Alderhanna Releases a Groundbreaking Book by Joseph A. Rose Challenging Ulysses S. Grant's Reputation as a Military Genius and as a Reliable Chronicler of the Civil War

"This new book," according to its author, Joseph A. Rose, "describes how General Grant suffered the biggest military surprise of the Civil War, committed the worst official act of anti-Semitism on United States soil, and came closest of all federal commanders to losing Washington, D.C. In ranking his generalship above Robert E. Lee's, Grant's defenders ignore both his crude, pugnacious strategies that resulted in a costly war of attrition and his amateurish tactics of impulsive, futile frontal assaults against fortified positions. Besides, his rampant cronyism poisoned the Union war effort. With 621 pages of text, 37 maps, and 105 pages of endnotes, this scholarly work defines the military career of Ulysses S. Grant."

Commendations: "Impressively researched, Grant Under Fire is an iconoclastic but exceptionally well documented contribution to our clearer and more in-depth understanding of the role Grant played in the American Civil War. Informed and informative, Grant Under Fire is a seminal work of exhaustive scholarship." -Midwest Book Review

Praise from noted Civil War authors: "Joseph A. Rose presents an engaging critical assessment of Grant's generalship that is destined to provoke lively debate." -Gordon Rhea, author of The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864 and The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864 and To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13-25, 1864 and Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864

"Rose writes with a vigorous style, and supports his thesis with impressive research and incisive analysis." -Robert I. Girardi, author of The Soldiers' General: Major General Gouverneur K. Warren and the Civil War

"Grant Under Fire reveals a general with a dramatically different character than the one he portrayed for himself." -Lawrence Lee Hewitt, author of Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi and co-editor of the three-volume Confederate Generals in the Western Theater

"A well-written, exhaustively researched essay." -John Horn, author of The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 and The Petersburg Campaign, May 1864-April 1865

"Rose's prodigious and impeccable scholarship greatly strengthens his penetrating analysis of both Grant the man and Grant the commander." -William Glenn Robertson, author of Back Door to Richmond: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, April-June 1864 and The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of Old Men and Young Boys, June 9, 1864

"Just to set the record straight, there should be more future insightful research and commentary, as you will find here." -Wiley Sword, author of Shiloh: Bloody April and Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville and Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863

"It is a must for any serious student of the Civil War." -Frank Varney, author of General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War

This groundbreaking work resolves such controversies as Grant's drunken partying with the enemy, unfairly blaming Lew Wallace for the slow march to Shiloh, pretending to possess a plan to pass Vicksburg, taking credit for the charge up Missionary Ridge, leaving wounded men to die between the lines at Cold Harbor, and mistreating Black soldiers and civilians. His celebrated Personal Memoirs are shown to be unreliable, while Grant was remarkably untruthful, careless, persistent, indolent, aggressive, unjust, biased, impetuous and lucky.

Joseph A. Rose spent twelve years writing Grant Under Fire, combining original research-rigorously based on primary sources-and investigative historiography.