Jerry D. Thompson

A workmanlike biography of a workmanlike general, Heintzelman's most significant duty before the Civil War was on the frontier in Arizona and Texas before his field service at 1st Manassas, the Peninsula and 2nd Manassas, after which the war passed him by. Apart from really being too worn out for intensive field service (the man was fifty-five years of age at the start of the war) and being associated with the Union failures of the early part of the war, Heintzelman's political moderation was another part of his fading away into backwater assignments.

While making good use of Heintzelman's papers and diary, and being acutely attuned to the political currents in the Army of the Potomac, I'll also admit that I'm a little disappointed that Thompson didn't engage in more of a summing up of how the man met the challenges of his life and times.… (mere)