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Williams, T. Harry. Lincoln and his Generals. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1952.

T. Harry Williams gives a thorough account of President Abraham Lincoln and his actions and decisions as commander in chief during the Civil War. He also describes the Union Generals that Lincoln had the most interest in and how their actions affected the war and helped to influence Lincoln as the commander in chief.

He begins with the outbreak of the war and the appointment of Winfield Scott as General in Chief of the Union armies and ends with the surrender of Lee and the defeat of the Confederacy. In Williams's portrayal Lincoln is seen as a brilliant man and the greatest president during a time of war. One gets the impression that Williams sees Lincoln as a hero, and thus attempts to present Lincoln in the best light possible.

In reviewing Lincoln and his Generals there are a few major points which everyone should consider. Is the author being totally truthful, or is he skewing the data to support his point? What are his sources and how do they influence the book? When was the book written, and in what frame of mind might the author have been in while writing this book? Could social influences have impacted his thinking? These questions are answered, and unfortunately not to the benefit of the book or author. Williams's book has many flaws, which thus make it an unfair representation of Lincoln and the events that took place during the Civil War period.
The first problem with Lincoln and his Generals is that Williams greatly misleads the reader. He contradicts his own guidelines for the book by writing about things that he says he is not going to focus on. He claims in the preface that the book is an account of Lincoln as commander in chief, not a history of the Civil War. This is false. Most of the book is a detailed, chronological account of events during the Civil War. Specific events and how Lincoln and his generals faced those events are described in the book. He discusses the Peninsula Campaign of General McClellan, the Shenandoah Valley Campaign that was an attempt to route Jackson, the Battle of Antietam, and many others. The book focuses on Lincoln as Commander and Chief but his generals, and the elements of a chronological history of the war are still very large portions of the book.

Williams also says that Lincoln and his Generals is not a collection of biographies on specific generals. This is also false. George McClellan, John Pope, Henry W. Halleck, John C. Fremont,

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