Ulysses S. Grant: Unlikely Hero, and: Robert E. Lee: Gentleman General (review)

book reviews347 Records ofthe War ofthe Rebellion was sparingly cited and referred to as "WR " rather than the standard OR. The endnotes consist mostly of supplementary information and opinions on the text, rather than citations of sources. Although correspondence with the Smithsonian, the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and the National Archives were acknowledged, other Howard depositories were not.The extensive O.O. Howard Papers at Bowdoin College and other collections at both Howard University as well as the U.S. Military Academy Library and Archives were never cited. The author seems to be most interested in Howard's post-Freedmen's Bureau activities with western Indians. The book would have been better with this theme in mind as many factual errors can be noted early in the book. For instance , West Virginia is claimed as a state as early as 1 859 (West Virginia became a state on December 31, 1863). The first recorded strategic movement of troops by railroad was not during theAmerican CivilWar but in the 1859 FrancoAustrian War in Italy. The Presidio is not the "oldest continuously occupied military post on North American soil"; West Point, New York, has been since January 20, 1778. Howard received his Congressional Medal of Honor for heroic actions at Fair Oaks, Virginia (where he lost his right arm), and not at Gettysburg. The author forgets that Gen. U. S. Grant was in the U.S. Military Academy Class of 1843 and was taught military tactics and strategy by Prof. Dennis Hart Manan. The statement that "If Grant ever met Manan, he must have been, blessedly, sober at the time. He never forgot anything he heard while drunk" is completely wrong. The Major Bourne mentioned in the notes on page 175 is actually Maj. John Gregory Bourke, Brig. Gen. George Crook's able and famous aide. The use of the terms "quintessential" and "minions" will also distract readers . Other annoying jargon include "macho" and "heard a bellyful." This book would have benefited from a dose of editorial expression. A new study of O. O. Howard is still needed. Howard was a prominent decision maker in both the Civil War and Reconstruction era, and a fair and accurate reexamination of his career and times should be attempted. Unfortunately, what Weland wrote is badly researched and does nothing to further the life and times of Howard and his position in American history. Alan C. Aimone U.S. Military Academy Library Ulysses S. Grant: Unlikely Hero. Library ofGreatLeaders. CD-ROM. (Bethesda, Md.: Isis Media Group, 1996). Robert E. Lee: Gentleman General. Library of Great Leaders. CD-ROM. (Bethesda, Md.: Isis Media Group, 1996). Academic historians are beginning to take seriously history published in formats other than books and scholarly articles. The History Computer Review 348CIVIL WAR HISTORY regularly publishes detailed and scholarly reviews of history-related CD-ROMs, for example, and the Center for History and New Media (at George Mason University and the City University of New York) was established in 1994 to integrate CD-ROMs, laser discs, and the World Wide Web into the mainstream of academic history. Still, some professional historians continue to regard CDROMs and other interactive media with skepticism—too little substance, too little interpretation, too much focus on personalities and battles to be taken seriously. Although such judgments may be suspended with regard to CD-ROM publications of documents collections—the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, for example—generally these new media have not yet been fully embraced by history professionals. The CD-ROMs reviewed here will do little to convince the skeptics. Described as "biodramas" by theirpublisher, these publications provide biographical treatments of the two greatest military figures of the Civil War. A narrator provides an introduction, strings together different subtopics, and ends with a conclusion on the places ofGrant and Lee in United States history. Actors in period dress and settings deliver the words of the two generals and a few other individuals in full-motion video segments. Grantand his wife are the featured speakers on the one CD-ROM; Lee and his military secretary, Armistead Long, on the other. In addition, James McPherson of Princeton University provides...