The Training Ground

March 17, 2008
Dugard (The Last Voyage of Columbus
) offers a fast-paced, colloquially written account of the Mexican War of 1848, constructed around the experiences of the U.S. Army’s corps of junior officers. Shaped by the common experience of West Point and tempered by battle, these comrades in arms (including Lee, Grant, Davis and Sherman) matured into the leading generals and statesmen on both sides of the Civil War. Dugard introduces others as well, from Union artilleryman Henry Hunt to Confederate icon Stonewall Jackson, who also learned their craft fighting the Mexicans. At the war’s end, commanding general Winfield Scott saluted West Point’s graduates as the key to America’s victory over Mexico. The image of a band of brothers transformed into enemies by conscience and politics is a familiar trope of the Civil War, but Dugard’s spirited narrative animates a group of men whose force of character, professional skill and ability to think outside conventional limits revitalized the sclerotic army. Readers will conclude this book with reinforced awareness of why the Civil War was so long and so bitterly fought: because, as Dugard shows, the contending armies were shaped and led by a remarkably capable—and experienced—body of officers.

April 15, 2008
In his newest work, "New York Times" best-selling author Dugard ("The Last Voyage of Columbus: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 18461848") gives a straightforward account of the Mexican War, but with a twist. He lets us see the war through the eyes of several young officersprimarily Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee but also George G. Meade, William T. Sherman, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and otherswho would rise to prominence during the Civil War. While Dugard does sketch in the big picture so that the reader is able to understand the course of the Mexican War, his purpose is to provide a richly detailed account of the battles, secret missions, and daring rescues and thus to show how participation in the Mexican War prepared these junior officers for the roles they would later play in the Civil War. Academic libraries will prefer Joseph Wheelan's "Invading Mexico", Timothy J. Henderson's "A Glorious Defeat", and John C. Pinheiro's "Manifest Ambition". This less scholarly book will appeal to lay readers and Civil War buffs and is recommended for all public libraries.Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette

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