Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders

More than forty years after its original publication, Ezra J. Warner’s Generals in Blue is now available in paperback for the first time. Warner’s classic reference work includes intriguing biographical sketches and a rare collection of photographs of all 583 men who attained the rank of general in the Union Army. Here are the West Point graduates and the political appointees; the gifted, the mediocre, and the inexcusably bad; those of impeccable virtue and those who abused their position; the northern-born, the foreign-born, and the southerners who remained loyal to the Union. Warner’s valuable introduction discusses the criteria for appointment and compares the civilian careers of both Union and Confederate generals, revealing striking differences in the two groups. Generals in Blue is that rare book—an essential volume for scholars, a prized item for buffs, and a biographical dictionary that the casual reader will find absorbing.

AUTHOR BIO: Ezra J. Warner (1910–1974) was also the author of Generals in Gray. A native of Lake Forest, Illinois, he lived in La Jolla, California, and was well known for his work in Civil War biography. His great-uncle was General James Meech Warner of the Union Army.