The Class Of 1846: From West Point To Appomattox - Stonewall Jackson, George Mcclellan And Their Brothers

From Library JournalIn 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., TempePerhaps 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