AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: The Right Hand of Command: Use and Disuse of Personal Staffs in the American Civil War by R. Steven Jones ISBN: 0-8117-1451-9 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: An effective introduction to the topic
Comment: As Steven Jones notes in his introduction, very little has been written on staff usage in the US Civil War. Jones' work is valuable for no other reason than that. A lack of sources does limit the discussion of the topic yet it sometime seems that Jones could have done more with what was available.

After a short introduction to the European development of military staffs and a discussion of what materials and examples were available to the American militaries, Jones turns to a set of in-depth explorations of the staffs of major commanders. Jones devotes a chapter each to George McClellan, Robert E. Lee and William Sherman and three chapters to the evolution of U.S. Grant's staff. The focus is primarily on the personal staff: aides-de-camp, inspector-generals, adjutant-generals, as opposed to the specialist staff of ordnance, artillery, engineers and other technical branches.

Jones' conclusion is not surprising. The pre-war US Army lacked any means of training staff officers, as had developed in Europe. Nor did the normal pre-war operations demand the development of staffs. Even the Mexican War, with relatively small army sizes, did not require much staff work. Thus the development and use of staffs was piecemeal and haphazard with only Grant developing something approaching Prussian or French standards.

Jones' decision to focus on four cases, while not surprising, was something of a disappointment. Source limitations may have contributed to this decision. However, I would have liked to have seen a comparison with an example drawn from a European-trained officer. While none of the army or corps commanders had such a background, there were brigade and divisional commanders who had formal training. If sufficient source material is available, including a chapter on such an individual would have been very useful.

Overall, I'd recommend the book. But I hope that more work is done on the topic, either by Jones or other scholars.