The Best General in the Civil War by Conrad Bibens

The Best General in the Civil War

By Conrad Bibens

Historical Fiction

Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing

Pages: 256

Publication Date: November 6, 2024

SYNOPSIS

The North might have lost the Civil War if not for the heroics of a Southern-born general. The Best General in the Civil War tells the true story of Union General George Thomas, hated throughout the South for siding with the Union and helping end slavery.

In this powerful autobiographical novel, the Southern-born General George Thomas reveals his journey from a Virginia boyhood to becoming a Union hero in the Civil War. Despite his fierce loyalty to the United States and his opposition to slavery, Thomas faced distrust and delayed promotions from Union leaders like Lincoln and Grant. Disowned by his family and resented in the South, Thomas nonetheless achieved pivotal victories, earning the titles "Rock of Chickamauga" and "Sledge of Nashville."

Thomas recounts his friendship with Lee, rivalry with Grant and Sherman, and his deep love for his Northern wife, who may have influenced his resolve to honor his oath to the Constitution. After the war, he fought both the Ku Klux Klan and the lingering hostility of President Grant, whose suspicions blocked Thomas from the presidency many believed he deserved as The Best General in the Civil War.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Conrad Bibens, a newspaper journalist for more than 40 years, grew up in St. Joseph, Mo., and is a graduate of the University of Kansas. He lives in the Houston area with his family.

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REVIEW

The Best General in the Civil War was a surprising read. I prepared to read it the same way I approach eating spinach—with an “I know it’s good for me” attitude, but without the expectation of enjoyment.

I could not have been more wrong.

Conrad Bibens does what great writers and teachers do: he brings history alive in this pseudo-autobiographical work of historical fiction. Employing the first-person point of view, he captures George Thomas’s voice with authenticity, using language that reflects the cadence and vocabulary of the late 1800s.

So real did the account seem that I looked up the historian George MacDonald Berger of the University of Troy, as well as St. Paul’s Episcopal Church mentioned in the introduction, to see if there was actually a “discovery of the secret memoirs of General George Thomas” in 2020. While I did not find any evidence to support Mr. Berger’s existence or any mention of such a discovery, I did find that there is a St. Paul’s in Troy, NY. It is where George Thomas married his wife, Francis Kellogg Thomas. However, there is no University of Troy in the town—the closest match is Troy University, located in Troy, Alabama.

I appreciated Bibens’s Afterword, where he explained that he kept “the known facts, letting the characters do what they really did, in the correct places and on the correct dates.” He further clarifies the areas where he took artistic license—mostly in conversations and some of the more dramatic points of history.

It is this flair for drama that breathes believability into the story, from the descriptions of Thomas’s tactical decisions during the Civil War to the alleged feud between Thomas and Grant that lasted long after the last battle.

The Best General in the Civil War is an engaging, entertaining read that held my attention and had me digging into “true” history to see which parts of the story were real and which were imagined. I highly recommend this book to other history enthusiasts, especially those intrigued by the Civil War era of American history.

If you enjoyed this book, you may also appreciate watching: Lincoln, Glory, Cold Mountain, Gettysburg.

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