Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command is the most colorful and popular of Douglas Southall Freeman's works. A sweeping narrative that presents a multiple biography against the flame-shot background of the American Civil War, it is the story of the great figures of the Army of Northern Virginia who fought under Robert E. Lee. The Confederacy won resounding victories throughout the war, but seldom easily or without tremendous casualties. Death was always on the heels of fame, but the men who commanded—among them Jackson, Longstreet, and Ewell—developed as leaders and men. Lee's Lieutenants follows these men to the costly battle at Gettysburg, through the deepening twilight of the South's declining military might, and finally to the collapse of Lee's command and his formal surrender in 1865. To his unparalleled descriptions of men and operations, Dr. Freeman adds an insightful analysis of the lessons learned and their bearing upon the future military development of the nation. Accessible at last in a one-volume edition abridged by noted Civil War historian Stephen W. Sears, Lee's Lieutenants is essential reading for all Civil War buffs, students of war, and admirers of the historian's art as practiced at its very highest level.

An unquestioned masterpiece of the historian's art, and a towering landmark in the literature of the American Civil War. Volume one of this magnificent three-volume narrative closed with the Confederate reorganization that followed the Seven Days' battles. In volume two, "Cedar Mountain to Chancellorsville," Douglas Southall Freeman recounts the succession of battles that are among the most celebrated in the history of American warfare. The Confederacy won resounding victories in 1862-63, but they were seldom won easily or at light cost. Death was always on the heels of fame, but the men who survived—among them Jackson, Longstreet, and Ewell—would continue to develop as commanders and as men. In these chapters, a new type of officer arises. He is still learning, still rounding to the full stature of a leader, and combat is still his glory. At second Manassas he is John Hood; at South Mountain he is Robert Rodes; at Sharpsburg he is John Cook, and at Chancellorsville there is a goodly fellowship: Rodes and Ramseur and Pender and Wilcox. But it is Jackson who is the central figure in this volume. The history of the Confederate Army from Cedar Mountain to Sharpsburg and back again to the Rappahannock is, in its finest lines, his military biography. By the spring of 1863, "Old Jack" personifies the mobility, the resolution, and the offensive daring of the Army, and his death is a defeat that cancels all the gains at Chancellorsville.

An unquestioned masterpiece of the historian's art, and a towering landmark in the literature of the American Civil War.In "Gettysburg to Appomattox, " Douglas Southall Freeman concludes his monumental three-volume study of Lee's command of the Confederacy, a dramatic history that brings to vivid life the men in that command and the part each played in this country's most tragic struggle. Volume three continues the stirring account of Lee's army, from the costly battle at Gettysburg, through the deepening twilight of the South's declining military might, to the tragic inward collapse of Lee's command and his formal surrender in 1865. To his unparalleled descriptions of Lee's subordinates and the operations in which they participated, Dr. Freeman adds an insightful analysis of the lessons that were to be learned from the story of the Army of Northern Virginia and their bearing upon the future military development of the nation. As in the first two volumes, portrait photographs, military maps, several appendixes, and a bibliography add to the clarity and richness of the book. The complete three-volume study, "Lee's Lieutenants, " is a classic touchstone in the literature of American biography, and in all the literature of war.