Master of War

During the Civil War, General George H. Thomas won battles less bloodily than Generals Grant and Sherman, but he does not have their historical stature today. Benson Bobrick clearly plays advocate for Thomas, and Norman Dietz's narration reflects that, adding enough indignation at Thomas's treatment by rivals Grant and Sherman to the otherwise straightforward historical account to make a strong case for the forgotten hero. Dietz creates a warm portrait of the quiet, dignified Thomas, letting the general's good-hearted personality come through with attention to personal anecdotes and details while concentrating on his military strategies and political travails. Dietz's narration successfully builds Bobrick's conclusion--that Thomas should have been recognized for his character and brilliance. J.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

November 10, 2008
George Thomas remains one of the less studied and less appreciated Union generals in the Civil War. In the first full-scale biography for decades, historian Bobrick (Testament: A Soldier’s Story of the Civil War
) presents a Virginian who stood by his oath to the United States; a commander who saved Kentucky for the Union; brought the Army of the Cumberland out of disaster at Chickamaugua to glory at Missionary Ridge; and destroyed an entire Confederate army at Nashville. Bobrick describes Thomas as consistently victimized by generals Sherman and Grant, who created from whole cloth an enduring image of Thomas as slow to act and think. Bobrick makes a convincing case that the only time Thomas was “slow” was in retreating under fire. Above all, Thomas understood that the modern high-tech battlefield required not heroic inspiration but deliberate preparation. When the time was right, he acted with a decisiveness comparable among his contemporaries only to Prussia’s Helmuth von Moltke. Bobrick considers Thomas the greatest Union general. That remains open to argument, but he incontrovertibly stands in the 19th century’s first rank as a master of war. 16 pages of illus.; maps.