We are pleased to announce that our Membership Incentive Book for 2026 will be “McClellan in Command: The Maryland and Virginia Campaigns of September to November 1862” by Marion V. Armstrong, Jr.
What did George B. McClellan truly know—and when did he know it?
Drawing on a career that began in a Vietnam-era tactical operations center and matured in the archives of the Civil War, Marion V. Armstrong offers a groundbreaking reexamination of the Army of the Potomac’s leadership during the tumultuous months of the Maryland Campaign and afterwards. Inspired by the “Commander’s Reading File” system used in modern military headquarters—and echoed in Abraham Lincoln’s own hours spent poring over dispatches in the War Department Telegraph Office—McClellan in Command reconstructs, day by day, hour by hour, the flow of messages into and out of McClellan’s Army of the Potomac field headquarters.
By reassembling telegrams, dispatches, and other communications from the Official Records, McClellan’s Papers, and other primary sources into strict chronological order, Armstrong places readers beside the general himself, seeing each operational dilemma as he saw it. This innovative method reveals not only McClellan’s campaign and battlefield decision-making but also the increasingly political character of his command in the weeks during and following the Maryland Campaign.
Unlike most accounts, McClellan in Command does not end at Antietam. Instead, Armstrong follows McClellan through the quiet but consequential interlude before the Virginia Campaign of late October—and to his final removal on November 7, 1862. Periodic “Reality Check” sections illuminate Confederate actions across the lines, providing essential context without shifting focus from McClellan as army commander.
Comprehensive, original, and meticulously researched, McClellan in Command adds new depth to the story of the autumn of 1862 and offers a fresh lens through which to understand one of the Civil War’s most controversial leaders.
Marion V. Armstrong Jr. (Vince) is a Civil War author, particularly known for his detailed studies on the Battle of Antietam. He is the author of Unfurl Those Colors!: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign and Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate Left and Center on America’s Bloodiest Day. His books offer an in-depth operational analysis of Union and Confederate leadership and tactics at the battle, and provide fresh reappraisals of commanders like Edwin Vose Sumner.
A retired U.S. Army Reserve officer and Vietnam veteran, Vince brings a valuable military perspective to his historical writing. He resides in Lewisburg, TN, and teaches history as an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
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