In fact McClellan insists that notwithstanding all of Grant's capabilities and resources, Grant was not able to maneuver successfully against Lee until "Lee's field transportation gave out" (Hagerman, 66).

Hagerman makes many assertions about the Civil War's generals that a reader of his book cannot immediately verify, but must take at face value. Deep in his book, for example, Hagerman claims that General Lee's cavalry battle at Yellow Tavern (May, 1864) "…was the only truly mounted engagement" for Lee's cavalry. These cannot be taken as flaws, however, and even though there are some typographical errors that editors allowed to get into the final published copies, and some of his writing is a little slow and even awkward, all-in-all the narrative is smooth and it reads very well.

He spells out how the federal government (the Union, under Lincoln) experimented with the "flying column concept"; how the government had problems with...
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