Generals South, Generals North: The Commanders of the Civil War Reconsidered

Alan Axelrod

Mar 2011 · Rowman & Littlefield

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With April 12, 2011, set to mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, the time is ripe for a new assessment of the conflict’s most influential and controversial military leaders. Generals South, Generals North highlights twenty-four such commanders—twelve each from the Confederacy and the Union. Best-selling author and military historian Alan Axelrod presents a biography of each, narrates the major engagements in which each fought (emphasizing tactical leadership and outcome produced), and explores each man’s ever-controversial reputation. His consequent rankings are based on both historical and modern-day sources.

Each profile is accompanied by callout quotations, photographs of the general, additional illustrations such as battle depictions, and a map depicting either a major engagement or the general’s movements throughout the war. The result is an ideal quick reference for Civil War buffs and a beautiful addition to the library of general readers that is sure to start as many arguments as it settles.

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Alan Axelrod is the author of numerous popular titles focusing on military history, general history, and American history. After receiving his Ph.D. in English (specializing in early American literature and culture) from the University of Iowa in 1979, Axelrod taught early American literature and culture at Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, Illinois) and at Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina). He then entered scholarly publishing in 1982 as associate editor and scholar with the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (Winterthur, Delaware), an institution specializing in the history and material culture of America prior to 1832. Axelrod is former senior editor of Abbeville Press and vice president of Zenda, Inc., a consulting firm to museums and cultural institutions.  In 1994 he became director of development for Turner Publishing, Inc. (Atlanta), a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., and in 1997, he founded The Ian Samuel Group, Inc., a creative services and book-packaging firm.

Axelrod was a featured speaker at the 2004 Conference on Excellence in Government (Washington, D.C.), at the Leadership Institute of Columbia College (Columbia, South Carolina), and at the 2005 Annual Conference of the Goizueta School of Business, Emory University (Atlanta). He has been a creative consultant (and on-camera personality) for The Wild West television documentary series (Warner Bros., 1993), Civil War Journal (A&E Network, 1994), and The Discovery Channel, and he has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, Fox Network affiliates in Philadelphia and Atlanta, and numerous radio news and talk programs, including National Public Radio. He and his work have been featured in BusinessWeek, Fortune,Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan,Inc., Atlanta Business Chronicle, and many newspapers, including Atlanta Journal-Constitution and USA Today. Axelrod has served as consultant for the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum (Rochester, New York), the Airman Memorial Museum (Suitland, Maryland), and the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum (Winterthur, Delaware).