Russel Beatie's Series

I know he's completed 3 volumes so far on the Army of the Potomac. Does anyone know if he intends to document the army through the entire war? That would be some undertaking.

The (not updated to the third volume) website Army of the Potomac Book Series does not give a hint about the number and content of future installments. Its mission statement claims to present the "Army of the Potomac (...) through the entire war". Given that the author is clearly a splitter and produces a book every two years, age will be the limiting factor. I expect no. 4 to be about the Seven Days (fall 2008?), no. 5 to 2nd Bull Run (2010?), no. 6 Antietam (2012?), which completes the McClellan arch nicely.

As far as his claim goes "none has considered the corps, division, and brigade commanders (and their all-important staff officers) through the entire war", there is, as I've written elsewhere, still no definitive history of the Seven Days campaign and I'd like a more detailed treatment of Antietam. Apart from that, the Army of the Potomac has fine volumes about its campaigns (exotics such as the 1864 Mine Run excepted). Tough competition for Russel Beatie.

I picked up a used copy of the 2nd volume, Army Of The Potomac: McClellan Takes Command, and nibbled at the first three chapters. I quite like it. On the internet and among the professionals, however, one finds quite a number of critical voices (summarized at the Civil War bookshelf blog). As reprinted in this thread, John Hennessy, whose opinion I trust, gave a devastating review of the first volume, The Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command: "Matters of literary flow, validity of historical dialogue, and the plague of tangents may be debatable, but outright historical errors are not, and this book is filled with them to a degree not often seen."

This book series is clearly a labour of love for its trial lawyer author. Thus, I cannot comprehend why the author did not (and according to the thread) still does not check the details. Isn't it the major argument of trial lawyers that a company is responsible even for tiny details?

Having wrong but easily verifiable facts present in the narrative is toxic to the casual reader (who absorbs wrong facts) and to the author's reputation among professionals. Thus, I am quite conflicted about the series. I hope he gets a tough editor for the next volume after Army of the Potomac: McClellan's First Campaign.

Having now read the whole book, I can only warn others. This series is vanity publishing gone beserk. Read my full review (linked above).

For extra fun, go to Amazon and read the author's insulting, vituperative reply to another bad review. Beatie is about as open to critique as his idol George W. Bush ...

I just read where Russel Beatie recently passed away. According to the Savas Beatie newsletter, "His fourth installment manuscript, which picks up where volume three left off and travels through the fighting at Seven Pines, is available; we are working with it to determine how or whether we can publish it for you".

Savas Beatie does good maps, though. The Maps of First Bull Run, for example.