincoln’s legacy. In
essence, Lincoln invented the idea of commander in chief,
as neither the Constitution nor existing legislation
specified how the president ought to declare war or dictate
strategy. In fact, by assuming the powers we associate with
the role of commander in chief, Lincoln often overstepped
the narrow band of rights granted the president. Good thing
too, because his strategic insight and will to fight
changed the course of the war and saved the Union. For most of the conflict, he constantly had to goad his
reluctant generals toward battle, and he oversaw strategy
and planning for major engagements with the enemy. Lincoln
was a self-taught military strategist (as he was a self-
taught lawyer), which makes his adroit conduct of the war
seem almost miraculous. To be sure, the Union’s campaigns
often went awry, sometimes horribly so, but McPherson makes
clear how the missteps arose from the all-too-common
moments when Lincoln could neither threaten nor cajole his
commanders to follow his orders. Because Lincoln’s war took place within our borders, the
relationship between the front lines and the home front was
especially close—and volatile. Here again, Lincoln faced
enormous challenges in exemplary fashion. He was a masterly
molder of public opinion, for instance, defining the war
aims initially as preserving the Union and only later as
ending slavery— when he sensed the public was at last ready
to bear such a lofty burden. As we approach the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in 2009,
this book will be that rarest gift—a genuinely novel, even
timely, view of the most-written-about figure in our
history. Tried by War offers a revelatory portrait of
leadership during the greatest crisis our nation has ever
endured. How Lincoln overcame feckless generals, fickle
public opinion, and his own paralyzing fears is a story at
once suspenseful and inspiring.
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