New project - on Robert E. Lee!

 Robert E. Lee is one of the most written-about subjects in American history. There are scores of books, hundreds of articles, a few documentaries, and other forms of media. So why add another book to the stack? That is a question I have been asking a lot over the past few weeks.

In 2024, Savas Beatie published a book on U.S. Grant – Unconditional Surrender: Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War. The co-authors are Curt Fields and Chris Mackowski. Chris is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Emerging Civil War. I’m not so sure how long I have known Chris, but he interviewed me in 2019 when the American Battlefield Trust’s Teacher’s Institute was in Raleigh. I was at the annual teacher’s meeting talking about North Carolina and the end of the War. Curt is undoubtedly the premier U.S. Grant interpreter in the United States. We’ve met in person a couple of times and follow one another’s work online. The book is a part of the Emerging Civil War series. It is a quick introduction to the life, especially the war-years, of U.S. Grant.

If we have a book on Grant, why not a book on Robert E. Lee? I pitched that idea to Chris, and he thought it was a good idea. I then pitched that book idea to Thomas Jessee, someone I first met 40 years ago in the reenacting community. Thomas is undoubtedly the best Robert E. Lee interpreter in the United States. Curt and Thomas are often at Appomattox Court House each year during the surrender commemoration events. At times, they also appear on stage together portraying their respective historical characters in programs based on decades of careful research, study, and respect for the past. These events are truly historical performances in their own right, and I encourage you to check them out.  Seeing these two gentlemen in action is the closest thing to jumping in a time machine and meeting the originals. I am honored that Tom agreed to join me on the project.

Curt Fields and Thomas Jessee at Appomattox

Chris and Ted Savas at Savas Beatie Publishing both said yes. Of course, I’ve worked with Savas Beatie on other projects, including General Lee’s Immortals, my history of the Branch-Lane Brigade, and Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, plus an upcoming book on the April 1864 battle of Plymouth. (You can order signed copies of those books here.)

Over my thirty years of writing, I have spent a great deal of time with the Army of Northern Virginia – books on the 37^th North Carolina, the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, the Branch-Lane Brigade, the battle of Hanover Court House, and most recently, the book on food and the army. (This does not include many articles and blog posts.) You would think that writing about Lee would be a natural progression, and in some ways, it is. The most challenging part is that the books in this series are relatively short. And, I don’t want this to be a history of the Army of Northern Virginia. This is a look at Lee. In many cases, the descriptions of battles are just slightly expanded summaries. What is important is Lee’s personal role and how he felt about that battle. For example, he wrote that the battle of Chancellorsville, perhaps his greatest victory, was not worth the cost.

This project is due in March 2026. It is exciting to be working with such a great publishing team and with the incomparable Thomas Jessee.  We just started the first of December 2025, and it will hopefully be released in 2027.