Richard W Forziati: Command and Sacrifice, Gebunden

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During the Civil War, Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick commanded Union troops in four of the five highest-casualty battles: Gettysburg, Spotsylvania Court House, Chancellorsville, and the Wilderness. Beyond these engagements, Sedgwick endured the fierce fighting in the West Woods at Antietam, the interludes of the Peninsula Campaign, and the struggles of the Seven Days' Battles. Throughout, a mixture of duty and Unionism fueled Sedgwick's perseverance until a Confederate sharpshooter's bullet took his life on May 9, 1864. Command and Sacrifice: A Military Biography of Union General John Sedgwick , a comprehensive biography by Richard W. Forziati, examines the generalship and his place in Civil War history.

As an 1837 West Point graduate, Sedgwick served more than twenty years in the military before the Civil War. He honed his soldierly skills and earned a reputation for bravery during the Mexican War, while policing violence in Kansas during the 1850s, participating in two Indian War campaigns, and overseeing the construction of Fort Wise on the western frontier. Once the Civil War began, Sedgwick quickly rose through the ranks of brigade, division, and corps command and even temporarily led the Army of the Potomac. As a result, he established relationships with many of the most prominent Union generals in the Eastern Theater, including Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, George Gordon Meade, Joseph Hooker, and Edwin Sumner. Despite his storied career, Sedgwick has received minimal coverage, a gap in the historiography Command and Sacrifice amply fills.

Forziati utilizes a range of sources including unpublished letters, personal journals, newspapers, and other primary and secondary materials, all of which deepen our understanding of the Connecticut native. Command and Sacrifice focuses especially on Sedgwick's leadership and strong character; he was a leader admired by soldiers and peers, and a committed combatant. Sedgwick was consistently frustrated by inexperienced volunteers, Washington's political influence, and internal disputes within the army, all of which complicated the Union's preservation. None of this kept Sedgwick from his duty.

McClellan once remarked about Sedgwick, "It was necessary to be thrown closely in contact with him to appreciate him." This biography achieves that closeness and, in doing so, highlights the man and the general as vital to our understanding of the Army of the Potomac and the broader Civil War.