The Right Hand of Command: Use and Disuse of Personal Staffs in the American Civil War

20 b/w photos 6 x 9
* Covers a previously ignored aspect of military leadership
* Profiles the command styles of Generals Lee, Sherman, McClellan, and Grant

Civil War generals had both special and personal staffs to help them with their duties. The use of special staff-quartermasters, commissaries, ordnance chiefs, and engineers-has been well chronicled. But little attention has been paid to how generals utilized (or underutilized) their personal staff-the chiefs of staff, adjutants general, and aides-de- camp. Drawing on Generals Lee, Sherman, McClellan, and Grant as examples, this groundbreaking study provides a new perspective not only on the Civil War, but also on the tradition of military leadership.

R. Steven Jones is an assistant professor of history at Southwestern Adventist University and has been published in magazines such as Civil War History. This is his first book.

With thorough scholarship, Jones (history, Southwestern Adventist Univ.) presents an enlightening view of the use of personal staffs by four general officers during the Civil War. The author attempts to correct the paucity of information on the functioning of Civil War staffs with this well-presented historical study. Focusing on the personal staffs of Generals McClellan, Lee, Sherman, and Grant, Jones reveals that no one appreciated the amount of staff work required to run a large, complex army efficiently in the field. Armies were just too big for one commander to handle all the administrative, logistical, and operational details himself. Civil War armies required a "corporate nature of leadership," says Jones, with a personal staff complementing the efforts of the commander. He finds that McClellan dithered with his staff as he did with his army, Lee's staff was used for little more than record- and housekeeping, Sherman's approach was traditional, and Grant was the most innovative and demanding of his staff. Jones discusses staff selection, training, use, and relationship to the commander. An informative addition to Civil War history; recommended for public libraries.DCol. William D. Bushnell, USMC (ret.), Sebascodegan Island, ME
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