This is the first full-length biography of the Civil War general who
saved the Union army from catastrophic defeat at the Battle of
Chickamauga, and went on to play major roles in the Chattanooga and
Mobile campaigns. Immediately after the war, as commander of U.S. troops
in Texas, his actions sparked the "Juneteenth" celebrations of slavery's
end, which continue to this day.
Granger's first battle was at Wilson's Creek, Missouri, and he soon
thereafter rose through the ranks--cavalry, then infantry--in early 1863
vying with Forrest and Van Dorn for control of central Tennessee. The
artillery platform he erected at Franklin, dubbed Fort Granger, would
soon overlook the death knell of the main Confederate army in the west.
Granger's first fame, however, came at Chickamauga, when the Rebel Army
of Tennessee came within a hair's-breadth of destroying the Union Army
of the Cumberland. Without orders--even defying them--Granger marched
his Reserve Corps to the scene of the hottest action, where Thomas was
just barely holding on with the rump of Rosecrans' army. Bringing fresh
ammunition and hurling his men against Longstreet's oncoming legions,
Granger provided just enough breathing space to prevent that Union
defeat from becoming the worst open-field battle disgrace of the war.
Granger was then given command of a full infantry corps, but just proved
too odd of a fellow to promote further. At Chattanooga he got on the
nerves of U.S. Grant for going off to shoot cannons instead of
commanding his troops (he'd actually indulged this impulse also at
Chickamauga) and Sherman had no use for him either. So he went down to
join Farragut in the conquest of Mobile, Alabama, leading land
operations against the Confederate forts.
This long-overdue biography sheds fascinating new light on a colorful
commander who fought through the war in the West from its first major
battles to its last, and even left his impact on the Reconstruction
beyond.
