George Stoneman – A Biography of the Union General
By Ben Fuller Fordney

Illustrated, notes, maps, bibliography, index, 197pp., 2008. McFarland, Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $49.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: John Deppen
John Deppen is past president of the Susquehanna CWRT, a member of General John F. Hartranft Camp #15 of the SUVCW and a living historian who portrays Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. His articles and reviews have appeared in Military Heritage, Gettysburg Magazine, The Civil War News and The Daily Item in central Pennsylvania.

Review:
Maj. Gen. George Stoneman, a competent military professional overlooked by the “picklocks of biographers,” at last receives a competent treatment of his life, thanks to the talents of Ben Fuller Fordney.

Perhaps best well known for “Stoneman’s Raid” during the 1863 Chancellorsville Campaign, the general fell victim to Joseph Hooker’s quest for a scapegoat in the aftermath of the Union defeat in the Virginia wilderness. Destined never to achieve any brilliant success or to acquire legions of devotees across the generations, Stoneman nevertheless is a pivotal figure in the early years of the war, particularly in the development and organization of the Union cavalry.

Fordney succeeds in accomplishing something impressive in his narrative, an accomplishment missing from many flawed historical biographies – he places Stoneman in the context of his times, and does not lose sight of him, even in the midst of momentous battlefield clashes.

Too many Civil War biographies spend pages on battles without mentioning the whereabouts of their subjects. Fordney avoids this trap, and keeps the reader’s focus on Stoneman.

Stoneman ended his life as a tragic figure, “broken in health and finances,” with a young wife whose behavior scandalized him. In looking at the photographs of Stoneman in Fordney’s book, one cannot help but observe the difference between the look of fire in the young general’s eyes with the vacant, exhausted stare found in his twilight years.

Stoneman died of a stroke in 1894, with the doctor listing the “exposure and hardship of army life” as a contributing factor.

Stoneman’s simple tombstone in Lakewood, N.Y., reads: “George Stoneman – Chief of Cavalry, Army of the Potomac – Commander of Third Army Corps at Fredericksburg – Pensioner of Mexican and Civil Wars.”

Fordney’s book is a far more impressive and informative monument to the officer described by Gen. John Schofield as “a man of the very highest sense of honor.”