THE COMING FURY (565 pp.)—Bruce Catton—Doubleday ($7.50). In the beginning, the rebel leaders were an unlikely lot. Alabama’s William Lowndes Yancy was as mild a fellow as anyone would want to ...

GRANT TAKES COMMAND, by Bruce Catton. 556 pages. Little, Brown. $10. Historian Lloyd Lewis wrote with bugles blaring, battle flags waving and exclamation marks used like bayonet points (“Blood! Blood!

A friend, progressively debilitated by a rare disease and recently deceased, afforded me during the late plague-times a great opportunity. Ralph was a learned man belonging to the same fraternity of ...