McClellan's Other Story

McClellan's Other Story--The Political Intrigue of Colonel Thomas M. Key, Confidential Aide to General George B. McClellan. Now available for the first time--the Untold Political History of the Civil War. This is the biography of Kentucky-born Colonel Thomas Marshall Key (1819-1869) who served as a Confidential Aide and Political Adviser on the staff of General George B. McClellan from 1861-1863. Recently discovered documents and letters reveal that the enigmatic Colonel Key was the author of most of McClellan's political orders and letters, including the infamous Harrison's Landing Letter of July 7, 1862 to Abraham Lincoln, warning the President not to turn the struggle into--a War of Emancipation. In their wartime and post-war writings, fellow staff officers criticized Colonel Key, calling him the Power Behind the Throne, and the Evil Genius of George McClellan, blaming him for his dubious political advice. McClellan's Othe Story contains numerous unpublished letters and documents, and will show evidence that Colonel Key's political interference prolonged the war and cost thousands of lives, and also effectively ruined the military career of General George B. McClellan.