Union Generals of the Civil War: Volume One

By Nelson McKeeby

Union Generals of the Civil War, Volume One: A-L

Union Generals of the Civil War, Volume One begins a detailed A-Z study of the men who commanded the Union armies during the American Civil War. This first volume covers generals whose surnames run from A through L, tracing their service through the early confusion of 1861, the formation of great volunteer armies, and the campaigns that carried Union forces into Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and the Atlantic coast.

The book includes commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant, whose rise from early uncertainty led to Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and command of all Union armies; George B. McClellan, who built the Army of the Potomac but struggled to use it decisively; Henry W. Halleck, whose administrative power shaped Union strategy; Winfield Scott Hancock, one of the Army of the Potomac's strongest combat commanders; and Joseph Hooker, whose career ran from aggressive division command to the high command failure at Chancellorsville and later service in the western theater.

This volume also follows political generals, immigrant commanders, artillery specialists, engineers, cavalry officers, and western fighters whose careers show the variety of Union generalship. Nathaniel P. Banks, Benjamin F. Butler, John C. Fr mont, Franz Sigel, Samuel R. Curtis, James G. Blunt, Henry Hunt, Quincy Gillmore, George Armstrong Custer, Philip Kearny, John Gibbon, James B. McPherson, Nathaniel Lyon, and many others appear as working commanders shaped by battle, politics, training, ambition, and the demands of a rapidly expanding war.

Each article gives a clear narrative account of what the general did in the Civil War: where he served, what commands he held, how he performed in battle, and how his decisions affected the campaigns around him. The entries move beyond short summaries and treat command as practical work. These officers had to organize raw regiments, move armies over poor roads, protect supply lines, coordinate artillery and cavalry, hold occupied cities, fight through confused battlefields, and answer pressure from Washington, state governments, newspapers, and rival commanders.

Volume One shows the Union Army as an institution still learning how to fight a continental war. Some generals rose through courage and competence. Some failed when given army command. Some succeeded in specialized roles that rarely receive the same attention as the largest battles. Together, their careers reveal the uncertain, costly, and often uneven process by which the Union built the command structure that eventually carried the war to victory.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H75LGZM2
• ISBN13: 9798185125106
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"