Grant Comes East

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**Title** **Grant Comes East**
Author	Newt Gingrich William R. Forstchen Albert S. Hanser
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Alternate history novel
Publisher	Thomas Dunne Books
Released	June 1, 2004
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	404 pp (1st edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-312-30937-6 (1st edition)
Preceded by	Gettysburg
Followed by	Never Call Retreat

Grant Comes East: A Novel of the Civil War is a New York Times bestseller written by former Speaker Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen, and Albert S. Hanser. It was published in 2004 and is the sequel to Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War. The third book of the trilogy is called Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory and was released in 2005. The novel is illustrated with actual photographs of the Civil War, taken somewhat out of context.

The book picks up where the first left off at the Confederate victory at Gettysburg. General Robert E. Lee and his troops march on Washington D.C. and launch an assault, hoping that if they can take the capital they can win the war.

Meanwhile, President Abraham Lincoln has appointed Major General Ulysses S. Grant commander of all Union forces with orders to attack Lee. Grant masses his forces (the newly-minted Army of The Susquehana) at Harrisburg, while General Dan Sickles gains control (through his violent pacification of a riot in New York) of the Army Of The Potomac.

Sickles has his eye on the White House, but he needs to defeat Lee to win the Civil War for the War Democrats. Against orders, he rolls his troops out to meet Lee's army alone. A sidebar shows Napoleon III planning to invade the United States through a colony in Mexico.

Lee, bloodily repulsed at Washington (the black troops of the 54th Massachusetts regiment play a decisive role), turns on Baltimore. Abandoned by the Union, Baltimore descends into chaos. Using Baltimore to threaten Washington, Lee instead turns his entire army upon the advancing Sickles.

The Army of the Potomac is destroyed in a rout, with Sickles losing a leg in the process. The battle pens Lee up in Maryland, though... leaving Virginia wide open as Grant and Sherman converge on it via Pennsylvania and Georgia. The novel ends with Lee scrambling to meet Grant's threat.