Description
Book SynopsisDespite the abundance of books on the Civil War, not one has focused exclusively on what was in fact the determining factor in the outcome of the conflict: differences in Union and Southern strategy. In The Grand Design, Donald Stoker provides for the first time a comprehensive and often surprising account of strategy as it evolved between Fort Sumter and Appomattox. Reminding us that strategy is different from tactics (battlefield deployments) and operations (campaigns conducted in pursuit of a strategy), Stoker examines how Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis identified their political goals and worked with their generals to craft the military means to achieve them--or how they often failed to do so. Stoker shows that Davis, despite a West Point education and experience as Secretary of War, ultimately failed as a strategist by losing control of the political side of the war. Lincoln, in contrast, evolved a clear strategic vision, but he failed for years to make his generals implement
Trade ReviewThe Grand Design is an excellent military study of the Civil War. It is well researched and written. It flows smoothly and keeps the reader's interest. It is critical of both sides ... and Stoker is not afraid to offer controversial interpretations. * Dr. J. Boone Bartholomees Jr., Parameters *
Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. 'We only want to be left alone.' - The Confederacy's Political Objective and the Union's Rebuttal ; 2. Making War a Little at a Time ; 3. Mr. Lincoln Goes to War ; 4. The Border States: Policy, Strategy, and Civil-Military Relations ; 5. King Cotton's Tarnished Crown: Confederate Economic and Diplomatic Strategies ; 6. McClellan on Top: The Evolution of Union Strategy, July 1861 - March 1862 ; 7. The Foundations of Naval Strategy ; 8. The War in the West - Breaking the Cordon ; 9. A New Year and a New Strategy ; 10. War in Virginia ; 11. The Summer of 1862 in the West ; 12. To Free Maryland and Tennessee! ; 13. The Union Rebuffed: The Autumn of 1862 ; 14. The Emancipation Proclamation - Strategy, Policy, and Escalation ; 15. 1863: A New Year and New Hopes ; 16. Vicksburg and Exhaustion ; 17. The Cruel Summer: 1863 - The Gettysburg Campaign ; 18. From Vicksburg, to Chickamauga, to the Rappahannock ; 19. Indecision and the West ; 20. Decision and Desperation, 1864 ; 21. The Full Fury of Modern War - Exhaustion and Attrition ; 22. War Termination ; Some Conclusions ; Acknowledgments ; Notes ; Index
