The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan
Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the author of Gettysburg: A “valuable” collection of the letters of this controversial Civil War general (James M. McPherson, The New York Review of Books).
No one played as many major roles during the Civil War as Gen. George B. McClellan, nor did any other figure write such candid letters about himself, his motivations, and his intentions. For Civil War buffs, this collection is a gold mine, revealing nuggets of fresh information on military operations and political machinations, from the battle of Antietam through McClellan’s 1864 race for the presidency—as well as the uninhibited correspondence McClellan wrote to his wife—selected and introduced by the prize-winning author Stephen W. Sears, “a first-class writer and splendid historian” (The Wall Street Journal).
“A treasure-trove . . . Nothing of importance concerning [McClellan’s] military strategies and tactics or the politics, policies, and issues of the war has been omitted. Sears has edited the collection with consummate economy and skill, and his introductory essays to the book’s eleven sections weave the disparate facts of McClellan’s wartime experience together.” —Library Journal
“The letters are most valuable as a revelation of McClellan’s personality, which lay at the root of his military failure. They make clear that his initial success and fame went to his head.” —James M. McPherson, The New York Review of Books
“Introduced with insightful essays . . . [McClellan] emerges as the Captain Queeg of the Civil War.” —Harold Holzer, Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The author of Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam and a biography of McClellan here presents previously unpublished military dispatches and personal letters that show this ``Young Napoleon'' in a wide variety of wartime roles: army commander, military executive, strategist, tactician, political partisan and presidential can didate. McClellan's gross over-estimates of Confederate strength and his conviction that the administration in Washington failed to support him are two of the familiar themes brought into clearer focus. Of special note are McClellan's uninhibited letters to his wife, Mary Ellen, in which the general's contempt for President Lincoln, his policies and his advisers is on vivid display. After Lincoln replaced him as commander of the Army of the Potomac (following the missed opportunity to win a decisive victory at Antietam), McClellan was nominated by the Democratic party in the 1864 presidential election. The pertinent letters reveal, among other things, that McClellan devoted most of his campaign efforts to a futile attempt to win the army vote.
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