Men of Fire

Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign that Decided the Civil War

By: Jack Hurst

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

In 1862 Ulysses S. Grant achieved what President Lincoln had sought since the start of the War: the first decisive Union victory. Fought on the western edge of the theater, the Forts Henry and Donelson campaign was a gruesome omen of what was to come.

Grant, until then an obscure brigadier general with a reputation for drink, became the fighting man of the hour, earning the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant for his relentless pounding of the Confederates. But he had a match in ruthlessness in Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest, cavalry commander in the Henry and Donelson campaign, proved a counterweight to Grant: quick and nimble to the former's steady plodding, a ruthless slaveholder and future KKK Grand Wizard to Grant's abolitionism.

Hurst captures the battle of these two great men and armies in all its destructive glory.

©2002 Jack Hurst (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"The best all-around recent life of Forrest." (Kirkus)
"An outstanding study of one of the Civil War's more controversial generals. Essential." (Library Journal)

Mistakes

Significant mispronunciations, rewrites or edits of original text, and awkward character voices hamper otherwise fair, audio version of a great read.