The Peninsular - McClellan's Campaign of 1862
Product Description
To be of any practical use, all history, and particularly military history, must be gradually sifted and reduced to small compass. To carry out this idea, the publishers have asked the writer to prepare for them, in a condensed form, that part of the History of the War of the Rebellion which includes the operations of the Army of the Potomac from the assumption of the command of that army by General McClellan, in July, 1861, to its arrival at Harrison’s Landing, in July, 1862.
So much has been written on this subject that it would not at first appear to be a difficult matter to condense the various accounts; but to the writer’s task has been added the special work required in comparing and collating for careful investigation the new material gathered by the War Department, and now for the first time made the basis of a history of that period. The results of that labor he presents in these pages. An actor himself in everything here treated of, he has in a large measure been guided in his research by his memory of scenes never to be effaced, but not by the false impressions of those days, with which, on most occasions, he was heartily in accord.
In speaking of the “President of the United States and his advisers,” he must not be understood as recalling or changing at any time his constant and repeated expressions of admiration, affection and regard for the President himself. He appeals to the closing chapter, reviewing the whole work of the army during the twelve months covered by this volume, to prove that he is as loyal to that nobleman’s memory as ever he was to him in person, and is but doing the work of an honest historian in recording the sad tale of the want of unity, the want of confidence, the want of co-operation between the Administration and the General commanding the army.
In this work we cannot give in extenso the most important of the better-known documents, so often printed by the writers on both sides of the questions which arose between General McClellan and the Administration, and omit every one not absolutely necessary to a proper understanding of the narrative. We hope, however, that the attention of thinking men will be attracted to a more thorough investigation of the questions not yet settled, and that this work will serve as an aid to any one who desires to seek what is the vital lesson to be derived from our failure on the Peninsula.
We have been unable to do justice to many of our most gallant officers or to their commands, by giving in full the history of their achievements during this campaign. We have been limited in the space assigned to this narrative, and we have been forced to choose between repeating the well-known accounts of various battles and giving from new data the proof of the restless and daring activity of the Rebels who fought us. We have chosen the latter course, believing that there is a public demand for information of this kind. Our sketch of the campaign will, we hope, serve as a reliable introduction to a larger volume.
We are under especial obligations to Secretary of War Lincoln, to Secretary of the Navy Hunt, to Colonel Robert N. Scott, of the Bureau of Archives in the War Department, to Generals Wright, Meigs, Barnes, Humphreys, Keyes, and others, for their continued kindness in furnishing maps and documents, during the four months in which we have been engaged in the preparation of this volume.
Alexander S. Webb LL.D. NEW YORK CITY, November 1881.
So much has been written on this subject that it would not at first appear to be a difficult matter to condense the various accounts; but to the writer’s task has been added the special work required in comparing and collating for careful investigation the new material gathered by the War Department, and now for the first time made the basis of a history of that period. The results of that labor he presents in these pages. An actor himself in everything here treated of, he has in a large measure been guided in his research by his memory of scenes never to be effaced, but not by the false impressions of those days, with which, on most occasions, he was heartily in accord.
In speaking of the “President of the United States and his advisers,” he must not be understood as recalling or changing at any time his constant and repeated expressions of admiration, affection and regard for the President himself. He appeals to the closing chapter, reviewing the whole work of the army during the twelve months covered by this volume, to prove that he is as loyal to that nobleman’s memory as ever he was to him in person, and is but doing the work of an honest historian in recording the sad tale of the want of unity, the want of confidence, the want of co-operation between the Administration and the General commanding the army.
In this work we cannot give in extenso the most important of the better-known documents, so often printed by the writers on both sides of the questions which arose between General McClellan and the Administration, and omit every one not absolutely necessary to a proper understanding of the narrative. We hope, however, that the attention of thinking men will be attracted to a more thorough investigation of the questions not yet settled, and that this work will serve as an aid to any one who desires to seek what is the vital lesson to be derived from our failure on the Peninsula.
We have been unable to do justice to many of our most gallant officers or to their commands, by giving in full the history of their achievements during this campaign. We have been limited in the space assigned to this narrative, and we have been forced to choose between repeating the well-known accounts of various battles and giving from new data the proof of the restless and daring activity of the Rebels who fought us. We have chosen the latter course, believing that there is a public demand for information of this kind. Our sketch of the campaign will, we hope, serve as a reliable introduction to a larger volume.
We are under especial obligations to Secretary of War Lincoln, to Secretary of the Navy Hunt, to Colonel Robert N. Scott, of the Bureau of Archives in the War Department, to Generals Wright, Meigs, Barnes, Humphreys, Keyes, and others, for their continued kindness in furnishing maps and documents, during the four months in which we have been engaged in the preparation of this volume.
Alexander S. Webb LL.D. NEW YORK CITY, November 1881.
