A great history of the Civil War

books:

	• Mr Lincoln's Army Bruce Catton Smith Press, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A great history of the Civil War

Part 1 of Bruce Catton's fantastic trilogy on the Civil War is a great way to start learning about one of the most interesting conflicts in American history. While recent accounts offer more and have gone into a better analysis using modern historical tools this still remains one of the most interesting looks at classical history. This book really focuses on the relationship of McClellan to the soldiers and does a decent job using historical documents to make his point. While there are many rich documents out there and the status of McClellan has changed since this book was written it is still an interesting account of the time.

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Written Like Only Catton Could

One reason I am a life-long Civil War buff is because of the pleasant memories I have as a teenager reading several of Mr. Catton's books. Just recently I bought some used ones at a flea market and have decided to read them again. This book is the first one I have reread.

Rereading this book reminded me why Catton is one of the best writers on comprehensive or themed Civil War histories. He was not known for many titles on individual battles but instead focused on particular themes (US Grant taking command of the Army of the Potomac in 1864, a comprehensive history of the Army of the Potomac, etc.).

Mr. Lincoln's Army covers the time from Bull Run to the Battle of Antietam, mainly from the Union perspective. Yes, the folks who like a histories on the Confederacy may like not the perspective, but the book is fair in evaluating the leaders of the Army of the Potomac. The book also has Catton's unique writing style - excellent descriptions of troop movements, battles, and personalities.

The only reason I did not give the book 5 stars was not the content or style of the text but the maps. The maps were few and were of okay quality. To be fair, the book was written in the 1950s, so one should not expect the quality of maps one sees in newer titles.

Complaint aside, read the book and enjoy what is in my humble opinion one of the best histories of the Army of the Potomac.

Recommended.

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Even better the second time

I first read Catton's trilogy at age 17, before I went to Vietnam. I enjoyed the books tremendously and Catton started a lifetime interest in the American Civil War. I thought he was an outstanding writer, but with the hubris of youth, I rated him as a bit of a lightweight, a fine storyteller and nothing more. In the past month, at age 60, I read Mr. Lincoln's Army again. I was amazed at how much wiser Catton has become. He is the still the best historian I've read at explaining the interplay between the political and military factors of the war. He also is phenomenal at capturing the experience and awakening of the common soldier, and by extension the forging of new American identity.

He deals fearlessly with many of the controversies that still trouble historians and Civil War buffs. For example, historians still argue the question of whether the outcome was foreordained, whether the advantages of the North in men and materiel were insuperable no matter what individuals did. This is a popular theory, comforting to those who like deterministic approaches as well as the "Lost Cause" partisans. I've always thought it was a load of bull, and Catton deals with it forcefully. He practically says that if the Indiana private hadn't found the Confederate battle plan before Antietam, the history of the United States would have been much different. And if McClellan had made full use of the information and destroyed Lee's army, the history of the United States would have been far different, not necessarily in the ways we might think.

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A Literary Look at History

This is the second of Bruce Catton's "army of the Potomac" books that I have read. I have the whole series but let them sit on my shelf for years until I discovered Catton's genius for communicating history while reading "Glory Road". Some historical books are written by persons adept at research but short on writing skills. Others are adept at writing but short on research skills. A good book is when you find someone good at both. Catton EXCELS at both. His ability to show us the Civil War through the eyes of the participants is quite impressive. It's even more impressive when realizing that he takes us across a lot of ground in a mere 339 pages yet never lets us feel that we missed anything nor that we were bogged down in anything. He gives us his philosophy yet seems to try and give us enough leeway to decide for ourselves on a number of issues such as the merits of McClellan as commanding general.

"Mr. Lincoln's Army" covers the war from post First Bull Run with emphasis on the Penninsula Campaign and Antietam. Along the way we get a lot of insight into the politics that had many a politican exasperated with McClellan while the majority of soldiers worshipped him. As we explore the book, we frequently come across many a sideline subject. For example, he covers in this vollume the food that the common soldier had to eat. It was surprizing how thorough he covered the subject in far fewer pages that I encountered in other books.

I've read plenty of fiction that wasn't written as well as Catton writes. Given the fascinating subject matter, this book was a pleasure to read. I can't wait to read "A Stillness at Appomattox".

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Great Writing Style

When it comes to writing, Catton's style is nearly impeccable. When reading Catton's book, you get the feeling that this is a great writer writing about the Civil War, not a great Civil War historian who is writing.

Catton paints with broad strokes regarding the campaigns of the Army of the Potomoc up to November 1862. People who are interested in the Civil War will definitely want to read more detailed histories of the individual campaigns, but for those who have already done so, reading Catton is great because he ties them all together and really gets into the psyche of the soldiers and the army as a whole.

Much of the book focuses of course on McClellan, who is persona non grata in most histories being written these days. But Catton is able to evoke some sympathy for McClellan's odd position in the power struggle between the military commanders and the Administration's politics, let alone the power struggle within the Administration itself.

All in all, this is a great book for people who have read about the Civil War in depth and are looking for enjoyable reading.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Mr. LincoKs ARMY Bruce Catton DOUBLEDAY COMPANY, INC. Garden City, N. Y, 1951 COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY BRUCE CATTON ALL EIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. FIRST EDITION Contents CHAPTER ONE PICTURE-BOOK WAR 1. There Was Talk of Treason 1 2. We Were Never Again Eager 14 3. You Must Never Be Frightened 27 4. Man on a Black Horse 43 CHAPTER TWO THE YOUNG GENERAL 1. A Great Work in My Hands 55 2. Aye, Deem Us Proud 70 3. I Do Not Intend to Be Sacrificed 83 CHAPTER THREE THE ERA OF SUSPICION 1. But You Must Act 99 2. The Voice of Caution 112 3. Tomorrow Never Comes 126 4. Pillar of Smoke 144 CHAPTER FOUR AN ARMY ON THE MARCH 1. Indian Summer 163 2. Crackers and Bullets 183 3. Generals on Trial 200 vi CONTENTS VtVf CHAPTER FIVE OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS THREE TIMES 1. At Daybreak in the Morning 217 2. Destroy the Rebel Army 236 3. Tenting Tonight 250 CHAPTER SIX NEVER CALL RETREAT 1. Toward the Dunker Church 269 2. The Heaviest Fire o the War 287 3. All the Landscape Was Red 305 4. The Romance of War Was Over 322 Bibliography 341 Notes 349 Index 364 TO CHERRY CHAPTER ONE Picture-Book War I. There Was Talk of Treason THE ROWBOAT slid out on the Potomac in the hazy light of a hot August morning, dropped down past the line of black ships near the Alexandria wharves, and bumped to a stop with its nose against the wooden side of a transport. Colonel Herman Haupt, superintendent of military railroads, a sheaf of telegrams crumpled in one hand, went up the Jacobs ladder to the deck clumsily, as was to be expected of a landsman, but rapidly, for he was an active man and disappeared into a cabin. A moment later he returned, and as he came down the ladder he was followed by a short, broad-shouldered, sandy-haired man, deeply tanned by the sun of the Virginia peninsula, with thin faint lines of worry between his eyes Major General George Brinton McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, which had been com ing up from the south by water for a week and more and which at the moment was scattered all the way from Alexandria f o the upper Rappahannock, most of it well out of the generals reach and all of it, as he suspected, soon to be out from under his authority. There was an air about this youthful general an air of far-off bugles, and flags floating high, and troops cheering madly, as if the picture of him which one hundred thousand soldiers had created had somehow become real and was now an inseparable part of his actual appearance. He could look jaunty and dapper after a day in MR. LINCOLNS ARMY the saddle, on muddy roads, In a driving rainstorm like a successful politician, he lived Ms part, keeping himself close to the surface so that eveiy cry and every gesture of the men who adored him called him out to a quick response that was none the less genuine for being completely automatic. It was impossible to see him, in his uniform with the stars on his shoulders, without also seeing the army my army, he called it proudly, almost as if it were a personal possession, which was in a way the case he had made it, he had given it shape and color and spirit, and in his mind and in the minds of the men he commanded the identification was complete. He sat in the stern of the rowboat, beside the superintendent o military railroads, and he was silent as the boat went back upstream to the landing. The docks and the river front were a confusion of steamboats and barges and white-topped wagons and great stacks of boxed goods and equipment, and the quaint little town itself was lost in a restless, lounging concourse of soldiers loose fringes of a moving army, convalescents and strays and detailed men, and here and there a regiment moving off with cased flags at route step to ward some outlying camp...

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