Joseph Wheelan – författare

A unique and compelling examination of the Civil War''s "turning point"—forty crucial days in the spring of 1864 that turned the tide for the Union

In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4 Grant''s army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee''s army contesting every mile. They fought for forty days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg.

The campaign cost ninety thousand men—the largest loss the war had seen. While Grant lost nearly twice as many men as Lee did, he could replace them. Lee could not and would never again mount another major offensive. Lee''s surrender at Appomattox less than a year later was the denouement of the drama begun in those crucial forty days.

Two centuries ago, without congressional or public debate, Thomas Jefferson, a president who is thought of today as peaceable, launched America’s first war on foreign soil—a war against terror. The enemy was Muslim; the war was waged unconventionally, with commandos, native troops, and encrypted intelligence, and launched from foreign bases.

For nearly two hundred years, the Barbary pirates had haunted the Mediterranean, enslaving tens of thousands of Europeans and extorting millions of dollars from their countries in a mercenary holy war against Christendom. Sailing in sleek corsairs built for speed and plunder, the Barbary pirates attacked European and American merchant shipping with impunity, triumphing as much by terror as force of arms.

The author traces the events leading to Jefferson’s belief that peace with the Barbary States and respect from Europe could be achieved only through the “medium of war.”