PENINSULA CAMPAIGN (Part the Second)

In which we hit the pause button on the action during the Peninsula Campaign and take the time to discuss (1) McClellan’s special bond with the men of the Army of the Potomac, (2) McClellan’s suspicious arithmetic and the security of Washington, and (3) Lincoln’s decision to withhold McDowell’s corps from McClellan.

Our book recommendation for this episode is “Forward to Richmond: McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign” by Ronald H. Bailey and the Editors of Time-Life Books.

• Listen to Episode 131: PeninsulaPartSecond

McCLELLAN TAKES CHARGE

George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885)

In which we discuss George McClellan’s arrival in Washington in July of 1861, and his taking command of the defeated & demoralized force that would become the Union’s famed Army of the Potomac.

Our book recommendation for this episode is George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon by Stephen W. Sears.

“A dozen years after the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant said that ‘McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war.’  Historian Stephen Sears has finally unraveled most of that mystery.  He has probed the puzzling personality of this complex, brilliant man of whom so much was expected but who delivered so little.  A fascinating story of the reasons for the Union military failure in Virginia during the first half of the war.” ~ James M. McPherson

Listen to Episode 72: McclellanTakesCharge