"Truscott was one of the really tough generals," soldier-cartoonist Bill Mauldin of the 45th Infantry Division once wrote. "He could have eaten a ham like Patton for breakfast any morning and picked his teeth with the man's pearl-handled pistols." Not one merely to act the part of commander, Mauldin remembered, "Truscott spent half his time at the front--the real front--with nobody in attendance but a nervous Jeep driver and a worried aide."

In this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., author Harvey Ferguson tells the story of how Truscott--despite his hardscrabble...