I read your review of Grant, Ed — nice. I have been reading and writing about American Civil War luminaries for some fifty years, and sometimes it seems as though I can become them, at least as far as putting their thinking on paper.

Strangely enough the general I admire the most is General George B. McClellan, though the one I would be most like is Grant, and as you must know, in every possible way the two men are dissimilar.

Grant’s strength, I think, was as a big picture guy, a much better strategist than tactician, so the higher in rank he rose the more effective he became.

Being a big picture guy made him a natural writer and a lousey entrepreneur and politician.

I have written several books, mostly of a military nature. But I think the most unique one is Apprentice Killers: The War of Lincoln and Davis. This is because I tried not to write it from my perspective, but alternating the very biased viewpoints of events as they unfolded though the mindsets of Lincoln, Grant, McClellan, Davis, Lee and Joseph E. Johnston. This is a broad sweep of conflicting perspectives to say the least, but that way it is left to readers to draw their own conclusions.