The General and the Journalists; Ulysses S. Grant, Horace Greeley, and Charles Dana

Washington DC: Brassey's, Inc, 2001. First Paperback Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. xv, [1], 315, [5] pages. Maps, Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Foreword by Curt Anders. Col. Maihafer was retired from the U.S. Army colonel and a Korean War veteran, a banker and a writer. The first career Mr. Maihafer pursed was in the military, after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1949. For the next two decades he served as an infantry officer stationed in a number of places in and outside of the United States. As a platoon leader during the Korean War, Mr. Maihafer was wounded and received the Purple Heart. He retired in 1969. While still in the military, Mr. Maihafer received a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1966. Col. Maihafer began his writing career when he was in his 60s, publishing books on American politics and history, wars and media. As both general and president, Grant felt the full power of the press. By a remarkable twist of fate, not only his wartime successes but also his peacetime failures were directly influenced by Greeley and Dana, two of the greatest figures of American journalism. The trio provides a fascinating contrast: Grant the simple soldier, unchanged from the time he left West Point until the day he died, honor untarnished but reputation sullied by men in whom he placed too much trust; Greeley the idealistic, brilliant, opinionated kingmaker, alternating in wartime between hawk and dove, forever shifting in his allegiances; and Dana the perverse, pragmatic, cynical intellectual, one of the first to emphasize news over editorials. The General and the Journalists follows the three powerful men as their paths cross during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Maihafer shows how the media greatly affected the conduct of the Civil War and has shaped the public's perception of Lincoln's, Johnson's, and Grant's presidencies.