The Civil War Custer

Hatch, Thom.  Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer.  New York:
         St. Martin's Press, December 2013.  ISBN: 978-1-250-02850-1

Today, George Armstrong Custer is best remembered for his actions at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876 that wiped out half of the U.S. 7th Cavalry.  But in 1876, General Custer was better known as a Civil War hero for actions at Gettysburg, Brandy Station, Yellow Tavern, and Appomattox.  Glorious War tells the tale of Custer's Civil War adventures.

Thom Hatch provides a heroic partial biography of George Armstrong Custer that covers his time at West Point and during the Civil War, ending with the Army of the Potomac marching through Washington, D.C.  He discusses the part played by Custer in numerous battles,  his time as aide-de-camp for McClellan, his wooing of Elizabeth Bacon, and his meteoric rise in rank from 2nd Lieutenant at Bull Run to Major General at Appomattox.  He also illustrates that Custer was a leader that men adored, willingly following him during charges against seemingly unbeatable odds.

Hatch provides a Custer that has some warts, but he does not dig into all the known faults and issues that other officers had with Custer.  He also spends a number of pages on Jeb Stuart that seen to have no bearing on Custer except to contrast the two cavalry icons.  But, if you want a hero to lead you through most of the Eastern Civil War battles, Glorious War will satisfy that itch.

Battle Winning Strategies or Maybe Not

Overy, Richard.  A History of War in 100 Battles.  New York, Oxford University Press, 2014.
         ISBN: 9780199390717

 Richard Overy seeks to provide a summary history of war through the ages by focusing on one hundred battles.  He opens with a introductory chapter (The Truth of Battle) and then dives into the battles, placing each in  one of five categories (Leadership, Against the Odds, Innovation, Deception, and In the Nick of Time).  For each battle, he provides a summary of the battle, concentrating on one of the "winning" strategies, and provides a piece of artwork that illustrated the battle or the general.

In each category, Overy cherry-picks the battles that he feels best illustrates the "winning" strategy.  He uses the summary to point out how that strategy lead to victory for one side or the other.  He uses battles from ancient to modern times which brings up the question of sources.  He provides a bibliography of sources used, but does not document which book was used for individual battles. Some of the sources are summaries of campaigns which he mines for quotes rather than battle histories.  He includes some errors of fact in the summaries (for instance the Argentine naval warship General Belgrano being listed as a troopship).   He also equates a campaign and/or war with a battle in regard to The Battle of the Atlantic, The Six Day War, and The Battle of the Falklands. 

Despite the above caveats, A History of War in 100 Battles provides a decent, readable, general history of these one hundred battles.  You do not need to agree with Overy's premises or  conclusions to understand the battles found in this book.