Grant Comes East

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Grant Comes East
Grant Comes East.jpg
First edition
AuthorNewt Gingrich
William R. Forstchen
TranslatorGerman
Cover artistDon Troiani
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreAlternate history novel
PublisherThomas Dunne Books
Publication date
June 1, 2004
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages404 pp (1st edition)
ISBN0-312-30937-6 (1st edition)
OCLC54426344
813/.54 22
LC ClassPS3557.I4945 G73 2004
Preceded byGettysburg 
Followed byNever Call Retreat 

Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War (2004) is an alternate history novel written by Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; William R. Forstchen, and , and the second of a trilogy.[1][2] It is the sequel to Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War. The third book of the historical trilogy is called Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory and was published in 2005. The novel is illustrated with historic photographs of the Civil War. It was featured on the New York Times bestseller list.

Plot summary[]

The novel begins at Union Mills, Maryland. The battle that began at Gettysburg ended on July 4, 1863 (at the same time as the fall of Vicksburg) with a decisive but costly Confederate victory. General Robert E. Lee and his troops march on Washington, D.C., and launch an assault, hoping that if they can take the capital they can win the war.

Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln has appointed Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the victor of Vicksburg, as commander of all Union forces and ordered him to attack Lee. Grant masses his forces (the newly minted Army of the Susquehanna) at Harrisburg, while Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles gains control (through his violent pacification of the New York Draft Riots) of the Army of the Potomac.

Sickles has his eye on the White House, but he needs to defeat Lee in order to win the Civil War for the War Democrats. Violating orders from Grant, he rolls his troops out to meet Lee's army alone. A sidebar shows Napoleon III planning to have France invade the United States through their client state, the Second Mexican Empire.

Bloodily repulsed at Fort Stevens outside Washington (where the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment played a decisive role), Lee turns on Baltimore. Abandoned by the Union, Baltimore descends into chaos; Lee, sickened by the violence, orders the provost guard in force to end it. Using Baltimore to threaten Washington D.C., Lee turns his entire army upon the advancing Sickles, facing off at the former site of Joppa along the Gunpowder River northeast of Baltimore.

Lee destroys the Army of the Potomac in a rout, with Sickles losing a leg in the process (as he did historically in the Battle of Gettysburg). The battle pens Lee up in Maryland, however. Grant and William T. Sherman converge on Virginia via Pennsylvania and Georgia. The novel ends with Lee scrambling to meet Grant's threat.

Historical figures[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Uchronia: Civil War Trilogy". www.uchronia.net.
  2. ^ "Fantastic Fiction.com: Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War by Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen and Albert S. Hanser". www.fantasticfiction.com.
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