"On every page ... there is abundant evidence that the author is not so much concerned about the reputation of the commanding general, as about historical truth. It is needless to say that, investigated in this spirit, both campaigns prove to be total failures... In attempting to fix the responsibility of these defeats, we believe that ... they are invaluable from the fact that they lead people to think of these campaigns, not as an eternal controversy for or against..., but as an epoch of the war in which these officers failed of success, from causes partly within and partly beyond their own control... Histories of the war written in the judicial spirit of nearly all the chapters of those so far published in this series have been looked for, and they will quickly take their place as standards." -- The Century, vol. 23, issue 4 (Feb 1882).