The Army Of The Potomac: Its Organization, Its Commander, & Its Campaign

William Henry Hurlbert (1827-1895) was an American journalist; born in Charleston, S. C. He returned to S. C. on the death of his father; came under the influence of his half-brother, Stephen who later moved to Illinois and became an ally of Lincoln. Conflicted, he wanted the Union preserved, but feared that prolonged fighting would make reunion impossible.

In the 1860 presidential campaign, Hurlbert, favored Stephen A. Douglas. He watched as the Union unraveled following Lincoln’s victory. An abortive personal peacemaking expedition led to his incarceration in Richmond, from July 1861 to August 1862. By historical coincidence, he was prisoner in Richmond, & witnessed the events in his translation, from the rebel perspective.

He translated & published in 1862,"The Army Of The Potomac: Its Organization, Its Commander, & Its Campaign" which had been published in French by Prince De Joinville, (1818-1900) 3rd son of the French King. De Joinville was a European observer of the Civil War who witnessed the events depicted, 1st hand. His book outlines & describes McCellan's attempts to capture Richmond in the "Peninsula Campaign" in the hope that this would put an early end to the southern rebellion.

This book is important not only because both its author & translator were present at the events described, but it also points out that General McCellan was not the "great organizer, but strategic idiot" as he is often portrayed. Rather it shows McClellan as a good, but not spectacular, soldier whose hands were often tied by official Washington's political considerations.

An interesting and instructive series of Appendices is provided by Hurlbert in which he counters some of De Joinville's points with information he unearthed before he published the book. The controversy regarding McCellan's military abilities, his strategy in this series of battles, & his overall handling of the Union army in this campaign, continues still. The observations & descriptions of De Joinville with the counter-arguments of Hurlbert's Appendices provide much information to the student of this period of the American Civil War.

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