Soldier of Tennessee
Elliott chronicles a distinguished yet unsung military career, adding usefully to knowledge of the Civil War in the West. A graduate of West Point, Alexander P. Stewart (1821^-1908) spent most of his civilian career as a professional educator. In the war, he went with his native Tennessee and became one of the Confederacy's highest ranking officers, rising from major of artillery to lieutenant general as the last field commander of the Army of Tennessee. His career is scantily documented (e.g., no physical description of him survives), yet he appears to have been a sound tactician, taken good care of his men, and avoided the political backbiting that disfigured the careers of so many other western Confederates. After the war, he returned to teaching as a professor at Ole Miss. Resigning in 1886, he later completed his public career by establishing the Chickamauga Battlefield Park for the National Park Service. A straightforward and useful biography of a straightforward and useful man.Roland Green