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Army of the Potomac, Volume II: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862
written by Russel H. Beatie
Studio : Da Capo Press
by Da Capo Press
Release Date : 2004-11-09
Publisher : Da Capo Press
Released : 2004-11-09
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780306812521
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 23 reviews)
List Price : $45.00
Our Price : $17.25
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Product Description |
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In this second volume of a multi-volume work, Russel Beatie continues his detailed study of the generals who commanded the Union's victorious Army of the Potomac. When the first volume appeared, Civil War News commended Beatie's monumental study, noting that "readers will find its thoroughness and extensive detail useful to their efforts to better understand the Union war effort." This new survey of the war's first six months of fighting places the command decisions of the army's senior officers in the social, political, military, and economic context of their day.Thought-provoking and original (the book is based entirely on manuscript sources, many of which have never before been examined), Beatie's account and his conclusions about the actions of the Union's high command differ-often significantly-from traditional historical thinking. What emerges is a fresh understanding of these men and how their personalities influenced their command decisions, and the political atmosphere that influenced their military actions. The Army of the Potomac is about leaders as men-their successes and failures commanding the Union's largest army. |
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Bravo! |
George B. McClellan is easily one of the most misunderstood and maligned people in history. Though not a McClellan apologist, Russel H. Beatie, in his second of three so far published volumes (of what is sure to be a massive multivolume work) on the history of The Army Of The Potomac, demonstrates what many people have come to believe about McClellan isn't a true and accurate portrait of the man that was. A lawyer by profession and an historian by avocation, Mr. Beatie slowly builds his case against misconceptions of the perceived historical McClellan. As if pealing an onion, he removes layer after layer of historical half truths and misinformation, he shows the reader the mechanizations of politicians intent on pointing their fingers, placing the blame and passing the buck, and he explains the "why" of McClellan's actions in regards to Winfield Scott, Edwin Stanton, the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the war and, most of all, President Abraham Lincoln.
Picking up were volume one left off, Winfield Scott's resignation has been accepted by Lincoln and McClellan appointed the General-In-Chief of all the Union forces. Though not a battle book, a considerable portion of the book does involve The Battle of Ball's Bluff, where Senator, General and close friend of Abraham Lincoln, Edward Baker is killed in action. Though paled in comparison to later battles of the war to follow, Ball's Bluff is not important tactically to the story, but politically, having given Congress (and more notably the Radical Republicans) an excuse to form The Joint Committee On The Conduct Of The War.
In another large portion of the book, Mr. Beatie discusses in depth the various pools of men from which the Federal Army drew its generals: The Bull Run Officer Pool, The West Point and Regular Army Pools, Foreigner and Politician Pools and the Gubernatorial Pool, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the various men who came out of those pools, but most notably he notes the bias against officers from the West Point Pool, being viewed as largely sympathetic to the Confederacy.
The last major portion of this book covers the McClellan-Lincoln relationship. Mr. Beatie shows us that McClellan did not trust the President or members of his cabinet and therefore kept his plans largely to himself. When McClellan was struck down by the effects of typhoid fever, Lincoln was confronted with politicians who were demanding military action. With the General-In-Chief confined to his bed and refusing to share his plans, Lincoln had no other option than to borrow the army for a while and begin to make plans of his own. McClellan, alerted by friends of the President's actions, rose from his sick bed before Lincoln had the chance to put his plans into action. The book finishes with McClellan in the planning stages for what will become known as The Peninsula Campaign.
Mr. Beatie's research is exemplary. He has unearthed many first hand accounts that until now have never been published anywhere. Though his narrative is at times dry and sometimes strays a bit from the path, much of the material between the covers of Russel H. Beatie's Army of the Potomac, Volume II: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862 has not previously been covered, nor found in any other published works on the topic, and Mr. Beatie provides a fresh look and new interpretations on many of the historical controversies surrounding George B. McClellan and the army he commanded. |
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a real accomplishment |
I was skeptical at the beginning. By using D. S. Freedman as his model, he set an impossibly high standard. Well, he is no Freedman, as far as I can tell, but who is? He is an attorney for whom this is a labor of love. He must be a very good lawyer because he collects his facts exhaustively, assembles them intelligently, and then puts it all into a narrative the "jury" -- the reader -- can understand.
One particular technique, which a professional historian probably could not use, is very effective. He takes records that are in indirect discourse and puts them in direct discourse. So "Jones said that Smith told Robinson that it is all over and that Robinson said that it was not yet over," yawn, becomes the more gripping: Smith: "It's all over." Robinson: "Not yet."
So it is replete with wonderful details, some of which fill in blanks you had always wondered about, for the Civil War buff who gets tired of reading the same old thing over and over. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the details, this is a real page-turner. I use it for bedtime reading and, instead of lulling me to sleep, I have trouble turning the light off.
This is not a story-teller book, like Foote or Catton, though he tells many good stories. But what I like most is his knowledgeable analysis of the pros and cons of decisions made in the formation of conduct of this great army. Highly recommended. |
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Huge disappointment |
I was excited to purchase and start reading this book. Bruce Catton's Army of the Potomac trilogy had been my introduction to Civil War literature and I was looking forward to what I thought would be a modern complement to Douglas Southall Freeman's "Lee's Lieutenant's". Unfortunately this volume falls woefully short of the heights attained for and achieved by it's predecessors.
Quite frankly this book is boring and poorly written. The author cannot distinguish the interesting tidbit that sheds light on a man or situation from arcane trivia that would best be relegated to footnotes. Like an attorney piling on argument after argument to make their case, Beattie piles on detail after detail until the reader is left numbed, dazed and confused, with no true revelation after all the data has been assimilated.
I make it a point to try and finish every book I purchase, but I nearly gave up on this volume several times. The Army of the Potomac deserves it's own Freeman, but it has not found him in Beattie. I would hope that a truly gifted author like Gary Gallagher, Robert Krick or Joseph Glatthaar would take up the task and complete the job begun by Bruce Catton many years ago. |
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A Standing Ovation |
July 2, 2002. - The Eastern Theater of The American Civil War - The curtain rose from the stage at the premier of Da Cappo Press' newest production, to reveal "Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command November 1860 - September 1862." Authored by Russel H. Beatie, it is the first of a series covering the history of the Army of the Potomac.
Mr. Beatie has been kind enough to present us with a Dramatis Personae, a playbill, if you will, providing us with the briefest of possible biographical sketches of the players about to grace the stage. Receiving top billing, of course, is Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican War. He is supported by a cast of subordinates: Charles P. Stone, Robert Patterson, Fitz-John Porter, Benjamin F. Butler, Elmer Ellsworth, J. K. F. Mansfield, Irvin McDowell, Samuel P. Heintzelman, David Hunter, George B. McClellan and Nathaniel Prentis Banks.
The stage has been carefully set. On November 6th, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States without a single electoral vote from any of the Southern states. Shortly thereafter, on December 20th, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. It is January 1861 and Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia & Louisiana have now also left the Union. Texas will join her sister Southern states on February 1st.
Lincoln, having been confronted with the problem of resuplying or reinforcing Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, immediately upon his inauguration, chose the less confrontational route: to resuply it, thus, maneuvering the South into firing the first shot of the war on April 12th, 1861 and providing the inciting incident of our national drama, and the beginning of the Civil War. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee soon after seceded and joined the Confederate States of America.
Mr. Beatie illuminates the central question in the first act of his drama, "How does one create an army?" by shining his spotlight on New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio, where from nebular clouds regiments of soldiers begin to emerge.
Maryland provides our first plot point. Heavily secessionist in sentiment, Maryland surrounds Washington D.C. on three sides. With Virginia having already seceded, if Maryland were to cast its lot with her sister slave states, Washington would be cut off. Now that there is an army, fractured though it is, how does one move it through hostile territory to Washington where it is needed?
Here the author shifts his focus from upstage to stage center, narrating Abraham Lincoln's steps to ensure that Maryland stayed in the Union by suspending the writ of habeas corpus and arresting the state legislators who sided with the South. All the while, Patterson, Porter, Butler, Keyes, Lefferts & Stone began to secure routes both through and around Baltimore, a city seemingly seething with anti-unionist sentiment, to Washington, D.C.
The first Battle of Bull Run is the center piece of Mr. Beatie's second act, as the action moves down stage to Virginia. Mr. Beatie deftly weaves together the fate of Harper's Ferry and Patterson's attempts to keep Joseph E. Johnston's southern soldiers bottled up in the Shenandoah Valley and preventing them from joining the rest of the Confederate Army under P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas. Patterson's ultimate failure allowed the two Southern armies to join in battle against the Federal Army, led by Irvin McDowell at Bull Run Creek.
The battle is the midpoint in Mr. Beatie's drama. As the two armies collide on the field of battle, the point of view is strictly from the vantage of the men and commanders of the Federal army. Mr. Beatie presents the facts and events throughout his narrative as they happen, this technique can some times be confusing to the audience, and the one critique this reviewer has is the wish for more maps in this section to allow the audiance to better follow the action as it proceeds. The fog of war envelopes the Union forces, facts are misinterpreted, mistakes are made, and ultimately the failure of the command structure results in a Confederate victory, and the curtain falls on a defeated demoralized Federal army as they gradually make their way back to Washington.
George B. McClellan enters from stage right at the beginning of the final act. Having been called from the West after several small but impressive victories to assume command of what will soon come to be known as the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Beatie concentrates on the bickering between Scott, the General-In-Chief and his subordinate officer, McClellan, and as the light shines brighter on McClellan, Scott's time in the light begins to fade. Scott's letter of resignation sent to Lincoln serves as the last plot point and the final curtain falls to the stage floor with George B. McClellan soon to be commissioned as General-In-Chief.
Mr. Beatie's "Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command November 1860 - September 1862," has been well received and hailed as a critical success. Not since Douglas Shouthall Freeman's, "Lee's Lieutenants," has a work of such magnitude and scope as Mr. Beatie's graced the literary stage of the American Civil War.
An appendix, "Officers and Battlefield Maneuvers," as well as a fully annotated bibliography siting the strengths of weaknesses of the source materials used, serve as Mr. Beatie's curtain calls. And on a production note, the book is fully noted with footnotes at the bottom of every page.
This, Mr. Beatie's first production in the series, has already spawned two sequels, and if they are its equal, I'm sure they will be followed by others. |
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Nice history of the origins of the Army of the Potomac |
Russel Beatie develops a history of the origins of the Army of the Potomac. He notes that (page xv): "This is the story of a group of men during a short but extraordinary period in their lives." He also observes that his role model is D. S. Freeman, who focused on the development and actions of the Army of Northern Virginia.
This is a nice detailed work of the personalities at the beginning, the crucible of battle, the various components of the Army. There is a nice, brief Appendix on battlefield maneuvers.
The book itself begins at the beginning, with Winfield Scott as the head of the Army. Although a southerner, he remained loyal to the Union as its army's Commander-in-Chief after the breaking out of the Civil War. There is a segment entitled "Dramatis Personae" at the outset of the book, providing brief biographical sketches of key figures in the early days of the Army of the Potomac, including such figures as Scott, Charles Stone, Robert Patterson, Fitz-John Porter to George McClellan. These sketches provide nice context for what follows.
The Army begins to emerge as volunteers and regulars from throughout the North wended their way to Washington, D. C. Irvin McDowell was the first head of the Army. The book traces the organizing of the Army and its first foray into Virginia, culminating with the Union near victory but, in the end, chaotic defeat at Bull Run/Manassas. The antiquated Robert Patterson's failure to pin down Confederate General Joseph Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley was a key factor in the Union defeat.
Once the Army returned to the area of Washington, D. C, after the defeat, General George McClellan entered the picture. A wonderful organizer, he would prove wanting as a field commander in battle. However, he was the person to take a mob and make it into a finely honed instrument of battle--the Army of the Potomac.
The text goes on to note the conflict between McClellan and Scott, contentiousness between McClellan and Abraham Lincoln, and so on. Discussion also notes the headquarters staff as it developed, the evolution of the cavalry and artillery in the army. Finally, a chapter on the engineers completes the volume.
This book is very nice in that it lays the stage for understanding how the Army of the Potomac developed in all its detail. It is not a compellingly written book, and one can almost drown in some details. Nonetheless, Beatie does a real service by providing a detailed examination of the early months of this fighting vehicle.
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