Join us on the anniversary of the 1862 battle of Antietam as historian George C. Rable discusses his new book Conflict of Command: George McClellan, Abraham Lincoln, and the Politics of War (Louisiana State University Press, 2023), which reevaluates the command relationship between General McClellan and President Lincoln during the Civil War.
The event took place online only on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 12 pm-1 pm EDT. Watch the program here:
A familiar narrative has long endured in how historians view the Civil War. General George B. McClellan clearly thought he knew better than anyone in the Lincoln administration when it came to military matters, and he made this opinion known through his words and actions. But despite transforming the Army of the Potomac into a ready fighting force, McClellan found reasons to delay engaging in combat, and instead blamed others for his inaction and lack of victories. President Abraham Lincoln, on the other hand, provided McClellan with one opportunity after another to achieve success on the battlefield, while tolerating McClellan’s insubordinate behavior. But while McClellan dithered, Lincoln learned how to run a war. And after McClellan failed to take advantage of a technical Union success at the battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, Lincoln finally mothballed McClellan as a military commander, and later beat him at the polls in the presidential election of 1864. In this version of the story, McClellan serves as the somewhat villainous foil to Lincoln’s hero, especially after Lincoln’s legacy became almost mythological after his assassination. But is this narrative accurate? Should it be reexamined with a broader lens and historical evidence?
Moderated by Manuscript Division historian Michelle Krowl and reference librarian Lara Szypszak, this program will probe how Rable evaluated the military and political interactions of President Abraham Lincoln and General George B. McClellan during the Civil War, how his interpretations help balance the familiar hero-villain dichotomy in evidence in Civil War historiography, how he approached his research, and how his normal methodologies with regard to archival research were impacted by the closure of libraries during the pandemic.
Professor Rable’s book reconsiders the command relationship of Lincoln and McClellan during the Civil War, without overlooking the successes and failures of each man. Rable argues that Lincoln and McClellan operated with different understandings of the nature of the war and the political forces at work, and that gulf continued to widen as Lincoln’s views evolved. Rable further considers how members of the Lincoln administration, Congress, and the press influenced Lincoln’s and McClellan’s dealings with one another. And in the end, according to historian Zachery A. Fry, by “sifting through generations of partisan bickering, [Rable] offers a crisp, candid view of the Lincoln-McClellan saga that accomplishes something truly remarkable. It proves fair to both men.”
George C. Rable is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alabama. He is the author of several books on the Civil War including Damn Yankees! Demonization and Defiance in the Confederate South (2015), God’s Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War (2010), Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! (2002), Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (1989), and But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction (1984). Professor Rable has received numerous awards for his publications, including the Lincoln Prize, the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award in American Military History, and the Douglas Southall Freeman Southern History Award. He also delivered Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in the Southern History at Louisiana State University (2014) and served as the president of the Society of Civil War Historians (2004-2008).
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