Most important shot of the war?

[jackbluelight]

I have heard, and this may just be nonsense, that perhaps some of the blame for George McClellan's blunders could be laid upon the shoulders of non other than Allen Pinkerton. While being an excellent organizer of an army, McClellan's key mistake when fighting was overestimating the number of enemy troops. Now at the start of the war McClellan hired Pinkerton to organize a corps of spies for his army. Pinkerton, while being an able private detective, was not good at espionage, And he often overestimated the size of southern forces.

[mobile_96]

This is true about Pinkerton, however, McClellan then added more to the total. He was always positive that Pinkerton was underestimating his reports.
One of McClellan serious faults was that he loved his men and found it very difficult to order his men into action. His method was more to flank the opposition out of their positions and prevent useless killing of his men. At that time of the war, too many of the generals thought that taking the enemy capital would end the war, when destruction of the enemy army was the key.
So, while Pinkerton presented faulty info, McC just added to the problems.
Chuck in Il.

[jackbluelight]

Thank you for the info, I do wonder if you have any recomendations for a book that looks at McClellan's tactics in-depth?