Scott Bowden

(From Legion of Honor Publishing http://leeatwar.com/)...Scott Bowden’s storied writing career spans more than three decades with over 25 works of military history to his credit. A graduate of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, Bowden co-authored his first book, Armies on the Danube 1809, in 1980. This groundbreaking Napoleonic study made extensive use of previously unpublished documents from the French army archives in Paris, as well as Austrian army returns from the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna. Bowden’s continued work in the Napoleonic field led to the translation and publication of voluminous French archival sources beginning with Armies at Waterloo: An Unprecedentedly Detailed Analysis of the Armies That Fought History’s Greatest Battle (1984), Napoleon’s Grande Armée of 1813: A Biography of An Army (1991), Napoleon and Austerlitz: A Detailed Combat Study of Napoleon’s Epic Ulm-Austerlitz Campaigns of 1805 (1997), Napoleon’s Finest: Combat Journal of Marshal Davout’s 3rd Corps 1805-1807 (2006), and Napoleon’s Apogee: Pascal Bressonnet’s Tactical Studies of the 1806 Campaign in Prussia—Saalfeld, Jena and Auerstädt (2009). Bowden’s contributions to the historiography of the Napoleonic era earned him a Fellow in Le Souvenir Napoléonien International, the society of Napoleonic scholars. While working on Napoleonic titles, Bowden explored 19th century American military beginning with the Armies at First Manassas (1988) and Armies at Gettysburg (1988). However, it is Scott’s 2001 landmark work, Last Chance For Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign (co-authored with Bill Ward) that is considered by many to be the definitive study of Robert E. Lee’s 1863 Pennsylvania campaign. Last Chance For Victory received several literary awards, including the prestigious Douglas Southall Freeman American History Award. The book was named to the Air Force Chief of Staff Recommended Reading List, only the second title connected to the American Civil War ever to receive such a distinction. For its in-depth and context-based analysis of Lee’s generalship and decision-making in the Gettysburg campaign, Last Chance For Victory was named as part of the curriculum at the School of Advanced Military Studies at the United States Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bowden turns his attention to Lee again with Robert E. Lee at War: The Mind and Method of a Great American Soldier. This new series shows the hallmarks of Bowden’s earlier works: in-depth research and innovative analysis. The first volume, Hope Arises From Despair, will reveal Lee’s generalship in unprecedented detail, generously supported by custom-battle maps, graphics, and orders of battle.