Customer Reviews

The Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command, November 1860-September 1861

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2 star:		(1)
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I don't know where Russell Beatie has been hiding for so many years, but it must have been working on this project. The size and scope of his work (which is going to be many volumes) is daunting, but he is up for the task if this first volume is any indication. The writing is very clear and lucid, the level of detail just right for a top-down study, and his use of manuscript material is judicious. His crisp portraits of the primary leaders are outstanding, as are his battle descriptions. I received this book as a birthday present, but almost wish I could brag of having bought it myself. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

The book is well organized and clearly written.

Mr. Beatie gives a new (and detailed) look at the origins of the Civil War from the Union perspective. The pantheon of Confederate leaders are known to us all, Beatie gives the Union leaders a voice.

I found his detailed research, especially as it related to G.B.McCellan particularly insightful. He does not follow the crowd in vilifying McCellan, rather he presents a balanced appraisal of the man-- his many weaknesses as well as his magnetism that drew people to him.

I am looking forward to volume two!

I ordered the Army of the Potomac from Amazon (as I do all my books now). I love reading about McClellan and the major field army of the Eastern Theatre, so when I found out about the book I decided to pick it up and give it a try. I don't know for sure what I was expecting, but I was not anticipating such a sweeping, almost magesterial yet detailed treatment of the formation of that army and the intriguing history of its top brass. I should warn readers it is a long read (more than 600 pages), and it only gets past First Bull Run! There are more volumes to come.

This book is not a battle study type of book. Although there are two or three chapters dealing with Bull Run, they offer top down strategic glimpses of what was taking place, and always from the Union point of what based up what the commanders knew or believed at the time. That can be confusing, but when you get the feel for what the author is doing, it works well. It reminded me of Albert Castel's "Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign" book, which was written in the first person. It takes a while to get used to it.

Overall this is a wonderful book. Beattie examines the entire officer corps from their social backgrounds, military experience and beliefs, political ties and connections, etc. I did not find anything that really surprised me, but he fleshed out a lot of information and helped fill in gaps in my knowledge of that period of the war, which is almost always glossed over in other books. The maps by Civil War cartographer Blake Magner are good and there are lots of them, and the notes and bibliography are both required reading. I concur wholeheartedly with what others on this page have written.

Finally, a detailed, originally researched, and extremely well (and rather uniquely) written study of the AOP and its leadership. This volume (the first of many, promises the author), begins a few months before the war and runs through Bull Run and the Fall of 1861, when George McClellan takes the stage. At 640pp., that tells you how much detail is packed into this book. I could not put it down, and finished it in three days.

The author uses the fog of war technique (perfectly, I might add), and you walk and ride next to Lincoln, McDowell, Patterson, various staff officers, etc.-- as they experience the war. Unlike most military history books, Beatie manages to flesh out his main characters into living, breathing men. He captures perfectly their dialogue, their angst, and their personality quirks. In addition, his use of manuscript material is fresh and masterful. I learned a lot I did not know about these men and why they made certain decisions--or did not. In addition, he uses FOOTNOTES (real, honest-to-goodness footnotes at the bottom of the page!). Many are several paragraphs long. Each show his mastery of military history. His examples from ancient history were my favorite. The notes reminded me of Douglas Southall Freeman's "Lee's Lieutenants," which the author claims inspired him to pen this study about Lee's primary enemy field force. Like Freeman, Beatie also uses a Dramatis Personae to open the book. I LOVED IT. A work of this length and depth deserves a well-crafted list and description of characters.

The bibliography is annotated and weighs in at just under 50 pages. I read it completely. Beatie penned a few words to paragraph or two on each source. His observations were worth the price of the book to me.

The dust jacket claims the author does for the AOP what Freeman did for Lee's army. I doubted such a thing was possible when I first picked up this book. But I have to admit that if this first volume is any indication of what is to come, Beatie's lofty goal has been met. Buy and read it for yourself. If you like good history, well written and deeply researched, you will not be disappointed. You might not agree with all his conclusions, but anyone who can put together a tome like this deserves to be read and discussed widely.

A note to the author: hurry and finish the second volume!

Russel Beatie has done an excellent job with his first volume on the long and storied history of the Army of the Potomac! In this first volume he seeks to do for the greatest of the Union armies what Douglas Southall Freeman did for the fabled Army of Northern Virginia.
It is probable that Beatie's book will sell far fewer copies than did Dr. Freeman's classic work. However, the book is well worth pouring over its detailed pages as lawyer Beatie sketches the first confusing months of the Civil War from the Union viewpoint.
As someone who has read Civil War literature for many years I confess that my knowledge of the Army of the Potomac is vastly inferior to what I know of Lee's legions. Beatie is strong on character sketches of such men as Winfield Scott, Irvin McDowell and the engimatic and controversial George Brinton McClellan.
For these sketches alone the book is valuable. His battle descriptions are succint but well done. The maps are helpful to the text and easy to read.
I noticed a few typos and factual errors but am much impressed by the long years of Beatie's resources. His bibliograpy of first person eyewitness acocunts and unit histories is vast.
I look forward to volume two which will pick up the story from September, 1861. I am in awe of his research and dedication to getting this book published!

I was skeptical of this book when I first picked it up. I mean the book only covers the Army of the Potomac from November 1860 to September 1861 and yet is a good 600 pages long by a writer for all intensive purposes is an unknown. I was half expecting a very dry read but boy was I wrong. Instead I got one of the best Civil War books I've read in a while.

The book is intended to be the first in a series of books covering the history of the Army of the Potomac. This volume covers the formation of the army in the early days of the war.

I think one of the things I really enjoyed about this book is it dealt with areas, details and people that few other books deal with. How does one create an army? How do you get these regiments from the north down to Washington which is almost cut off due to the city of Baltimore? The problems were immense.

Attempting to solve these problems were men whom we have seldom heard much about or if we have we have heard about them it's mostly from later in the war for other things. This book deals with men like Benjamin Butler, Charles Stone, Robert Patterson and Elmer Ellsworth. Footnotes in many other books, here they take center stage alongside more familiar names like Fitz-John Porter, Irvin McDowell, Winfield Scott and of course George McClellan as they do their part in securing Washington DC and helping in the early creation of what would become the Army of the Potomac.

Russel Beatie definately has written a great book here that I think most Civil War enthusiasts will greatly enjoy. It has wonderful detail and yet is never slow or dry. I really can't wait to read the other volumes in the series. I think once completed it will be an important part of anyone's Civil War book collection.

The AOP is one of the storied armies in American history. This book is the first, of a series, that fully tells that story. Very detailed, fully documented but reads like a novel giving information and fun at the same time.

The advantage of this treatment is that we see things as they saw them. Rumor has to be considered and we understand why it was thought that 100,000 men were marching on Washington. Ed Beares is another author that has mastered a detailed redaable history. This compares very well with his work.

July 2, 2002. - The Eastern Theater of The American Civil War - The curtain rose from the stage at the premier of Da Cappo Press' newest production, to reveal "Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command November 1860 - September 1862." Authored by Russel H. Beatie, it is the first of a series covering the history of the Army of the Potomac.

Mr. Beatie has been kind enough to present us with a Dramatis Personae, a playbill, if you will, providing us with the briefest of possible biographical sketches of the players about to grace the stage. Receiving top billing, of course, is Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican War. He is supported by a cast of subordinates: Charles P. Stone, Robert Patterson, Fitz-John Porter, Benjamin F. Butler, Elmer Ellsworth, J. K. F. Mansfield, Irvin McDowell, Samuel P. Heintzelman, David Hunter, George B. McClellan and Nathaniel Prentis Banks.

The stage has been carefully set. On November 6th, 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States without a single electoral vote from any of the Southern states. Shortly thereafter, on December 20th, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. It is January 1861 and Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia & Louisiana have now also left the Union. Texas will join her sister Southern states on February 1st.

Lincoln, having been confronted with the problem of resuplying or reinforcing Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, immediately upon his inauguration, chose the less confrontational route: to resuply it, thus, maneuvering the South into firing the first shot of the war on April 12th, 1861 and providing the inciting incident of our national drama, and the beginning of the Civil War. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee soon after seceded and joined the Confederate States of America.

Mr. Beatie illuminates the central question in the first act of his drama, "How does one create an army?" by shining his spotlight on New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio, where from nebular clouds regiments of soldiers begin to emerge.

Maryland provides our first plot point. Heavily secessionist in sentiment, Maryland surrounds Washington D.C. on three sides. With Virginia having already seceded, if Maryland were to cast its lot with her sister slave states, Washington would be cut off. Now that there is an army, fractured though it is, how does one move it through hostile territory to Washington where it is needed?

Here the author shifts his focus from upstage to stage center, narrating Abraham Lincoln's steps to ensure that Maryland stayed in the Union by suspending the writ of habeas corpus and arresting the state legislators who sided with the South. All the while, Patterson, Porter, Butler, Keyes, Lefferts & Stone began to secure routes both through and around Baltimore, a city seemingly seething with anti-unionist sentiment, to Washington, D.C.

The first Battle of Bull Run is the center piece of Mr. Beatie's second act, as the action moves down stage to Virginia. Mr. Beatie deftly weaves together the fate of Harper's Ferry and Patterson's attempts to keep Joseph E. Johnston's southern soldiers bottled up in the Shenandoah Valley and preventing them from joining the rest of the Confederate Army under P.G.T. Beauregard at Manassas. Patterson's ultimate failure allowed the two Southern armies to join in battle against the Federal Army, led by Irvin McDowell at Bull Run Creek.

The battle is the midpoint in Mr. Beatie's drama. As the two armies collide on the field of battle, the point of view is strictly from the vantage of the men and commanders of the Federal army. Mr. Beatie presents the facts and events throughout his narrative as they happen, this technique can some times be confusing to the audience, and the one critique this reviewer has is the wish for more maps in this section to allow the audiance to better follow the action as it proceeds. The fog of war envelopes the Union forces, facts are misinterpreted, mistakes are made, and ultimately the failure of the command structure results in a Confederate victory, and the curtain falls on a defeated demoralized Federal army as they gradually make their way back to Washington.

George B. McClellan enters from stage right at the beginning of the final act. Having been called from the West after several small but impressive victories to assume command of what will soon come to be known as the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Beatie concentrates on the bickering between Scott, the General-In-Chief and his subordinate officer, McClellan, and as the light shines brighter on McClellan, Scott's time in the light begins to fade. Scott's letter of resignation sent to Lincoln serves as the last plot point and the final curtain falls to the stage floor with George B. McClellan soon to be commissioned as General-In-Chief.

Mr. Beatie's "Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command November 1860 - September 1862," has been well received and hailed as a critical success. Not since Douglas Shouthall Freeman's, "Lee's Lieutenants," has a work of such magnitude and scope as Mr. Beatie's graced the literary stage of the American Civil War.

An appendix, "Officers and Battlefield Maneuvers," as well as a fully annotated bibliography siting the strengths of weaknesses of the source materials used, serve as Mr. Beatie's curtain calls. And on a production note, the book is fully noted with footnotes at the bottom of every page.

This, Mr. Beatie's first production in the series, has already spawned two sequels, and if they are its equal, I'm sure they will be followed by others.

Russel Beatie develops a history of the origins of the Army of the Potomac. He notes that (page xv): "This is the story of a group of men during a short but extraordinary period in their lives." He also observes that his role model is D. S. Freeman, who focused on the development and actions of the Army of Northern Virginia.

This is a nice detailed work of the personalities at the beginning, the crucible of battle, the various components of the Army. There is a nice, brief Appendix on battlefield maneuvers.

The book itself begins at the beginning, with Winfield Scott as the head of the Army. Although a southerner, he remained loyal to the Union as its army's Commander-in-Chief after the breaking out of the Civil War. There is a segment entitled "Dramatis Personae" at the outset of the book, providing brief biographical sketches of key figures in the early days of the Army of the Potomac, including such figures as Scott, Charles Stone, Robert Patterson, Fitz-John Porter to George McClellan. These sketches provide nice context for what follows.

The Army begins to emerge as volunteers and regulars from throughout the North wended their way to Washington, D. C. Irvin McDowell was the first head of the Army. The book traces the organizing of the Army and its first foray into Virginia, culminating with the Union near victory but, in the end, chaotic defeat at Bull Run/Manassas. The antiquated Robert Patterson's failure to pin down Confederate General Joseph Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley was a key factor in the Union defeat.

Once the Army returned to the area of Washington, D. C, after the defeat, General George McClellan entered the picture. A wonderful organizer, he would prove wanting as a field commander in battle. However, he was the person to take a mob and make it into a finely honed instrument of battle--the Army of the Potomac.

The text goes on to note the conflict between McClellan and Scott, contentiousness between McClellan and Abraham Lincoln, and so on. Discussion also notes the headquarters staff as it developed, the evolution of the cavalry and artillery in the army. Finally, a chapter on the engineers completes the volume.

This book is very nice in that it lays the stage for understanding how the Army of the Potomac developed in all its detail. It is not a compellingly written book, and one can almost drown in some details. Nonetheless, Beatie does a real service by providing a detailed examination of the early months of this fighting vehicle.

Most of our Civil War history more or less concentrates on the Confederates, and spends only limited time on their Northern opponents. When you balance Lee's Lieutenants, for instance, against Catton's Army of the Potomac trilogy, the latter is perhaps a bit more readable, but considerably shorter and not nearly as detailed, as a result. Russel Beatie has apparently decided to try and reconstruct Lee's Lieutenants, but concentrate on the Army of the Potomac instead of that of Northern Virginia, and see what he can do to right the balance. This book is the first volume in what will undoubtedly be six or seven volumes on the subject, at a minimum. The third volume was released in 2007, and only covers a period up through the latter part of 1862.

So Beatie starts out noticeably imitating Freeman, who wrote Lee's Lieutenants. He mentions him in his forward, and then begins the book by giving you thumbnail sketches of the participants. This is in direct imitation of Lee's Lieutenants, and the book is essentially constructed pretty much in the same way. For the most part, it's a detailed and informed account of the campaigns of the early part of the war, including the securing of the rail lines into Washington from the rest of the North, the capture of Harper's Ferry, and the battle of Bull Run.

There are difficulties, however. One of my chief objections is that the author inserts those thumbnail biographies at the front of the book and then assumes you skipped them. As a result, he repeats, pretty close to verbatim, everything he wrote in those sketches in the narrative of the book. Since some of them are pretty much a page long, it's pretty tedious when you just read this same stuff a bit ago. It also feels like he was padding or didn't know what else to say.

Other than that relatively minor complaint, the book is well-done and intelligently constructed, and I'd recommend it to Civil War buffs. I look forward to further volumes in the series.