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statement that "...Lincoln stands out as a great war president, probably the greatest in our history, and a great natural strategist, a better one than any of his generals." Everyone would probably agree that Lincoln was a good president, possibly even one of the best. But if you are going to say that he is the greatest war president in American history, you need to have extensive support to back up your statement as well as equal research into many of the other war presidents. One must remember that there are quite a few other presidents who would be competing with Lincoln for that kind of acknowledgment.

This kind of profound announcement is also a huge foreshadowing of a biased, one-sided book. The only reason for a reader to continue reading is to find out how Williams can justify making such a bold statement. Otherwise, if the reader already knows what the conclusions of the book are, he has no need to continue reading.

This foreshadowing also tells the reader of the predetermination that whenever there is a question as to the correctness of one of the president's decisions, the author will always come to the defense of Lincoln. Whenever Williams brings up a situation where Lincoln might have made a poor decision, he usually also brings up a perfectly good explanation for why the President made that decision. Williams usually passes it off as inexperience on the part of the generals or the uniqueness of the situation. One such incident occurred during the Peninsula Campaign. Lincoln halted the movement of McDowell's corps, a unit that was on its way to reinforce McClellan, and was accused of preventing Richmond from being captured. The author quickly came to the defense of Lincoln by saying that Lincoln was not afraid for the safety of Washington. Lincoln was concerned for another army in the area that was in retreat. General Pope was falling back towards Washington after having been defeated. Whether Lincoln's actions were justified or not, is not the issue. It simply shows Williams defending his forgone conclusion that Lincoln is the greatest war president in American history. This becomes a continuing and annoying trend throughout the book, and is maintained until the end. On the very last page, Williams clearly states that most of Lincoln's orders had been good ones. He simply refused to address the decisions that were questionable. But, as has been shown, there have obviously been some that should have been questioned. This makes for a very boring

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