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Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Look At An Overlooked Civil War General
Review: A great biography on the life and military service of Don Carlos Buell. Engle takes the reader on an in-depth journey into Buell's early life and up through his service in the Western Theater of the Civil War. It covers with careful detail the military actions of Buell, including his taking and occupation of Nashville, Tennessee in 1862. After finishing this extremely well-written, well-thoughtout book, one can see the importance that Buell had on American history. I highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in the Civil War. It does not disappoint. A great read from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Look At An Overlooked Civil War General
Review: A great biography on the life and military service of Don Carlos Buell. Engle takes the reader on an in-depth journey into Buell's early life and up through his service in the Western Theater of the Civil War. It covers with careful detail the military actions of Buell, including his taking and occupation of Nashville, Tennessee in 1862. After finishing this extremely well-written, well-thoughtout book, one can see the importance that Buell had on American history. I highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in the Civil War. It does not disappoint. A great read from start to finish.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Needed Biography
Review: There are few army commanders from the Civil War that have lacked a full biographical treatment, and up to the present, that gap was nowhere greater than with Major General Don Carlos Buell, who commanded the Army of the Ohio for approximately one year. During that time, he was at the head of the forces that captured Nashville, fought at Shiloh, commanded a wing on the advance to Corinth, and participated in Braxton Bragg's Kentucky invasion that ended with the Battle of Perryville on October 8, 1862. If one could have polled Abraham Lincoln in early 1862 insofar as which of his army commanders had the greatest "slows," the President might well have been hard-pressed with choosing between eastern commander George B. McClellan and Buell. Indeed, the two (McClellan and Buell) were linked in a common bond of friendship, mutual respect, and a belief in the pursuit of a limited war. Charged with the task of developing a campaign to satisfy Lincoln's desire to "free" eastern Tennessee Unionists from Confederate rule, Buell simply would not, or could not, engage in a campaign with risks he felt were too great. Finally, as his forces ponderously closed in on Chattanooga, Confederate leader Braxton Bragg stole the initiative from Buell, and engaged in a bizarre race back into Kentucky, with the Ohio River city of Louisville the seeming prize. After the seemingly incomprehensible draw at the Battle of Perryville, Buell allowed Bragg to escape back across the Cumberland Mountains, and finally Lincoln and the Washington Administration had had enough. Buell was relieved of command, never to serve in a United States uniform in the field again. Were there a sizeable cache of Buell war-time correspondence, as for instance, exists for McClellan, the job of Buell's biographer would doubtless been much easier. But Buell rarely expressed himself to others, including subordinates. Much of the interpretation, therefore, was left to Stephen Engle from the official documents and records left as a result of the war. Even so, Engle paints a realistic picture of this Union enigma, and places Buell in the overall context of Federal strategy and Army politics. It would have been nice, for example, to understand Buell's thoughts on slavery, since (his wife was a Southerner, and brought slaves to the marriage) he owned slaves prior to, and during the war. Since Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson, and Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton accused Buell of being a Rebel sympathizer, such understanding would have gone far to help place Buell's beliefs in the treatment of civilians and civilian property while he commanded in Johnston's state. But without such a written record, it was up to Engle to draw conclusions on his own. Part of the problem in understanding Buell rests with the fact that to do so, one must come to grips with his two major foils - friend George B. McClellan, and nemesis Henry W. Halleck. And here, Engle does a very nice job of bringing in these two other men, and positioning Buell within the context of the three men's goals and ambitions (in Buell's case, it was more one of no ambitions versus the lofty ambitions of the other two). Here, perhaps, is the strength of the work, and Engle well balances this very disparate trio. The Don Carlos Buell that emerges in this work is a man sometimes incomprehensible for his attitudes and actions, but at least understandable for his consistency in those very attributes. Don Carlos Buell: Most Promising of All (a line written by Federal General John Pope, of all people) is a must read for anyone interested in the early history of the western theater, and the man that figured so prominently in it
Rating: 
Summary: Most Promising of All, Don Carlos Buell
Review: There is a factual error in the book. W. B. Carter was the brother of Samuel P. Carter, not the cousin.
Rating:
Summary: Most Promising of All, Don Carlos Buell
Review: There is a factual error in the book. W. B. Carter was the brother of Samuel P. Carter, not the cousin.
Rating:
Summary: don carlos buell
Review: This book reveals how Buell became a leading general in the early war. His marriage to General Mason's widow -- a slave holding, politically ambitious woman -- shaped his early career. His friendship to fellow West Pointer, George McClellan, helped immensely. If you are interested in the politics of the early war years, then this is the book for you since Buell like his sponsor, McClellan, was reluctant to bring on battle with the Confederates. His many letters with Little Mac and Halleck show how the master bureaucrat -- Halleck -- wins the day from both McClellan and Buell. Buell has one of the finest Generals under his command in George Thomas and yet finds it difficult to send him into battle. He had the McClellan problem of seeing a "lion" in front of him. Halleck allows the "loose cannon," US Grant, to fight his battles. Halleck then takes the credit for Grant's deeds. Engle does a good job presenting a look at an honest general who tried to do his job as he saw it and how he was taught to fight at West Point. The problem was that this was not a typical war and the principles of Jomini and Napoleon were not applicable to the Civil War. Grant understood this and moved up. Buell did not and Lincoln moved him out. Buell could not handle Andrew Johnson, the Military Governor, and Lincoln had to choose between them. West Point never taught you how to handle the political side of the war. Having graduated from West Point I enjoyed Engle's coverage of the cadet days and the correspondence with old instructors and Academy interactions. Some might not and many bustle at the West Point Protective Association at work. It certainly worked for good and evil during the Civil War as this book points out.
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