General William S. Harney: Prince of Dragoons

I was impressed with Rollie Adams' Harney biography. It's trite to say that this biography "reads like a novel" and that "I just couldn't put it down," but those cliches are certainly true here. I bought this book intending to dip into it for those parts that would help me with a book I'm writing myself, but the introduction hooked me. I read the entire book through, rereading parts of it in my attempt to understand Harney. Mr. Adams must have had fun researching and writing Prince of Dragoons! He certainly made a larger than life historical figure come alive for me. His search for primary sources for this biography are exhaustive and his interpretations of them perceptive. I recommend this well-written, well-edited book to anyone interested in 19th century military history and to anyone just wanting a "really good read."

This is an outstanding book that is both well-researched and clearly written. It is badly needed and therefore most welcome for students of the pre-Civil war army and its frontier campaigns. When the Civil War erupted, Brig. Gen. Harney was the nation's third most senior general, behind only Winfield Scott and John E. Wool. He was also the country's most accomplished Indian fighter. Yet he has been forgotten along with Gens. David E. Twiggs and E.V. Sumner. Rollie Adams has rescued Harney from oblivion and in the process sheds light on the behavior of the antebellum army's officer corps as well as on the extraordinary unit -- the Second Regiment of U.S. Dragoons, later redesignated the Second Cavalry -- that Harney led as lieut. col. and col. during 1836-58. Rollie Adams is a realist, and so he brings to the reader's attention not only his subject's long suits (valor, strategic thinking, organizational skills, and innovation) but also the warts (impulsiveness, financial irresponsibility, lack of tact and diplomacy, and a persistent streak of brutality). With respect to the short suits, the army court-martialed Harney four times and a civil court near St. Louis tried him a fifth time for bludgeoning a female slave to death. This was a leader who was a very mixed bag in the sense of a complex (and at times unattractive) psyche and command style. That Harney could overcome these short suits to rise as rapidly as he did is a direct reflection of the pre-Civil War army's willingness to overlook a hopelessly contentious, brutal personality because of its needs for his skills and talents. In a sense, Harney was an officer deeply affected by his long-time mentor, Twiggs, and he in turn impacted the contentious behavior of argumentative officers like his subordinate, Philip St.George Cooke. Small wonder that at one point Harney even went so far as to prefer charges against Gen. Scott for executing the sentence of one of the courts-martial that had convicted Harney! For Harney it all came crashing down with his role in the so-called "Pig War" of 1859 -- a clash in the Pacific Northwest in which he singlehandedly almost brought on an armed clash between the U.S. and U.K. in a border dispute -- and then finally because of his mishandling of the political situation in volatile Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War. This book is not only well-written, it is well made -- printed on highly quality paper with a handsome type design and with page headings/numbers displayed at the bottom of each page in such a way as to minimize reader distractions as happens with conventional layouts. I recommend Rollie Adams' book most highly. It ought to be read in tandem with the recent re-issue of Rodenbough's classic "From Everglade to Canyon with the Second Cavalry" and Durwood Ball's new book "Army Regulars on the Western Frontier, 1848-1861."

GENERAL WILLIAM S. HARNEY: PRINCE OF DRAGOONS, is the first full-length biography of this important American warrior since 1878. George Rollie Adams has combined his skills as an eminent historian and gripping story-teller to bring to print the complete narrative of one of the country's most important, yet relatively forgotten, military leaders. Raised on the Tennessee frontier, General William Selby Harney patterned many of his traits after his neighbor, Andrew Jackson, and like "Old Hickory," often drew criticism from his West Point-trained associates. Yet, when he died in 1889, Harney's military career had spanned seven decades, and he had participated in every one of his country's major wars and military conflicts beginning in 1818. This is an outstanding biography--one that shows the author's years of dedication and research into the life and times of this very important American figure. This book should be nominated for the Pulitzer in biography.

Insights into the complex personality of a prominent Civil War general are fascinating. But this is more than a character study; it is an interesting history of government policy and the role of the military. The author, a gifted writer, has succeeded in making this an engaging human interest story within a significant period of military history. It is thoroughly enjoyable reading.