George B. McClellan

THIS IS MORE THAN THE STORY OF 'Little Mac.' It is the story also of that dark center of intrigue, the nation's capital in 1862-of Washington shaking in its shoes for fear of an invasion by 'gaunt hairy beings riding into Washington like Centaurs and perhaps setting fire to the Capitol'; a Washington dominated by politicians and partisans, where party strife and bitterness were so strong that some members of the government itself preferred Union defeat to a victory which might make a Democrat (McClellan) a national hero and a presidential possibility; a Washington in which even the President and his Cabinet showed a childish impatience because McClellan did not remove the threat to the capital overnight-in spite of a liquid terrain and 'the greatest military combination in modern history, Lee and Jackson'; a Washington rotten with military gossip and spy-talk in back alleys....'THIS BOOK ORIGINATED in studies made by the historians of the Conservation Commission in the Richmond battlefield area, which is comprised in the Richmond Battlefield Park, a charge of the commission. These battlefields are the best preserved and least studied (because long inaccessible) in the country. A detailed examination of the terrain convinced the historians, both of them Southerners, that McClellan was a great general and that he has been underestimated by historians. Their opinion was confirmed by a study of the records. They came to the conclusion that it was McClellan who prevented the defeat of the North in 1861-62 when the Confederacy was relatively stronger than it was at a later time. Believing that politics should not be permitted to influence military judgments, they have written this book, partly for the purpose of doing justice to a great man who has suffered at the hands of history. It is based on the ground itself and the original sources, and is believed to be a contribution to American and Virginia history.'-Foreword