American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

The Grand Design - Strategy and the U. S. Civil War by Donald Stoker

I consider this one a must have for anyone who wants a well rounded Civil War library. The book tends to be more scholarly than an easy read but the subject is addressed in a depth that no other CW book has attempted.

Stroker examines how Lincoln, Davis and their Generals saw the war in stragetic, operational and tactical terms. He follows their changing understanding from the beginning to the end of the war and how it affected their policies and strategies. He discussed in considerable detail how well Davis and Lincoln understood their respective political goals and how it should effect strategic and operational planning for the military. Also, how the various Generals on both sides saw their strategic goals and whether they overlaped into the political goals.

One of his more interesting observations is that only three people really rose to having a true strategic understanding of the Civil War. They were Lincoln, Grant and Lee. Lincoln had a firm grasp of what the Union's political goals were and with Grant he had someone who new how to turn that into both a strategy and an operational plan. Lee understood the political needs of the South and how it affected strategy but with Davis he had a political leader who thought he was a general and couldn't see beyond that.

Stroker has an interesting analyis of the strategic and operational plans of 1862 and how they had the potentail to end the war that year. And, why they didn't. It is interesting to follow his discussions of the military situations in both 1862 and 1863 that allowed the war to reach a climax that were then lost due to both sides losing sight of their objectives.

He does a good shop of showing how victories on the battlefield were merely a side result of the strategic and operational plans that caused those battles.

_________________
General Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
AoT II/1/3 (CSA)