Following the critical success of R. E. Lee: A Biography, for which he won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize, author Douglas Southall Freeman expanded his study of the Confederacy with the critically acclaimed three-volume Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command, originally published in 1942, 1943, and 1944.

Together, the three volumes present a unique combination of military strategy, biography, and Civil War history, and shows how armies actually work. Published during World War II, it had a great influence on American military leaders and strategists.

Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command established Freeman as the pre-eminent military historian in the country, and led to close friendships with United States generals George Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower.