By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
If Ulysses Grant was the prototypical Dwight Eisenhower, and if William T. Sherman foreshadowed Omar Bradley, then it is not too much of a stretch to call Philip Sheridan the George Patton of the Union armies of the Civil War -- minus the ego-driven tantrums.
Some publishers promise readers through exaggerated book titles more than the authors intend. This can lead to cases of buyer's remorse. Happily, it is not the case with "Victors in Blue," which, despite its faintly misleading subtitle, is still a valuable addition to anyone's Civil War library and a treat to read.
It's hard to keep up with David McCullough at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.
Virginia's Shenandoah Valley was a secondary theater for most of the Civil War.
What Sheridan argued -- and both Grant and Sherman agreed -- was that the Union Cavalry should be a strike force of its own, confronting the then-superior Confederate horse force and directly attacking and destroying the civilian capacity to supply the Rebel forces, and to prevent Lee's masterful maneuvering of his scarce infantry to advantage on the battlefield.
