Lincoln’s Political Generals
This book, based on a prize-winning Ph.D. dissertation, is the first published by historian David Work. This reviewer opened it with anticipation, but closed it with disappointment. The author chose 16 of the Civil War’s political generals for study — eight Republicans and eight Democrats, including two Irish and two German officers. The Republicans are Banks, Blair, Frémont, Hurlbut, Schenck, Schurz, Sigel, and Wadsworth; the Democrats are Butler, Denver, Dix, Logan, McClernand, Meagher, Shields, and Sickles. Each general merits a full-page portrait; there are no maps or other illustrations. The book’s theses are that Lincoln had good reasons to appoint political generals, especially to build Northern unity, and that most of the 16 generals studied made worthwhile contributions to the Union effort, some on the battlefield (Logan, in particular), several as administrators, and some as catalysts for change in racial policies (Banks, Butler and Frémont). Promotional materials for the book claim fresh insights, but reiterated here are rather familiar notions that political generals made some valuable contributions, did not succeed as independent army commanders, but could succeed in the field by working their way up under West Pointers. However, there is no comparative analysis of the learning curves of political generals and West Pointers, and Grant and Sherman likewise benefited by working their ways up. Overall, Work’s research seems solid. (One omission: the book does not report Henry Halleck’s famous remark that it was “but little better than murder to give important commands to men such as Banks, Butler, McClernand, Sigel, and Lew Wallace.”) Unfortunately, Work’s editors let him down by not demanding a more satisfying structure for the book. One option would have been 16 biographical essays with a lesson-drawing overview chapter. Instead, we start with a chapter briefly discussing the apparent motivation for each general’s appointment. The next six chapters (over half the book) then trace the war chronologically and dwell almost entirely on assessing the operational performance of the particular generals who figured (for good or ill) in various battles and campaigns. This approach leaves some generals (such as John Dix) virtually unmentioned while others come in and go out of focus repeatedly as time passes in the various theaters. It makes it very hard to concentrate on anyone’s merits or demerits. The best of these chapters focuses on McClernand and Vicksburg, telling an important story of Civil War military politics in a concentrated fashion. The last three chapters are thematic in nature, and the reader thus must circle back to the beginning of the war and such matters as Butler’s contraband policy. Here Work comes closer to what this reader wanted — discussion of what political generals could best or uniquely offer. These chapters cover their performance as administrators (including corruption issues), as actors in developing and implementing policies affecting African-Americans, and as pure political actors (e.g., Wadsworth running for governor of New York in 1862, Logan stumping for Lincoln in 1864). Perhaps because of its structure, the book simply did not seem very lively to this reader. Discussion swings from one general to another (and then recycles) so often that their personalities do not emerge. Further, the writing is only serviceable, and color is often lacking. Still, this reader learned from the book, and the author has more to teach on these subjects. One hopes this first book will serve as a springboard to more seasoned publications on related topics. Further, a reader who specifically wants details of how political generals fared on the battlefield might be better satisfied. Reviewer: Carl R. Schenker Jr. Carl R. Schenker Jr. is a lawyer living in Washington, D.C. His wife, Susan Sherman Richardson, is a great-great-granddaughter of William Tecumseh Sherman. Schenker is the author of “Ulysses in His Tent: Halleck, Grant, Sherman, and ‘The Turning Point of the War,’” in Civil War History.
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Photographs, notes, index, 287 pp., 2009, University of Illinois Press,