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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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Major General John Alexander McClernand, Politician in Uniform
by Richard L. Kiper.
Illustrated, maps, index, bibliography, notes, 386 pp., 1999. Kent State University Press, P.O. Box 5190, Kent OH 44242-0001, $35 plus shipping.
Among all Civil War generals, John McClernand’s reputation stands near the very bottom. When William T. Sherman was about to lose command to McClernand just before the battle of Arkansas Post, he said: "I never dreamed of so severe a test of my patriotism as being superseded by McClernand." U. S. Grant later said: "I have so little confidence in his ability to command that I would not want the responsibility of entrusting men with him." In this book, retired army lieutenant colonel Richard L. Kiper, now a faculty member at Kansas City (Kansas) Community College, undertakes an evaluation of McClernand’s performance as a battlefield commander. Was he as incompetent as so many contemporaries and later historians have said? Kiper’s book covers all of McClernand’s life, but it is not a complete biography. The reader does not get an in-sight into the inner McClernand, the result no doubt of the scarcity of personal papers. Kiper skims over McCler-nand’s early life quickly, and his chapter on the Illinois general’s post-war career is similarly brief. This book is a battlefield history. Kiper presents a detailed account of McClernand’s activities in combat, placing them into the context of his relationships with politicians like Abraham Lincoln and generals like U.S. Grant. Kiper conveniently presents a detailed summary of his conclusions on pages 303-312. He says that McClernand had a mixed performance at Belmont and that he had to "bear responsibility for the escape of the Confederate garri-son" at Fort Henry. His performance at Fort Donelson was impulsive and ill-advised. At Shiloh, Kiper believes, "much of the credit for stemming the Confederate tide on the first day of the battle must go to John McClernand." He also concludes that the Illinois general did well at Arkansas Post and Port Gibson. McClernand’s tepid per-formance at Champion Hill, Kiper believes, was partially the result of Grant’s many telegrams urging caution. Dur-ing the May attacks on Vicksburg, McClernand and Grant shared the blame for the lack of success, Kiper says, al-though he clearly believes that Grant bore greater responsibility. While Kiper concludes that McClernand took good care of his men and was courageous in battle, he finds him ex-tremely ambitious and consequently militarily insubordinate. Kiper believes that there was West Point officer jeal-ousy toward McClernand, the politician turned soldier, and this attitude affected military relationships. However, he phrases his belief in a West Point conspiracy more tentatively. There was "cause," he says, "to believe that such may have been the case." Kiper finally concludes that "McClernand’s combat record of courage and success afforded no grounds for relief from command. His professional and personal conduct, however, did." McClernand continually ignored the chain of command to write directly to President Lincoln, and his bombastic rhetoric in overblown orders and proclamations angered many of his colleagues and finally resulted in Grant firing him after Vicksburg. As a result of the publication of this book McClernand will never be looked at in the same completely negative way again. However, not everyone will agree with Kiper, as, for example, when he says that Lincoln may have seen McClernand as a threat (over McClellan) in the presidential election of 1864 or that McClernand was the true savior at Shiloh. In all, however, Kiper has written an objective book, and McClernand’s military role in the Civil War is much clearer now than it ever has been before.
John F. Marszalek
John F. Marszalek is pro-fes-sor of history, Mississippi State University, and author or editor of eight books in-clud-ing Court Martial: A Black Man in American (1972); The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 18611865 (1979); and Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order (1993).
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