This short biography constitutes the introduction to George McClellan’s account of the events he was involved in during the American Civil War and was written by the editor of that work, W.C. Prime.
The entire memoirs can be found at LibriVox through the below link.
librivox.org/m...
LibriVox recordings are Public Domain in the USA. If you are not in the USA, please verify the copyright status of these works in your own country before downloading, otherwise you may be violating copyright laws.
About the author:
William Cowper Prime (1825-1905) was an American journalist, art historian, numismatist, attorney, and travel writer.
During 1855 and 1856, Prime traveled in Europe, North Africa, and the Holy Land with his wife Mary, her brother James and his wife Sarah. He published Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia and Tent Life in the Holy Land based on his experiences there, which include his accounts of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dead Sea, and the port of Jaffa, among others. During their trip up the Nile river, his wife kept an extensive, detailed diary that was discovered, then published, in 1998 by Charles Derowitch, entitled "Nile Journeys". In The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain parodies Tent Life in the Holy Land as "Grime's" Nomadic Life in Palestine, taking aim at Prime's overly sentimental prose and his violent encounters with the local inhabitants. Twain makes the contemporary popularity of Tent Life evident in his parody: "Some of us will be shot before we finish this pilgrimage. The pilgrims read 'Nomadic Life' and keep themselves in a constant state of Quixotic heroism." Twain speculates that if a homicide did occur, Grimes should be prosecuted as an "accessory before the fact."
Prime continued practicing law until 1861, when he became part owner and editor-in-chief of the New York Journal of Commerce. In 1869 he gave up his editorial work and revisited Egypt and the Holy Land. It was at his insistence that Princeton established a department of art history, to which he donated his extensive collection of ceramic art. In 1884, the Trustees of the College elected Prime as the department's first chair. His interest in art matters brought him into close connection with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, of which he was elected first vice-president in 1874.
In 1886, as literary executor of General George B. McClellan, Prime edited "McClellan's Own Story", which included a biographical sketch written by Prime. This is that biographical sketch.
Prime died at his home in New York City on February 13, 1905.
About George B. McClellan:
George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 - October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey.
A graduate of West Point, McClellan served with distinction during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and later left the Army to work on railroads until the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Early in the conflict, McClellan was appointed to the rank of major general and played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army, which would become the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater; he served a brief period (November 1861 to March 1862) as general-in-chief of the Union Army.
McClellan organized and led the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862. It was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater.
During the Maryland Campaign in September 1862, McClellan pursued Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland and launched an attack against him that would result in the Battle of Antietam, which is universally considered the bloodiest day in American history.
Within the Congress, the popular press, in the Army, and even within the Lincoln Administration itself, McClellan’s opponents and enemies, many for political reasons, viciously attacked McClellan's abilities and loyalties, often misrepresenting or exaggerating facts and even inventing fictions later proven false, in order to have him removed from Command of the Army of the Potomac. It was in this atmosphere that McClellan was removed from command the day after the 1862 midterm elections secured Republican majorities in both Houses of Congress.
While the majority of historians have judged McClellan a poor battlefield general, this is beginning to change. In recent decades this view has been challenged by some historians, who claim that many of the narratives attached to McClellan were politically motivated and designed to unjustly tarnish his reputation. Their claim is that many of those narratives lack historical merit when the original sources and facts are examined closely.
With this new examination ongoing, there is a re-evaluation of General McClellan as a battlefield General, and his role in the American Civil War.
3 окт 2024
