Radical Sacrifice: The Rise and Ruin of Fitz John Porter by William Marvel

Abstract

Reviewed by: Radical Sacrifice: The Rise and Ruin of Fitz John Porter by William Marvel Zachery A. Fry (bio) Radical Sacrifice: The Rise and Ruin of Fitz John Porter. By William Marvel. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. 472. Cloth, $35.00.) William Marvel’s books are iconoclastic. They dismantle idols and resurrect the persecuted, in the process asking historians to reconsider cherished and persistent interpretive trends in the field. Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton (2015) depicts Secretary of War Edwin Stanton as the malevolent architect behind many of Lincoln’s policies, while Lincoln’s Mercenaries: Economic Motivation among Union Soldiers during the Civil War (2018) adds a dose of practicality to the debate on Union soldier [End Page 287] motivation. Marvel’s latest work, a biography of vilified Union corps commander Fitz John Porter, revisits the Civil War’s most notorious court-martial and spotlights a great sin in American military justice. Fitz John Porter gained notoriety among Republicans and hard-war advocates for his loyalty to George McClellan, who, in Marvel’s words, represented the professional army’s resistance to “turning the war into an abolition crusade” (xi). The chaos and calamity of Second Bull Run entangled Porter with the pro-Lincoln circle of John Pope, who used Porter as a convenient scapegoat for Union tactical failures on August 29 and 30, 1862. The charges leveled at Porter by Pope (but really by Stanton, the true villain in Marvel’s story) included disobedience of direct orders and cowardice in the face of the enemy. The combination of a politically motivated court, procession of questionable witnesses, and proscription of exculpatory evidence doomed Porter to a guilty verdict and ended his military career. The former general spent the rest of his life seeking retrial, finally gaining vindication under the Grover Cleveland administration. Marvel performs yeoman’s work sifting through the complicated events of August 29 that brought Porter to grief. Attached to Pope’s Army of Virginia from McClellan’s Army of the Potomac, Porter cooperated with Irvin McDowell to hold the Union left that day at Second Bull Run. The bewildering “joint order” from Pope, arriving at midday, ordered Porter and McDowell to advance “toward” the Confederate right, then halt in preparation for a potential withdrawal that night. Porter and his subordinates realized that James Longstreet’s wing of Lee’s army had arrived in their front, complicating any hope of reaching their assigned objective. A flurry of couriers back and forth brought little clarification to Pope’s intent, and the commanding general’s unequivocal attack order failed to arrive until nearly dusk, by which point it was virtually useless. Calling Porter’s hesitancy “disobedience” was shaky at best, but it was enough for Stanton to spring the trap against McClellan’s chief lieutenant. Radical Sacrifice presents a thorough and convincing case that Porter’s true transgression in the eyes of his political persecutors was in fact aligning with McClellan and supporting Democratic policy. Porter wrote prolifically to Democratic confidants, some of whom thoughtlessly trumpeted the alarming extent of his anti-administration bent. Marvel’s Porter is a victim of Republican villainy, a scapegoat not so much for Pope but for Lincoln, whose confidence in the “brash and beefy” Army of Virginia leader spelled disaster at Manassas (139). This depiction is vintage Marvel, whose witty writing style breathes new life into the battle action and courtroom drama. But this same style sometimes exacerbates a jaundiced view of Republican politicians and leads to some downright daring assertions. “The man later [End Page 288] castigated as a traitor to the Union cause did more to preserve that Union than any of those officers who later judged him unworthy to remain among them” (xv), he observes in defense of Porter, leading the reader to wonder just how such a comparison is to be measured. Regarding Union veterans in the years after Porter’s conviction, Marvel notes that some were supportive of the fallen Fifth Corps leader while others were ambivalent or hostile. “Unfortunately for Porter,” he adds disturbingly, “reviling an alleged traitor is an effective traditional means of signaling patriotism for those who have no other...