Commanding the Army of the Potomac

Stephen R. Taaffe, Lawrence KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006. 284 pages. Hardcover, $34.95.

Review by Thomas L. Breiner, 2006

© Cincinnati CWRT and Thomas L. Breiner 2006

Commanding the Army of the Potomac by Stephen R. Taaffe is the latest in a line of works studying the command structure and the interpersonal relationships within the Union’s showcase army.  The author has added a slight twist to the study by examining the selection and retention of the 36 men who were assigned to the position of Corps Commander. This has created a fresh approach to an old idea.

Stephen Taaffe breaks down his study of the command cadre by each commander of the Army of the Potomac George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker, George Meade and finally, under U. S. Grant’s supervision as Commander in Chief. He then evaluates each of the corps commanders based on how he acquired the position and then their relationship to the Army commander and how it impacted on the various campaigns of the Commanding General.  Of the 36 men who were assigned to either temporary or permanent command of the various corps in the Army of the Potomac, only three held the position for more than a year.  These were Gouverneur Warren, John Sedgwick and Horatio Wright.  Three rose from corps command to command of the army – Ambrose Burnside, Joe Hooker and George Meade.  Phil Sheridan and Edward Ord were rewarded with commands of other armies – the Army of the Shenandoah and the Army of the James, respectively.  Oliver Howard and Henry Slocum managed to rise to army command after being transfer from the Army of the Potomac to the western theater.  Finally, the Lincoln administration appointed Franz Sigel to command of an army in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 for political reasons.

The process of creating and assigning officers to corps command started off on a bad note.  George McClellan had his four initial corps commanders assigned by the Lincoln administration based strictly on seniority and definitely not men of his choosing.  He eventually created two additional corps commanders and assigned men more attuned to his program, Fitz John Porter and William Franklin, even though Franklin would prove to be a disappointment.  Major General Burnside was given the opportunity to switch his commanders but failed to take advantage of the offer. 

The author looks at each Commander of the Army of the Potomac in turn and how they selected their most important subordinates and how they removed them when necessary.  The Army of the Potomac’s corps commanders fell into one of four categories.  The first were the McClellanites, those that sympathized with or supported George McClellan.  The second category were the officers that received their appointment by the Lincoln administration either through the expedient of being the senior division commander within the corps, an unassigned senior major general or a political general that Lincoln needed to satisfy constituencies.  The third category of corps commanders were those who aligned themselves with some politician or senior general that could advance their careers.  The final category includes the officers that advanced through the ranks and were eventually promoted to corps command based on merit.

Stephen Taaffe has written a book that I found to be well researched, well written and a pleasure to read. While there were a few errors in the work, they were more editing miscues than problems with the author’s research.  The few maps provided were insignificant or not extremely valuable to the discussion.  Here is a work that provides the reader with a fresh and slightly different approach to the study of the Army of the Potomac.   However, I found nothing new has been added to the general knowledge base concerning the command structure of the army.  While I would not recommend this work to a beginner in the study of the war, I certainly do think it has merit and value for those who are students of the war and desire to know a little more about the command relationships within the Army of the Potomac.