Comments:
NEW 7/16/06
"Happiness Is Not My Companion": The Life of General G. K. Warren. David M. Jordan. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001. 402 pp. 11 maps.
Before I review this one, let me admit that I've never been into book
length biographies, even when they concern Civil War era figures, so
this is a bit of a new experience. Keep this is mind when reading these
early attempts at reviewing biographies. I picked up this bio of Gouverneur
Kemble Warren for two reasons. First, Indiana University Press was having
an unbelievable sale, and I managed to find this one as a brand new
hardback for only $6. Second, I'd been looking to get into the biography
arena by looking at men who commanded at division level or higher during
the siege of Petersburg.
"Happiness Is Not My Companion" takes a look at the checkered
career of Gouverneur Kemble Warren, a man who was stripped of his command
at the moment of his greatest triumph at Five Forks. Author David Jordan
covers Warren's life in some detail, though I thought that a closer
and more definitive work can probably be penned at some point in the
future. With that said, I enjoyed this biography, especially the section
dealing with the Petersburg Campaign. Jordan keeps the reader interested
while moving the story along. The author argues that Warren was wronged
by Sheridan at Five Forks, but he does candidly admit many of Warren's
flaws, though I suspect he may not have gone far enough in revealing
these.
Gouverneur Warren was an extremely intelligent man, but his main faults,
according to author David Jordan, were his difficulty in following orders
given to him while at the same time giving frequent unwanted "suggestions"
to his superior officers. Jordan downplays somewhat Warren's nature
to frequently act with great condescension, which is to me his greatest
flaw. Warren was born on January 8, 1830 in upstate New York in the
little town of Cold Spring, just a short distance from West Point. That
Warren ended up at the Military Academy is hardly surprising given his
birthplace and his prominent family. He graduated second in his class,
and was awarded a spot in the coveted Corps of Engineers. In this role,
Warren spent the better part of the 1850's on expeditions to the west,
where he encountered friendly and hostile Native Americans, including
the Sioux, and participated in his first military actions. Warren had
accepted a position to teach mathematics at West Point by the time war
broke out, but he soon became Lt. Colonel and then Colonel of the famous
5th New York, Duryea's Zouaves. He led the men of this regiment as a
brigade commander in the Seven Days and at Second Bull Run, and was
afterward promoted to Chief Topographical Engineer and then Chief Engineer
of the Army of the Potomac. It was in this position at Gettysburg that
Warren perhaps gave his greatest contribution to his country. Warren,
while out scouting on the Union far left, noticed the importance of
the Round Tops and the fact that Confederate infantry were approaching.
He immediately found the nearest Union troops, the brigade of Colonel
Strong Vincent, and sent them scurrying for the crest of Little Round
Top. They barely beat the Confederates to the crest and managed to secure
this vital area for the Union. Warren was promoted to Major General
after the battle, and he was temporarily placed in command of the II
Corps while Winfield Hancock recovered from his severe Gettysburg wound.
In the Mine Run Campaign of November 1863, Warren called off an attack
that he deemed suicidal on his own responsibility. Meade was at first
furious that Warren had disobeyed, but he agreed with Warren's decision
after taking a look at the Confederate entrenchments. This first instance
of Warren questioning his orders as a corps commander was only the beginning.
Meade and Grant would grow exasperated with Warren on more than one
occasion during the Overland and Petersburg Campaigns. It was during
this time frame, while commander of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac,
that Warren had his greatest problems as a commander. Meade and Grant
were on the verge of relieving him several times for his continued questioning
of orders, or in some cases, his outright disobedience of these orders.
Jordan quotes the diary of Charles Wainwright, the V Corps Artillery
Chief, quite often during this time period. Apparently Wainwright did
not much like Warren and was constantly critical of his commander. All
of this was leading up to Warren's greatest triumph...and his greatest
disappointment. Warren was placed under Phil Sheridan during the attack
on Five Forks. Grant, apparently having grown tired of Warren's tendency
to question his orders, gave Sheridan the right to sack the v Corps
commander at any point and replace him with any of the V Corps division
commanders. Although Warren moved his men up in a satisfactory manner,
and although the V Corps was able to flank and drive off the Confederates
guarding Five Forks, Sheridan relieved Warren and sent him back to Grant.
Jordan discusses Warren's unceasing efforts after the war in his quest
to see a court of inquiry convened. It wasn't until the early 1880's
that Warren was able to make this possible. He had known that while
Grant or member of his circle were in power that his request would never
be granted, so he had waited until Rutherford B. Hayes was President
to press home his request. In my mind, Jordan demonstrates pretty conclusively
that Warren was not at fault in any way at Five Forks, though Warren's
peers who oversaw the court were rather ambivalent in their findings,
perhaps to appease Sheridan, who now commanded the entire United States
Army. Warren died before the findings of the court were made public.
He deserved better, from Sheridan on April 1, 1865, to Grant in the
intervening years concerning the granting of a court of inquiry, to
the men who finally made judgments on his behavior.
As I stated in the introduction, this is a good but not great book.
Jordan goes into considerable detail, but I couldn't help feeling that
even more could have been done. He also seems to go a little easy on
Warren in some cases, especially when it concerns Warren's difficulty
in dealing with subordinates and superiors who he felt were not as intelligent
as he was. One trait I dislike more than most in my fellow human beings
is condescension. Warren was filled to overflowing with condescension
for quite a few people, and I would have liked to see the author get
into this in more detail. Other than that, I thought he tried to be
impartial, as a good biographer always should. The maps that accompanied
the text were solid, and really a bit of an unexpected bonus as far
as a biography goes. Anyone interested in biographies of Civil War generals
will not be disappointed in this one. Those interested in G. K. Warren
or in the later campaigns of the Army of the Potomac will also want
to give this one a look.
402 pp., 11 maps
