On his deathbed in July 1885, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wrote: "I would like to see truthful history written."
That's what author Gordon C. Rhea has set out to do with the fourth installment in a collection of books detailing the Civil War's 1864 Overland Campaign through Virginia--a series of battles in which Grant successfully faced the revered and brilliant Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The Union general would likely be pleased with Rhea's effort. In the South Carolina author's exhaustive research for the fourth volume, "Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864," Rhea, 57, came across facts that debunked long-held myths that Grant was a butcher who callously sent his men into battle to be slaughtered.
Slogging through battle reports at the National Archives and Library of Congress in Washington, Rhea discovered that the number of Union dead during the Cold Harbor campaign had been wildly inflated.
"The myth that Grant would mindlessly throw men into battle wasn't true," Rhea said.
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