He was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime. No more baffling, exasperating soldier ever wore a uniform. (Preamble, pg. 4)

The keystone of all his achievements, Arthur concluded after the war, had been those forty minutes when he had climbed the strategic heights overlooking Chattanooga - in defiance of orders. The moral, he would later tell his adoring son Douglas, was that there are times when a truly remarkable soldier must resort to unorthodox behavior, disobeying his superiors to gain the greater glory. (Prologue, pg. 16)

Introducing habeas corpus in Japan after World War II, he told his staff that he had been inspired by Arthur's example in the Philippines, and at the age of seventy he told a friend in Tokyo. 'Whenever...