The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee [Paperback]

Clifford Dowdey (Author), Robert K. Krick (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

During the Seven Days Campaign--the series of battles fought near Richmond at the end of June 1862--General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia routed General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Although the Confederates repulsed the powerful offensive of the Yankees, they failed to win a complete and decisive victory. The campaign had far-reaching consequences for both sides: depriving McClellan of a military decision meant the war would continue for two more years, and the chance for Southern victory would never come again. The Seven Days memorably depicts a turning point in the war and in American history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Dowdey "brings to an encyclopedic knowledge of the facts a freshness that makes the story seem new. . . . [It] is an examination of the critical moments when history goes off on a new course."—Bruce Catton, American Heritag

(Bruce Catton American Heritage )

"[Dowdey] admirably blends fact and human interest in fine historical writing. This book is essential to any collections on American history and the Civil War."—Library Journal

(Library Journal )

About the Author

Clifford Dowdey's other works include Lee's Last Campaign: The Story of Lee and His Men against Grant--1864. Robert K. Krick, whose introduction to The Seven Days takes up current scholarship, is the author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain, winner of the Douglas Southall Freeman Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803265948
• ISBN-13: 978-0803265943
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-written account of the Seven Days Battles, July 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee (Paperback)

Clifford Dowdey's work, "The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee," is a well-written, detailed and informative record of the series of clashes between Union and Confederate forces known as the Seven Days Battles that occurred near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia in late June 1862.

Dowdey describes, in rich detail, the initial Union planning and preparations for the amphibious landing on the York Peninsula (between the James and York Rivers). He details the Union Army of the Potomac's successful landing on the York Peninsula in May 1862 and its methodical advance up the peninsula towards Richmond led by its commanding officer, Major General George B. McClellan. The Confederate forces, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, are seen by Dowdey as ill-led as they continually retreated in successive fashion towards the outskirts of the Confederate capital and prepared themselves for a siege. Finally, with the Union Army divided north and south of the Chickahominy River, Dowdey chronicles Johnston's decision to turn on the Union forces at Seven Pines on May 31, only to fight an inconclusive battle. Johnston himself was wounded in the late hours of the battle, and his replacement was General Robert E. Lee, until that moment the military advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Upon assuming command, Lee immediately devised a series of offensive strikes against the still-divided Union forces, but Dowdey argues that Lee's ultimate failure to crush the Union Army was due to a combination of many factors. Poor Confederate staff planning was in clear evidence from the beginning to the end of the Seven Days Battles. General Lee failed time and again to assume direct operational control of ever-changing battle situations where his subordinates failed to drive forward against the enemy (for example, "Stonewall" Jackson's failure to push forward his drive on the Confederate northern and left flank at the Battle of Mechaniscville). Lee was also hampered by the uneven quality of his subordinate commanders, particularly the deaf and old Theophilus Holmes, the inept Benjamin Huger and the mentally exhausted Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (who suffered, according to Dowdey, from stress fatigue). Last, but certainly not least, the surprisingly well disciplined, hard-fighting and well-led (at the brigade, divisional and corps levels) Union troops frustrated Lee's strategic and tactical battle plans at virtually every turn.

Dowdey's work provides wonderfully detailed descriptions of all of the major battles: Seven Pines, Fair Oaks Station, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, Savage's Station and Malvern Hill. In addition, he also aids the reader by providing a series of detailed maps and descriptions of the complex web of major and minor roads and country lanes that were fundamental to the movement of the armies - Union and Confederate - during the Seven Days Battles. I found, however, one very annoying aspect about the work. I strongly disagreed with Dowdey's one-sided and dismissive view of Confederate General Joseph Johnston as a defeatist general who possessed no redeeming personal or military abilities. Johnston was clearly one of the most effective of all the Confederate generals, one whose primary concern was the care and welfare of the men under his command. He never took unnecessary risks in battle, for he knew that the Confederacy had a limited pool of available manpower with which to fight the Union.

Despite this one point of disagreement, I found Dowdey's work to be an excellent study of the Seven Days Battles. His insistence on "visual history" - that a historian must visit the battlefield that he is studying in order to more effectively understand the movements of the opposing armies, thereby aiding him in writing a work that the reader will follow clearly - is very much in evidence in this book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An easy read with tough judgements and sharp insights, June 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Trenton) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee (Paperback)

A wonderful break from the usual, with Dowdey displaying an absolute mastery of the material. McClellan (heroically) dominates the early parts, with Johnston and Magruder as fools and Lincoln and Stanton as MacBeth's witches. The author's appreciation of the North's and South's politics is outstanding and adds a livid dimension to this oft-told tale. His single failure is in the matter of comparative (numerical) strengths. Don't miss it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, July 10, 2011

By 

Robert Gresham (Lilburn, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee (Paperback)

This is a great resource for anyone interested in the 7 Days "campaign." I preferred the first half to the second as I'm not a thorough military historian; however, it is extremely informative. Dowdey knew the area around Richmond like nobody's business, he was evenhanded all around and unlike many Yankee books these days he spent a lot of time discussing each side in the struggle.

The one thing I was disappointed in was his "aftermath" section was too small. The affect on both Lee's army and the Yankees after Lee drove them from Richmond was huge for both, and deserving of more than a few pages. The Jacobins tormented McClellan at every inch and used his "failure" during this time to put the laughable, evil Pope in command and to gain a stranglehold on Lincoln (or else the Rail Splitter was that beholden to party.) Lee had little time to drive the Yanks from Richmond and was able to do so despite a lack of time for organization, getting to know his commanders, etc but it meant two or three times the men were necessary in an operation that should've captured the entire Army of the Potomac.