Happiness Is Not My Companion

Jordan's work is a study of Gouverneur K. Warren, a brilliant student at pre-war West Point and a topographical engineer much acclaimed for his explorations of Nebraska Territory and the Black Hills in the 1850s. Warren, who moved from the West Point faculty to lieutenant colonel of a New York regiment at the start of the Civil War, quickly became a rising star in the Army of the Potomac. His work at Little Round Top bringing Federal troops to an undefended position before the Confederates could seize it, helped to save the battle of Gettysburg, and his service at Bristoe Station and Mine Run earned him command of the Fifth Corps for the 1864 Virginia campaign. Warren's peculiarities of temperament and personality put a cloud over his service at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania and cost him the confidence of his superiors, Grant and Meade. He was summarily relieved of his command by Philip Sheridan after winning the battle of Five Forks, just eight days before Appomattox. Warren continued as an engineer of distinction in the army after the war, but he was determined to clear his name of inquiry, which conducted an exhaustive investigation into the battle, Warren's conduct, and Sheridan's arbitrary action, but the findings of the court vindicating Warren were not made public until shortly after his death. Jordan's work utilises Warren's own voluminous collection of letters, papers, orders, and other items saved by his family, as well as the letters and writing of his contemporaries like his aide and brother-in-law Washington Roebling, Andrew Humphreys, Winfield Hancock, George Dordon Meade, and Ulysses S. Grant.