Overview

Union General tells the story of the most successful Federal general west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War, Samuel Ryan Curtis (1805-1866). Union General is the first biography of Samuel Ryan Curtis, the most important and most successful general on either side in the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. Curtis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War veteran, and determined foe of secession who gave up his seat in Congress to fight for the Union. At Pea Ridge in 1862 and Westport in 1864, he marched hundreds of miles across hostile countryside, routed Confederate armies larger than his own, and reestablished Federal control over large swathes of rebel territory. In addition to his remarkable success as a largely independent field commander, Curtis was one of only a handful of abolitionist generals in the Union army. He dealt a heavy blow to slavery in the Trans-Mississippi and Mississippi Valley months before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. His enlightened racial policies and practices generated a storm of criticism and led to his temporary suspension in the middle of the conflict face - but he was restored to active duty in time to win a crushing victory at Westport, where he saved Kansas and put an end to Price's Raid. Before the war Curtis was an accomplished civil engineer, a prime mover of the transcontinental railroad, and an important figure in the emerging Republican Party and was elected three times to the House of Representatives from Iowa. After the war he participated in pioneering efforts in peacemaking with the Plains Indians and helped oversee construction of the Union Pacific across Nebraska. This biography restores Curtis to his rightful place in American history and adds significantly to our understanding of the Civil War. AUTHOR: William L. Shea is author and coauthor of numerous books on the Civil War including Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign, and Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River (Nebraska, 2005).

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9781640125186

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Kudos to William Shea for rescuing Samuel Ryan Curtis from the historical wilderness. Engineer, architect, attorney, congressman, and veteran soldier, Curtis was an enormously accomplished and complex man who, more than any other person, secured Union victory in the Trans-Mississippi. In explaining how and why Curtis triumphed, Shea has produced a masterful biography, nuanced, lively, and comprehensive. --Daniel E. Sutherland, author of A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War More than 150 years after his death, Samuel Ryan Curtis, one of the Union's most capable but least acclaimed generals, finally gets the rich, detailed biography he has long deserved, courtesy of one of our leading Civil War historians. This is a major contribution to our understanding of the titanic struggle in the sprawling Trans-Mississippi. --Thomas A. DeBlack, author of With Fire and Sword: Arkansas, 1861-1874 William Shea succeeds admirably in proving his argument that Samuel Ryan Curtis was the most important military figure in the Trans-Mississippi and an extremely important figure in the Civil War overall. Well written, engrossing, and definitive, readers will welcome this first major biography of Curtis from one of our best Civil War historians. --Timothy B. Smith, author of Shiloh: Conquer or Perish William Shea's study of Samuel Ryan Curtis is the most important biography of a Civil War figure to be produced in many years and one of the very few that does not retread well-worn ground. . . . Shea's meticulous research restores Curtis to the position of significance he deserves as the dominant Union commander west of the Mississippi, a leader whose influence on the overall course of the war exceeded that of a host of more familiar soldiers. This is essential reading. --William Garrett Piston, coauthor of We Gave Them Thunder Marmaduke's Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas

Author Information

William L. Shea is author and coauthor of numerous books on the Civil War, including Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West, Fields of Blood: The Prairie Grove Campaign, and Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River (Nebraska, 2005).  

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