Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac

Sears, Stephen W.

ISBN 10: 0295867604 / ISBN 13: 9780295867601

Published by Houghton Mifflin, 1999

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0295867604
• ISBN 13: 9780295867601
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War might well be the most intriguing book ever published about the Civil War, for it focuses on the people and events that one of our best historians has found most fascinating, including: Professor Lowe's reconnaissance balloons; the court-martial of Fitz John Porter; the Lost Order at Antietam; press coverage of the war; the looting of Fredericksburg; the Mud March; the roles of volunteers, conscripts, bounty jumpers, and foreign soldiers; the notorious General Dan Sickles, who shot his wife's lover outside the White House, and the much maligned Generals McClellan (justifiably) and Hooker (not so justifiably). The book follows the Army of the Potomac throughout the war, from 1861 to 1865, painting a remarkable portrait of the key incidents and personalities that influenced the course of our nation's greatest cataclysm.

Review

This collection of feisty essays delivers well-argued and persuasive assessments of Union military leadership during the Civil War. Stephen W. Sears, author of Landscape Turned Red (the best book on Antietam) and perhaps the foremost authority on General George B. McClellan, fits a lifetime of research and thought into 10 pithy chapters. Topics include the historiography of McClellan, the near-criminal conduct of Congress and War Secretary Edwin Stanton in the matter of General Charles P. Stone's arrest (here, Sears breaks new ground by uncovering plotters in Stone's own command), and a spirited defense of General "Fighting Joe" Hooker. One particular highlight is Sears's chapter on Robert E. Lee's so-called Lost Order, which revealed Confederate battle plans before Antietam and helped the Union secure an invaluable advantage. Historians have never agreed on when Lee realized what happened--just prior to the battle or long after; Sears's conclusion is that it took months before Lee understood.

An examination of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid on Richmond is especially provocative, and arrives at conclusions quite different from those found in Duane Schultz's The Dahlgren Affair; Sears argues, in short, that Dahlgren intended not simply to free prisoners of war, but, as Confederate partisans have long alleged, to kidnap Jefferson Davis himself. This opinionated but informed book is a joy to read, and belongs in the library of any serious student of the Civil War. --John J. Miller