Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander In Chief
By James McPherson
(January 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, 329 pp., 2008. Penguin Press, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014, $35 plus shipping.

Reviewer: James A. Percoco
James A. Percoco teaches U.S. and Applied History at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Va. He is author of A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History and Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History. Percoco is a USA TODAY All-USA teacher and is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at American University where he serves as History Educator-in-Residence.

Review:
The maxim of all good writers is to keep their words clear, concise and effective. Abraham Lincoln full well understood this. So, too, does historian James M. McPherson. Never better was an argument made for this than his long-awaited Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander In Chief.

An absolute blockbuster, Tried By War will certainly stand out from the crowd of the near 100 titles to be published in anticipation of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial.

The literature has sorely been in need of such a text as it has been a half-century since the “military Lincoln” has been analyzed, then by T. Harry Williams and his classic, Lincoln and his Generals.

Since then much new, rich and fertile ground has been tilled about the16th President and the war that consumed his presidency. McPherson gets us up to date with lucid prose that analyzes both the pluses and minuses of a Commander in Chief who is, for the most part, searching for the right commander and the right strategy, while at the same time dealing with the fluidity of public opinion and political opponents within his own party and the press.

Stories abound within the larger story of a nation at war with itself. For Lincoln the role of Commander in Chief was learned by virtue of on-the-job training. An 1862 correspondence illustrates the vacillating Lincoln, as a frustrated Attorney General Edward Bates writes Lincoln imploring him to act:

“As Commander in chief by law,” Bates wrote, “you must command” rather than continue “this injurious deference to subordinates.”

Fortunately, Lincoln, through his penchant for self-education, begins the process of what he did best, teach himself, in this case the art of warfare. He plunges into germane texts to help him navigate not only how to construct a wartime policy, but also how to best employ the ever- growing military machine at his disposal.

Using his deft political skills Lincoln proves to be a successful manager of what might have overwhelmed others. After a few stumbles out of the starting gate, Lincoln shrewdly outmaneuvers problematic generals like John C. Fremont, Don Carlos Buell, William B. Franklin and Benjamin Butler.

Always keeping the bigger picture in focus, namely the Confederate Army, Lincoln consistently understands what some in uniform do not — crush the army and you win the war.

In McPherson’s hands Lincoln always remains human. He gets angry, worries, is exasperated by seeming incompetence, but he always has time for the ordinary soldier in uniform as he builds a base of support with the common fighting man that helps tip the critical election of 1864 his way.

Readers should not look for extensive descriptions of battle action in Tried By War. The book is, rather, a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at how fortunate this nation was to have Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief during our worst national crisis. Robust and thoughtful, McPherson’s latest contribution to the field is certain to become a classic.