In May 1861, barely a month into the Civil War, the fledgling Confederate Congress created the rank of full general. By early summer, President Jefferson Davis had appointed four individuals to the rank: Albert Sidney Johnston, Samuel Cooper, Robert E. Lee, and Joseph E. Johnston. At the end of August 1861, P. G. T. Beauregard, hero of Fort Sumter and 1st Manassas, joined the group.

Throughout the course of the war, three others would rise to the rank of full general. Braxton Bragg, chief of staff under Albert Sidney Johnston, succeeded his commander after he fell at Shiloh. Edmund Kirby Smith led the Trans-Mississippi Department and received a promotion. The last to hold the rank, John Bell Hood, assumed the position temporarily when he replaced Joseph Johnston as commander of the Army of the Tennessee in July 1864. These generals had an enormous impact on the outcome of the war, yet never before have they been examined collectively. Now eight preeminent Civil War historians offer fresh perspectives on each of these leaders, analyzing their battlefield performance and highlighting the importance of politics and personality in shaping the Confederacy's war effort. Designed to be both suggestive and descriptive, biographical as well as interpretive, these essays form a fascinating portrait of the Confederate high command. Book jacket.