Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac

Controversies and Commanders of the Civil War might well be the most intriguing book ever published about the Civil War, for it focuses on the people and events that one of our best historians has found most fascinating, including: Professor Lowe's reconnaissance balloons; the court-martial of Fitz John Porter; the Lost Order at Antietam; press coverage of the war; the looting of Fredericksburg; the Mud March; the roles of volunteers, conscripts, bounty jumpers, and foreign soldiers; the notorious General Dan Sickles, who shot his wife's lover outside the White House, and the much maligned Generals McClellan (justifiably) and Hooker (not so justifiably). The book follows the Army of the Potomac throughout the war, from 1861 to 1865, painting a remarkable portrait of the key incidents and personalities that influenced the course of our nation's greatest cataclysm.