Joseph Rose answers â€œI know Chernow is at the height of his...â€� â€� Grant Q&A

David asked this question about Grant:

I know Chernow is at the height of his fame and powers, but do you think he can top what Ronald C. White has achieved with American Ulysses?

Joseph Rose If you closely read Ron White (and I admit to only having read portions of his work), you'll see that his depth of knowledge isn't that great and thatâ€¦m´Ç°ù±ðIf you closely read Ron White (and I admit to only having read portions of his work), you'll see that his depth of knowledge isn't that great and that he accepts all-too-willingly the glowing falsehoods of Grant's Memoirs and the earlier biographers. Especially in writing of Grant's military career, White makes unforced errors that show a lack of foundation.(less)

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David Kutch He swallows whole the argument that Grant never boozed either. Framed his decision to do so in a self-aggrandizing way and then didn't even bother to ...more
Dec 03, 2018 01:27PM · flag

Joseph Rose I've gone through almost all of this extensive work (some portions more than once), and it really is that bad. A few more examples of atrocious schola I've gone through almost all of this extensive work (some portions more than once), and it really is that bad. A few more examples of atrocious scholarship:

Just in the section on the battle of Shiloh, Chernow recirculates the falsehood that William T. Sherman commanded two divisions (his own and John A. McClernandâ€™s); he has Grant expecting Lew Wallace to have marched at up to six miles per hour on April 6th over a partially mud-filled route; he has Grant thinking that Wallace was insubordinate and believing that Wallace had planned to get in the Confederate rear (that was only Wallaceâ€™s thought upon the arrival of Grantâ€™s aide, not his plan); and he has Grant ordering Wallace to Pittsburg Landing, which contradicts a mountain of evidence that Wallace was ordered to the right of the army. The whole chapter ignores Grantâ€™s deficient intelligence-gathering, which led to his being surprised, and his almost complete lack of preparations before the battle. It is creditable that Chernow acknowledges both the surprise and lack of preparations, yet he still asserts that, â€œ[d]espite his punctilious regard for accuracyâ€� Grant merely â€œshaded the truth.â€� The author writes how, â€œPerhaps no other Union general at this stage of the war would have dared such a counteroffensiveâ€� on April 7th, the second day of battle. Yet Don Carlos Buell counterattacked that day, and Chernow contradicts himself by stating that Grant couldnâ€™t order Buell and the Army of the Ohio, meaning that Buell must have â€œdared such a counteroffensive.â€� Chernow insults every other Union general by intimating that they also would not have counterattacked, despite the 20,000 soldiers who had just arrived on the field, doubling the effective Union force.

Furthermore, Chernow has trouble with basic military facts and concepts. He writes that losses for the two opponents at Shiloh totaled 24,000 killed or wounded (but almost 4,000 of these were missing or captured), and then he goes on to contend that this dwarfed those at the Battle of Waterloo, where the participants really suffered twice as many casualties or more. He finishes this section with a misreading of Grantâ€™s Personal Memoirs by stating that â€œGrant believed Corinth could have been taken two days after Shiloh.â€� Grant had actually written that, â€œFor myself I am satisfied that Corinth could have been captured in a two daysâ€� campaign commenced promptly on the arrival of reinforcements after the battle of Shiloh.â€� ...more
Sep 08, 2020 03:31PM · flag

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