Blue-collar generals Forrest and Grant changed rules of warfare

AUTHOR APPEARANCE

The campaigns and battles in Jack Hurst’s “Born to Battle,” subtitled “Grant and Forrest: Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga — The Campaigns that Doomed the Confederacy,” have already been told by generations of historians, including Hurst himself, in his books on Nathan Bedford Forrest and on the Union victory at Shiloh.

This time, Hurst’s narrative extends through West Tennessee and down to Vicksburg, Miss., where Ulysses S. Grant had to confront his friend Sherman; the meddling politician-turned-general John A. McClernand; and a host of others who sometimes tried to undercut him.

Meanwhile, cavalry- commander Forrest was raiding behind Union lines, racking up a reputation for resourcefulness, decisiveness, and “vicious valor.”

Hurst attributes the success of his heroes, Grant and Forrest, to their backgrounds. Neither was born to the social class from which the South, especially, tended to choose its leaders. Grant had been to West Point but made no special mark there or in the Mexican War. He was the son of a lowly tanner.

Jack Hurst will discuss “Born to Battle” (Basic Books, $29.99) at Burke’s Book Store, 936 S. Cooper, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Call (901) 278-7484 for information.

Forrest, too, came from undistinguished roots, though he accumulated considerable property and wealth as a slave trader. With no formal military experience, he bought his way into a command by recruiting and equipping his own cavalry battalion.

This was a new kind of war, less civilized and restrained than the West Point textbooks taught. Grant and Forrest were the kind of men needed to fight it.

What Hurst provides here is sociological and psychological context, and a smooth, real-time, narrative. He includes details like the number of drinks Grant had in a two -week period and uses Forrest’s brawls and battle wounds to paint his image in cowboy colors. He was the kind of man who, when his horse is shot in the neck, reaches forward to plug the spurting blood with his finger. Hard to imagine generals like McClellan or Halleck doing that.

For more reviews, go to Chapter16.org, a publication of Humanities Tennessee.