The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
To win glory and power, to be renowned throughout posterity―such was the ambition that fueled Dahlgren's controversial rise to eminence during the Civil War era. This rich, balanced portrait examines in detail the admiral's quixotic, frustrating quest.