welty@algol.crd.ge.com (richard welty) (07/20/89)
From: welty@algol.crd.ge.com (richard welty)
Reviewed:
_George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon_, Stephen W. Sears,
Ticknor & Fields, 1988
Mentioned:
_Landscape Turned Red_, Stephen W. Sears, Ticknor & Fields, 1983
A few years back, Stephen Sears wrote the first good book on the
Battle of Antietam to come along in quite a while, and probably
the first really through account ever written (it was of particular
interest to me as my great-great-grandmother, Susan Poffenburger
Welty, grew up on a farm which was located on the battlefield, and
bore her first son, Daniel B. Welty, my great-great-uncle, one month
after the battle ended. Family legend also has it that my great-great
grandfather, Christian C. Welty, lost two threshing machines destroyed
during the battle, and that Susan Welty's childhood farmhouse was used
as a hospital by Confederate forces during the battle. But enough
irrelevant family history.) Sears' account in particular made use
of an extensive body of information collected after the battle by
two veterns, which Sears reports had not previously been utilized
as source material for a battle history.
Apparently, Sears became intrigued by the figure of George McClellan,
the commanding general who served the Federal forces so poorly that
day, for some years later he has written the first really through
biography of Little Mac, who thought he could be president even though
he could barely manage a battlefield. McClellan was certainly an
interesting figure; an excellent staff officer who trained up a very
fine army, the Army of the Potomac, yet who was totally incapable of
handling it in the actions for which it was intended. For those
familiar with Douglas MacArthur, this biography will at certain points
seem remarkably familar -- McClellan dabbled in conservative democratic
politics, and even while he was on active duty in the field, made moves
towards running for the presidency. Unlike MacArthur, McClellan actually
made his run for the presidency in 1864 (after leaving active duty),
only to be miserably defeated (Later on he was elected to the
Governership of New Jersey, but this hardly seems comparable.)
The bulk of the time is spent on McClellan the army commander, on
his successes and his failures, and on his delusions and neuroses.
This is a facinating book, of considerable interest to the student
of the War of the Rebellion.
richard
--
richard welty welty@lewis.crd.ge.com
518-387-6346, GE R&D, K1-5C39, Niskayuna, New York