Much has been written about Maj. Gen. George Brinton McClellan's failure to take the Confederate capital of Richmond in 1862. In my opinion, too many people blame McClellan for this failure, and not his boss, Lincoln. What if McClellan would have been given the 300,000-man army he requested in 1862 instead of the 150,000 he actually received? What if Lincoln would have accepted McClellan's narrow front attack plan to send 300,000 Federal soldiers against Richmond in 1862, fighting the "Mother of All Battles?" What if Lincoln would have accepted risk in the West by staying on the defensive,...

From the little-known Filibuster Wars to the Civil War battlefield of Gaines' Mill, this volume details the fascinating story of one of the South's most colorful military units, the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion, aka Wheat's Tigers. Beginning with a brief look at the Filibuster Wars (a set of military attempts to annex Latin American countries into the United States as slave states), the work takes a close look at the men who comprised Wheat's Tigers: Irish immigrant ship hands, New Orleans dock workers and Filibuster veterans. Commanded by one of the greatest antebellum filibusterers,...