If President Lincoln could have unmade a general, perhaps he would 
have started with Samuel Peter "Sourdough" Heintzelman, whose 
early military successes were overshadowed by a prickly disposition 
and repeated Union defeats during the Civil War.

    By the time his friend Robert E. Lee left Arlington to lead a Rebel 
army against the bluecoats, Heintzelman had already seen duty in 
Mexico, established Fort Yuma in California in 1850, mined for silver 
in Arizona, and ably led U.S. forces on the Texas-Mexico border 
during the 1859–60 Cortina War. During the Civil War, he was in the 
forefront of the fighting at First Bull Run and the disastrous 1862 
Peninsula Campaign. He commanded the III Corps of the Army of the 
Potomac at the siege of Yorktown and in the ferocious fighting at 
Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Oak Grove, Savage's Station, Glendale, and 
Malvern Hill. Although he aspired to succeed General George B. 
McClellan, he was relieved of his command after his troops were badly 
mauled at Second Bull Run. After demonstrating his inability to guard 
the southern approaches to Washington, D.C., from Virginia guerillas, 
he spent the latter part of the war administering prison camps in the 
Midwest, keeping a watchful eye on Copperhead subversives, and 
quarreling with more than one disgruntled governor. In early 
Reconstruction Texas, Heintzelman struggled with the conflict between 
former Secessionists and Radical Republicans.

    Despite his failures, Heintzelman remains among the most 
fascinating military figures of nineteenth-century America, if only for 
his broad involvement across much of the South and West during this 
pivotal era of the nation's history. By mining Heintzelman's massive 
journals and countless historical archives, Jerry Thompson has not only 
provided a retelling of the personal history of a frustrated general but 
has also given readers a richly textured account of the events, the 
political crosscurrents, and the times in which "Sourdough" won his 
unenviable reputation.

_________________________________________________________

JERRY THOMPSON is Regents Professor at Texas A&M 
International University in Laredo and a past president of the Texas 
State Historical Association. He holds a doctorate from Carnegie-
Mellon University and has received numerous awards from the Texas 
Historical Commission, Western Writers of America, Texas State 
Historical Association, Historical Society of New Mexico, and 
Arizona Historical Society.


Number Nine: Canseco-Keck History Series