Book Review: Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All

Archives

by Stephen D. Engle

Chapel Hill: Univ.of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pp. xvii, 476 pp. Illus, maps, notes, biblio., index.. $45.00. ISBN:0-80782-512-3

A solid biography – surprisingly the first ever – of one of the lesser lights of the Civil War. Engle takes a good look at Buell’s early career, during which he seemed, as the book’s sub-title indicates the “most promising of all” the officers in the army, who, despite some bright moments, turned out to be a poor commander.

Well-written, the book has a lot of good word-portraits and some very clear analysis of Buell’s essentially Jominian views on warfare and his inability to understand the political dimensions of the conflict.

Reviewer: A. A. Nofi   


Buy it at Amazon.com

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close