Product Description

No single group of men at West Point--or possibly any academy--has been so indelibly written into history as the class of 1846. The names are legendary: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. The class fought in three wars, produced twenty generals, and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed.

This fascinating, remarkably intimate chronicle traces the lives of these unforgettable men--their training, their personalities, and the events in which they made their names and met their fates. Drawing on letters, diaries, and personal accounts, John C. Waugh has written a collective biography of masterful proportions, as vivid and engrossing as fiction in its re-creation of these brilliant figures and their pivotal roles in American history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #791050 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-01
• Released on: 1999-06-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 8.26" h x 1.19" w x 5.49" l, 1.19 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Waugh, a former correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor , brings an original but ultimately unsatisfactory approach to this study of command in the Civil War. The West Point class of 1846 graduated 59 men: 10 of them, including Stonewall Jackson (1824-1863) became confederate generals; 12, including George McClellan (1826-1885), wore stars for the Union. Waugh is at his best describing the routines of West Point and the experiences of the Mexican War (1846-1848) that welded the class into a community. But when he addresses the Civil War, he focuses almost entirely on Jackson and McClellan while their classmates receive cursory and episodic treatment in a text that jumps abruptly from Gettysburg to Appomattox. Confederates like George Pickett, Cadmus Wilcox and A. P. Hill, and Union generals like John Gibbon and Darius Couch ('46ers all), invite comparative analysis in the context of their common professional experience. What Waugh offers instead is operational narrative, well-written but adding nothing to standard images of McClellan's failure and Jackson's genius. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this most entertaining and readable book, Waugh offers us a collective biography of a class of West Pointers and their careers from when they entered the academy through the end of the Civil War. The two most prominent members of the class were George McClellan and Thomas Jackson; the better student proved the poorer general. In focusing on their careers , Waugh inevitably gives short shrift to the conflict after classmates George Pickett and John Gibbon confronted each other at Gettysburg. The stories are familiar but retold rather well; much less is made of the common experiences of the group and their impact on their generalship. Buffs and lay readers will nevertheless enjoy this well-written chronicle.
- Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Perhaps imitating a good idea by Rich Atkinson, whose The Long Grey Line (1989) chronicled West Point's class of 1966, Waugh takes the same tack for the fifty-nine graduates of 1846. They went directly from the parade ground to the battleground in Mexico, where a few died, some were wounded, and all gained formative combat experience for the coming irrepressible conflict. That the leading generals of the Civil War personally knew their opponants often affected decisions, as at the Battle of Antietam--practically a class reunion, where A. P. Hill and "Stonewall" Jackson fought off McClellen and Gordon. Waugh presents the oft-told narrative of that battle, of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, too, from the points of view of the former classmates, building up to George Pickett, who was last in his class and, on the battlefield, first in futility. The author also briefly ranges among the less celebrated officers and their doings in the Indian wars. For the reader who tirelessly recycles the war's epic elements, Waugh's stories shade familiar details with human nuance. Gilbert Taylor