George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon

Stephen W. Sears

ISBN 10: 0899192645 / ISBN 13: 9780899192642

Published by Ticknor & Fields, New York, 1988

About this Item

Cover shows mild shelf wear head and tail of spine; head of back hinge slightly cocked; corners sharp. Jacket shows mild rubbing head and tail of spine and corners of wraps; spine sunned; top and foredge of textblock slightly foxed. Octavo; 482 pp. Gilt lettering on black cloth half-binding; blue boards. First printing, stated. BOMC imprint. Clean, bright copy; no markings.

Seller Inventory # 00167

Bibliographic Details

• Title: George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon
• Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, New York
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0899192645
• ISBN 13: 9780899192642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • American Civil War

About this title

Synopsis

Biography of the Civil War general for the Union who presided at Antietam, ran for president against Lincoln, and was called, by some, Young McNapoleon

Reviews

Controversial commander of the Northern army in the Civil War, Gen. George McClellan saw himself as God's chosen instrument for saving the Union. Self-aggrandizing, with a streak of arrogant stubbornness, he set himself above President Lincoln, whom he privately called "the Gorilla." To "the young Napoleon," as McClellan's troops dubbed him, abolition was an "accursed doctrine." Fond of conspiracy plots, he insisted that the Lincoln administration had traitorously conspired to set him up for military defeat. Although he constantly anticipated one big, decisive battle that would crush the South, he squandered one military opportunity after another, and, if Sears ( Landscape Turned Red ) is correct, he was the worst strategist the Army of the Potomac ever had. Based on primary sourcesletters, dispatch books, diaries, newspapersthis masterly biography is an astonishing portrait of an egotistical crank who could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Sears is editor of McClellan's Selected Letters.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sears finds serious faults with McClellan's generalship in each of the Civil War campaigns, especially in 1862 in Virginia and at Antietam, Maryland, perhaps the turning point battle of the war. He concludes that the general's personality problems, poor leadership, and failure to realistically evaluate Confederate forces should have precluded him from holding the Union's top commands. Sears's views sharply contrast with Warren Hassler's more favorable evaluations in General George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union (1957; Greenwood, 1974. reprint). Engagingly written and thoroughly researched, Sears's persuasive critique is the best and most complete biography of this controversial general. Joseph G. Dawson III, Texas A&M Univ., College Station
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.