Summary of Stephen W. Sears's Landscape Turned Red

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 George McClellan was the commander of the Union forces during the Civil War. He was chosen to lead the army because he was believed to be a divinely appointed instrument to save the country. He had climbed life’s ladder with ease and without pause.
#2 McClellan was a great general, but he was also very successful in forging the Army of the Potomac into a fighting machine. However, he was not so successful in sustaining the admiration of official Washington.
#3 McClellan’s early months as commander of the Army of the Potomac were marked by his arrogance and his thin-skinnedness. He believed that the government was not giving him the resources he needed, and he didn’t want to risk losing the war by taking an offensive.
#4 The report that McClellan received from Pinkerton, the well-known Chicago private detective, estimated that the Confederate army had about 60,000 soldiers. However, his own officers in the field painted a different picture. They estimated that the Confederate army had only 50,000 soldiers.

Sujets

• United States

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 26 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669366829
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Stephen W. Sears's Landscape Turned Red
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

George McClellan was the commander of the Union forces during the Civil War. He was chosen to lead the army because he was believed to be a divinely appointed instrument to save the country. He had climbed life’s ladder with ease and without pause.

#2

McClellan was a great general, but he was also very successful in forging the Army of the Potomac into a fighting machine. However, he was not so successful in sustaining the admiration of official Washington.

#3

McClellan’s early months as commander of the Army of the Potomac were marked by his arrogance and his thin-skinnedness. He believed that the government was not giving him the resources he needed, and he didn’t want to risk losing the war by taking an offensive.

#4

The report that McClellan received from Pinkerton, the well-known Chicago private detective, estimated that the Confederate army had about 60,000 soldiers. However, his own officers in the field painted a different picture. They estimated that the Confederate army had only 50,000 soldiers.

#5

George McClellan was a Democratic conservative who was against secession, but he was also against the war. He wanted to limit the war as much as possible, and he wanted to keep the South in the Union. He wanted to preserve the integrity of the Union, and he wanted to keep the power of the government.

#6

The single issue of restoring the Union had brought half a million volunteers to the colors by the end of 1861. But as the conflict continued without any expectation of a quick end, all quiet on the Potomac became a symbol of frustration and disillusion.

#7

One immediate and powerful source of radical pressure was the establishment by Congress on December 10, 1861, of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. It was dominated by radical Republicans, and its chairman, the iron-willed senator from Ohio, Benjamin Wade.

#8

The North was getting frustrated with General McClellan, and two incidents exacerbated that frustration. First, Lincoln insisted that the capital be made safe from a surprise Rebel thrust. Second, the Harper’s Ferry expedition died of lockjaw.

#9

The Manassas march was the most minor of episodes, but it still made headlines. The gulf of mistrust and suspicion between the administration and its principal general was widening daily.

#10

The Army of the Potomac was heading to the Peninsula to fight the rebels, and it was going to be a victory for the North. However, McClellan’s generalship was tested during the campaign, and he proved to be paralyzingly cautious.

#11

McClellan’s plan was to siege Yorktown, but the president detained General McDowell’s corps, ticketed for the Peninsula, to fill the apparent gaps in the capital’s defenses. McClellan protested that this threw his plans into disarray.

#12

When McClellan was told that Confederate manpower had reached 200,000, he was prepared to accept martyrdom and die with his army if necessary. He was ready to attack in position, probably intrenched, a much larger force than he had.

#13

The Battle of Seven Pines left McClellan’s grand campaign in ruin. His vision of events was blinkered by the conviction that the administration had betrayed him. His rancor toward the government superiors who did not support him was clear.

#14

McClellan’s campaign was constantly frustrated by the administration withholding reinforcements, which was done intentionally to prolong the war until the abolitionists were strong enough to turn the war into a revolution against slavery.

#15

During the scorching July weeks at Harrison’s Landing, McClellan occasionally gave in to dark thoughts of overthrowing the government. He thought about marching his army toward Washington and taking control of the city, until a national election could be held to restore harmony to the country.

#16

The president was trying to get the war back on track. He brought General John Pope east to put some stiffening into the various commands in the west, and Secretary of State William Seward was tasked with finding a diplomatic solution to the Trent incident.

#17

The Union blockade of Southern ports and the strangling effect it had on the cotton textile industries of Lancashire and the lower Seine was causing a famine in Britain and France.

#18

The Lincoln government would regard any interference from overseas as an act of war. The British offered the Faustian bargain of trading immediate gratification of their cotton hunger for eternal condemnation from an unforgiving North.

#19

Lincoln was able to tap into the growing abolitionist movement and use it to help him get the border states to support the war. He was careful not to move too far ahead of public opinion, as he feared he would lose control of events to the radicals in Congress.

#20

Lincoln was careful to propose a gradual, compensated emancipation plan to the states that would not violate the Constitution. However, the states did not take the lead, and so the Republican majorities in Congress took charge.

#21

After the cabinet meeting, President Lincoln decided to issue a emancipation proclamation. It stated that on January 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or states where the federal government was not effectively recognized would be free.

#22

The retreat to the James rendered his siege train, which he had counted on to even the odds against him, all but useless. The only way to transport the great ordnance rifles and siege mortars was by railroad or barge.

#23

After the Battle of Bull Run, General Pope was completely crushed by the news of Stonewall Jackson’s victory. Washington was safe, but Pope was not. The most immediate opportunity for effecting this revolution lay in the hands of the one Union general who above all others was trying to keep the war from changing.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The South had marched to war, confident in its martial spirit, equally sure of foreign intervention. But the international flare-up caused by the removal of diplomats Mason and Slidell from the Trent confirmed Lee’s doubts about intervention.

#2

The Confederate Congress passed the Furlough and Bounty Act, which gave bonus money and a two-month furlough to volunteers who re-enlisted for three years or the duration of the war. This experiment in grass-roots democracy was unworkable, and some exasperated officers took matters into their own hands.

#3

The Battle of Fair Oaks in the spring of 1862 was a profoundly disheartening event for Southern patriots. The casualties were enormous, and the people of Richmond had to deal with an endless stream of wounded patients.

#4

Lee’s Seven Days’ campaign was audacious, but it was also a shrewd plan that revealed another aspect of his generalship: his unsparing and perceptive appraisal of his opponents.

#5

The Seven Days Battle was a victory for the South, but it was Robert E. Lee’s victory. The Richmond press led the cheering, and Confederate soldiers reacted with derision when they learned of McClellan’s description of the week’s fighting as a change of base.

#6

The Army of Northern Virginia was a winning army, and it acquired a distinctive character rapidly. Much of this character stemmed from the personalities of its generals, who were becoming highly colorful figures in the public eye.

#7

The Seven Days campaign showed that the generals of the Army of Northern Virginia made war with single-minded and unrelenting fury. Jackson’s brother-in-law, D. H. Hill, had exhibited a deliberate and conspicuous bravery under fire to inspire his wavering troops.

#8

The Confederacy’s military strategy was changed in July 1862, when political and diplomatic developments gave the South a breathing space.