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and many other generals are described in some detail in the book. So not only is Williams's statement very misleading, but also the title of the book contradicts this statement. As reader finds out as through the course of the book, Williams individually describes many of the generals. On the whole, more time is spent describing generals and their command decisions, than Lincoln and his functions as commander in chief. In fact, for most of the first third of the book McClellan upstages Lincoln as the focus of the book. Williams takes a lot of time in describing the relationship between Lincoln and McClellan, and Lincoln's growing realization that McClellan is inept as a commander.

Finally, Williams says that Lincoln and his Generals is not going to give a description of the organization or the command structure of the Northern armies. This is not totally truthful either. Many paragraphs are devoted to describing the inefficiency of the command system and Lincoln's annoyance with the problem. In actuality, Lincoln is not even mentioned in the book until after all the organizational issues have been covered. Prior to that, the book is giving details on the unorganized and inadequate command system. This is exactly what Williams said he was not going to focus on.

Describing some of the events in the Civil War and the actions of some of the generals is not a bad thing when giving a history of Lincoln as the commander in chief. In fact, it is a necessity. Trying to discuss Lincoln as commander in chief without mentioning the Civil War and some of the generals would be like trying to discuss Eisenhower without mentioning the importance of his Normandy decision. A man's character is formed by the events and experiences of his life. Williams understands that and mentions in the preface that describing some of the generals will be an inevitability. But, he also states that the book is supposed to be about Lincoln and his different functions as commander in chief. It was not. Lincoln and his Generals was a combination of many different aspects of the time period, and any reader looking for information of Lincoln exclusively would find better resources than Lincoln and his Generals.

The second problem with Williams's book is that the reader does not have to actually read very far into the book to find out what Williams thinks of Lincoln as commander in chief during the Civil War. He states his conclusions of Lincoln in the first page of the preface. He makes a very bold

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