Contends that if Frederick Steele, commander of the Federal VII Army Corps, had not received a direct order from General Ulysses S Grant to move south, disaster would have befallen not only the Army of the Gulf in Louisiana but the entire Union cause, and possibly would have prevented Abraham Lincoln from winning re-election.  Meer

The Union Army's Red River Campaign began on March 12, 1864, with a two-pronged attack aimed at gaining control of Shreveport, Louisiana. This work presents an examination of Confederate leadership and how it affected the Red River Campaign, and argues against the standard assumption that the campaign had no major effect on the outcome of the war.  Meer