Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac [Hardcover]

Stephen W. Sears (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 1999

Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War might well be the most intriguing book ever published about the Civil War, for it focuses on the people and events that one of our best historians has found most fascinating, including: Professor Lowe's reconnaissance balloons; the court-martial of Fitz John Porter; the Lost Order at Antietam; press coverage of the war; the looting of Fredericksburg; the Mud March; the roles of volunteers, conscripts, bounty jumpers, and foreign soldiers; the notorious General Dan Sickles, who shot his wife's lover outside the White House, and the much maligned Generals McClellan (justifiably) and Hooker (not so justifiably). The book follows the Army of the Potomac throughout the war, from 1861 to 1865, painting a remarkable portrait of the key incidents and personalities that influenced the course of our nation's greatest cataclysm.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This collection of feisty essays delivers well-argued and persuasive assessments of Union military leadership during the Civil War. Stephen W. Sears, author of Landscape Turned Red (the best book on Antietam) and perhaps the foremost authority on General George B. McClellan, fits a lifetime of research and thought into 10 pithy chapters. Topics include the historiography of McClellan, the near-criminal conduct of Congress and War Secretary Edwin Stanton in the matter of General Charles P. Stone's arrest (here, Sears breaks new ground by uncovering plotters in Stone's own command), and a spirited defense of General "Fighting Joe" Hooker. One particular highlight is Sears's chapter on Robert E. Lee's so-called Lost Order, which revealed Confederate battle plans before Antietam and helped the Union secure an invaluable advantage. Historians have never agreed on when Lee realized what happened--just prior to the battle or long after; Sears's conclusion is that it took months before Lee understood.

An examination of the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren raid on Richmond is especially provocative, and arrives at conclusions quite different from those found in Duane Schultz's The Dahlgren Affair; Sears argues, in short, that Dahlgren intended not simply to free prisoners of war, but, as Confederate partisans have long alleged, to kidnap Jefferson Davis himself. This opinionated but informed book is a joy to read, and belongs in the library of any serious student of the Civil War. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

The Army of the Potomac, the Union force that defended Washington and fought against Robert E. Lee, was often entwined in crisis throughout the Civil War. Sears (Chancellorsville) has taken the most important controversies and has crafted an intelligent, well-researched volume that brings order out of the chaos that surrounded the generals of this army. Seven of the 10 chapters are new; the remaining three are revisions of earlier articles. Sears examines the controversial George B. McClellan, creator of the army, beloved by soldiers but singularly unsuccessful on the battlefield. He argues convincingly that Charles P. Stone, arrested and imprisoned for alleged disloyalty, was a victim of a cabal of his subordinates. Fitz John Porter, too, fell victim to those who wished to rid the army of its "McClellanism." Sears follows the rising discontent of many of the army's generals, which culminated in outright revolt following Ambrose Burnside's debacle at Fredericksburg. Joe Hooker, who took a prominent part in the trouble, fell victim to the same sort of backbiting after he criticized his generals for defeat at Chancellorsville. Astute readers may well find that some of Sears's conclusions are controversial in themselves, but this book provides much-needed fresh insight into the operations of the North's primary field army. Photos.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1St Edition edition (February 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395867606
• ISBN-13: 978-0395867600
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,532,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Book. Well Researched and Argued, May 8, 2000

By 

Wayne A. Smith (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac (Hardcover)

Sears presents an interesting series of portrats relating to commanders and issues that all to freqeuntly dominated the Army of the Potomac and often stood in the way of effective prosecution of the war in the Eastern Theater.

This book is well researched and effectively argued. Fans of Sear's Civil War works (of which I am one) will recognize many of the vignettes from works such as "Chancellorsville," "Landscape Turned Red," and "The Peninsula Campaign." They are more fully fleshed out in this book, but essentially contain the same information Sears has argued before.

However, this does not detract and the Sears reader will find other stories that contain new information and interesting portraits.

Gen. McClellan infuses most of the tales, his presence is never far and these different affairs demonstrate how much better "Little Mac" was at dominating the political life of the Army than the Confederates. Sears makes a compelling argument that the hapless General was excellent at everything except fighting. It begs the question as to whether or not his talents could have been more effectively employed had he gotten Halleck's job early on and field generalship been left to Meade, Hooker or Grant (although whether or not McClellan's ego or Lincoln's needs would have been satisfied by such an arrangement is in doubt).

In particular, the revolt of the generals, although covered somewhat in "Chancellorsville," is a good work and telling as to why the Army of the Potomac suffered such weak leadership at crucial times. The chapters on the General Stone affair reveal the downside of political expediency during the Civil War (and the willingness of McClellan to sacrifice is friends and colleagues -- as in Stone's case and Porter's court martial -- to further his prospects.)

Interestingly, the most striking analysis regards the generalship of Gen. Hooker. Although again, "Chancellorsville" covers this ground, Sear's original research and painstaking reconstruction of the events relating to Hooker's failure during that battle are convincing in their defense against what appears in hindsight to be the scapgoating of one of the few Union generals in the East who would and could fight. Sear's analysis is at odds with that of many Civil War chroniclers including Ken Burns, Shelby Foote and James McPherson regarding Hooker's failure during the height of the battle. After taking in the evidence, I'd say that Sears has it right.

The chapters are well organized, well documented and the writing succint. This form makes for excellent "pick-up" reading as it is not one story but a series of portraits. Recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marvelous Book, in Bite-Sized Essays!, March 29, 1999

By 

Brian Stouder (Fort Wayne, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac (Hardcover)

As one who enjoys reading American Civil War history, this collection of essays was a wonderful birthday present. Sears presents informative, lively, readable essays on several crucial controversies within the Union Army of the Potomac's high command. His takes on Joe Hooker were particularly convincing and compelling. For example, I'd never read anything to contradict the assessment (supposedly by Hooker himself!) that "For once, I lost confidence in Hooker" to explain his defeat at Chancellorsville. Yet Sears leaves little doubt he simply never said that, and in fact the injury he sustained at his HQ in that battle explains much (if not all) of his problem there.

Also interesting was the essay on the courts martial of Stoneman and of Porter, and the Mclellan-go-round.

Just a tremendous book, and easy to pick up and put down, given the right-sized essay lengths.

I truly enjoy reading Stephen Sears' work, and have since having "Landscape Turned Red" recommended to me by a friend. He's just a fine writer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Controversies and Commanders, May 30, 2004

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac (Paperback)

Stephen Sears' CONTROVERSIES & COMMANDERS "examines ten incidents of war as waged by the Army of the Potomac in which `controversy' and commanders' were spoken in the same breath." In the process he examines the court-martialed and the cashiered, the mad and the mutinous. Not surprisingly for the man who has written the biography and edited the selected papers of that most controversial of Civil War generals, Sears seldom strays far from the aura of George B. McClellan.
Indeed, the book's first essay concerns Little Mac and his treatment by the historians. It arrives at the decidedly uncontroversial conclusion that McClellan was a deeply flawed warrior general and a highly expert executive general.
We pick up a little speed with the second entry on the `Ordeal of General Stone,' who was arrested in 1861 after the debacle at Ball's Bluff. Sears does a masterful job in explaining the political pressures at work behind the scenes in both Gen. Stone's arrest and in the court-martial of McClellan's protege Fitz John Porter, which is the topic of the third essay.
`September Crisis' and `Last Words on the Lost Order' rework very old subjects indeed, and Sears has nothing much new to say about McClellan's reinstatement to his old role as commanding general of the Army of the Potomac or on the discovery of SO191, the famous lost order that would allow McClellan to whip Lee at Antietam.
Jumping ahead a bit, no book about Civil War controversies would be complete without the embodiment of controversy, the political general Dan Sickles. The infamous Dahlgren raid on Richmond and the little discussed removal of General Warren by feisty Phil Sheridan during the war's last battle are also treated.

I found Sears' essays on the revolt of the generals and a defense of Fighting Joe Hooker the most compelling. Sears brings a sense of order to the tangled tale of the knaves and marplots among the officers following Little Mac's final dismissal and the arrival of General George Meade. "It had," Sears writes, "become virtually open rebellion in the high command." The villains included political generals, disgruntled holdovers from the McClellan regime and various ambitious loose cannons. Their first victim was the inadequate innocent Ambrose Burnside, who replaced McClellan against his wishes and his better judgment. The second lamb to fall under their knife was the epitome of conniving generalship, Fighting Joe Hooker.
Sears' defense of Hooker's reputation is poignant. (A little ironic, too, considering the rather harsh verdict he delivers on McClellan in this and other more extended treatments.)
Sears' defense rests on the testimony of Lincoln secretary John Hay and hinges on the interpretation of the Bigelow footnote. The incident in question is Hooker's behavior as commanding general at the battle of Chancellorsville. Hooker, never short of self-confidence or bluster, began the Chancellorsville campaign sure that his brilliant plan would lead him shortly to the gates of Richmond. On the first day the Union army met a terrible reverse (Chancellorsville has been called Lee's greatest battle) and Hooker was seriously injured - a pillar he was standing next to was hit by a cannonball and he was knocked unconscious. Drifting in and out of consciousness Hooker was incapacitated but never ceded command. Later in the day the Union lines stabilized and a majority of his lieutenants recommended resuming the offensive the next day. Going against this advice, and casting a cloud over his career, Hooker ordered a retreat.
Hooker, like Ulysses Grant, had a reputation as an alcoholic that preceded his Civil War career. Again like Grant he had apologists. Lincoln's personal secretary, John Hay, is quoted by Sears as observing that it took very little alcohol to make Hooker seem drunk. This testimony is used to counter the claim of some historians that Hooker, who vowed to abstain from spirits upon his promotion, perhaps needed a shot or two to steel his courage.
The Bigelow footnote speaks to Hooker's irresolution, and Sears refutes its authenticity. The footnote first appears in 1910, and cites as its source an aide to General Abner Doubleday, who asked Hooker what happened to him at Chancellorsville and was reportedly told: "Doubleday, I was not hurt by a shell, and I was not drunk. For once I lost confidence in Joe Hooker, and that is all there is to it." Whether suffering from the d.t.s or, as Sears would have it, a severe concussion, Hooker acted like a man who'd suffered a sudden lack of confidence in himself. The Bigelow footnote fits regardless of its authenticity.

CONTROVERSIES & COMMANDERS may be a little thick for someone new to the topic. For the Civil War buff it's a treat.