Stephen W. Sears – författare

General George B. McClellan, the self-styled American Napoleon, is one of the most controversial figures of the American Civil War. General-in-chief of the entire Union army at one point, he led the Army of the Potomac through the disaster at Antietam Creek, was subsequently dismissed by Lincoln, and then ran against him in the 1864 presidential campaign. This collection of McClellan's candid letters about himself, his motivations, and his intentions reveals much fresh information on the military operations and political machinations he was involved with, and sheds new light on his complex personality. Stephen Sears, a Civil War expert, Prize-winning author, and biographer of McClellan, here lets this once-removed and now notorious commander speak of himself, providing us with an important first-hand view of what went on behind the scenes of America's greatest and most awful war.

The definitive account of Robert E. Lee's Chancellorsville, one of the most dramatic battles of the Civil War.Stephen W. Sears describes the series of controversial events that define this crucial battle, including General Lee's radical decision to divide his small army––a violation of basic military rules––sending Stonewall Jackson on his famous twelve-mile march around the Union army flank. Charging out of the Wilderness with Rebel yells, Jackson's troops destroyed one entire corps of the Union army. Lee's great victory came at great cost, however: Jackson was accidentally shot by his own troops and died eight days later. And ironically, the momentum of Lee's greatest triumph pushed him to launch an aggressive campaign that led to his greatest defeat, at Gettysburg. Drawing on a wealth of new sources, including personal accounts by soldiers on both sides, Sears has written the authoritative book on Chancellorsville.

In Lincoln’s Generals , Gabor S. Boritt and a team of distinguished historians examine the interaction between Abraham Lincoln and his five key Civil War generals: McClellan, Hooker, Meade, Sherman, and Grant, providing fresh insight into this mixed bag of officers and the president’s tireless efforts to work with them. The president’s relationship with his generals was never easy. Stephen W. Sears underscores McClellan’s perverse obstinacy as Lincoln tried to drive him ahead. Pulitzer Prize–winner Mark E. Neely Jr. sheds new light on the president’s relationship with Hooker, arguing that he was wrong to push the general to attack at Chancellorsville. Boritt writes about Lincoln’s prickly relationship with the victor of Gettysburg, “old snapping turtle” George Meade. Michael Fellman reveals the political stress between the White House and Sherman, a staunch conservative who did not want blacks in his army but who was crucial to the war effort. And John Y. Simon looks past the legendary camaraderie between Lincoln and Grant to reveal the tensions in their relationship. These authors take us inside the personalities and relationships that shaped the course of the nation’s most costly war.

Theodore Ayrault Dodge (1842-1909) was the nineteenth century's greatest military historian and the author of biographies of Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and Napoleon. In 1862, he arrived on the Virginia Peninsula as a company officer in the 101st New York, a regiment reinforcing George B. McClellan's campaign against Richmond. Here is the war as seen from the company-officer perspective, recorded by a young man of superior intellect who would become a leading historian of the Civil War generation. Although only some thirteen months of the war are detailed here, from the Peninsula through Gettysburg, where he lost a leg, they were critical months for the Union cause.