Argues that Davis and Lee had sharply conflicting views on the proper conduct of war, with Davis in favor of a defensive war and Lee and the other generals in favor of taking the offensive; and that the lack of unified purpose and strategy doomed the Confederacy.

General William Tecumseh Sherman famously said, "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it." This statement has contributed to his mythic status as a grim-visaged character who embodied implacable war. Now acclaimed Civil War historian Steven E. Woodworth delivers a nuanced, insightful portrait of Sherman as an original, decisive, and efficient leader who wanted the war to end as quickly as possible, and whose level-headed singleness of purpose gave...