Grant as Military Commander

London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1970. Hardcover. 244 pages + maps. Illustrations. Maps. Footnotes. Appendices. Chronological Table. Bibliography. Index. Bookplate. DJ worn and creased. Ink name and date inside front flyleaf, lower corner front DJ flap clipped. General Sir James Handyside Marshall-Cornwall KCB, CBE, DSO, MC (27 May 1887 – 1985) was a British Army officer and linguist. On the outbreak of World War I Cornwall joined the Intelligence Corps. In 1915 he was appointed to the rank of Captain at 2nd corps headquarters in the Second Army. In 1916 he was promoted to temporary major at the general headquarters of the British expeditionary force, under Sir Douglas Haig. In 1918, Cornwall was head of the MI3 section of the military intelligence directorate, where he remained until the armistice. In 1919, Cornwall was sent to the peace conference in Paris, where he worked with Reginald Leeper and Harold Nicolson on the new boundaries of Europe. Several jobs in the Middle East in the 1920s gave him the opportunity to study Turkish and modern Greek. From 1928 to 1932 he held the post of military attaché in Berlin. In 1934, he was promoted major-general. In 1938, he was promoted to lieutenant-general, in charge of the air defence of Great Britain. In May 1940 he went to France to help evacuate British troops from Cherbourg, boarding the last ship to leave the port. He took over command of III Corps in England in June 1940 holding the post until November 1940. In April 1941 Marshall-Cornwall became General Officer Commanding the British troops in Egypt. . He spent the rest of the war with the Special Operations Executive and MI6. Grant As Military Commander by General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall KCB CBE DSO MC. In 1861, when the Civil War began, Ulysses S. Grant was an ill-paid, somewhat drunken, 38 year-old clerk in the township of Galena, Illinois. Four years later, when he received the surrender of the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee at the historic court house of Appomattox, Grant had established himself as one of the great military commanders of all time. How such a transformation, as extraordinary as any in the annals of generalship, came about, is made clear in this masterly book. he stages in Grant's progress during the War are analyzed with an apparent ease and clarity which disguise an absolute grasp of the subject. A West Point training and active service in the Mexican War meant that, less than a year after joining the Union Army, Grant was already in command of the invasion of Tennessee. Thereafter the milestones in his achievement are marked by some of the most memorable names in the War: Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg. General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall's approach is illuminating from several points of view. As a student of the Napoleonic campaigns and as the author of military biographies of Massena and of Napoleon himself, Sir James is able to appraise Grant's achievement not merely in the context of the Civil War, but by comparison with the acknowledged masters of strategy and tactics. As a geographer, Sir James (a Past-President of the Royal Geographical Society) is constantly aware of the terrain over which Grant fought and so of the physical considerations by which he was bound. As a serving officer, at every level, in two World Wars, Sir James shows an awareness — not always shared by arm-chair strategists — of what the command of troops and the presence of a resourceful enemy actually entail. Again, Sir James's personal experience of military leadership enables him to analyse sympathetically Grant's relations both with his superiors and with his subordinates. Finally, during his visits to the U.S., Sir James studied on the spot the battlefields with which he is here concerned. General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall analyzes Grant's transformation into one of the great military commanders of all time, by comparison with the acknowledged masters of strategy and tactics, and by his personal experience of military leadership. Ulysses S. Grant, Sir James Marshall-Cornwall believes, was one of the great military commanders of history. Clearly and persuasively this book sets out the grounds on which this conviction is based. Condition: Good / Fair.

Keywords: Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War, Military Leadership, Strategy & Tactics, Military Geography, Battle Studies, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga

[Book #48034]

Price: $45.00