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This is from The Houston Chronicle
It has direct links to impressive archival maps from the Civil War.
Intelligence files from the Union and Confederate armies
were locked up in the National Archives. They were not to be made public.
They were discovered in 1959 by Edwin C. Fishel,
a former W.W. II US Army Intelligence Officer.
He remained in the US intelligence services after the war.
He wrote this book while doing painstaking research. It was concluded in 1994.
If my memory serves me well, it came out in 1996 or 1997.
SECRET WAR FOR THE UNION
book review
This will spike the interest of Civil war buffs.
Author Edwin C. Fishel provides new perspectives and insights as to why and how key battles were conceived, conducted, and concluded as they were.
For instance, Fishel's painstaking study of Hooker's innovative intelligence bureau shows Lee's exact position at Fredericksburg.
This produced the "unique coup of the war."
General Lee’s march to Chancellorsville was being flanked by Hooker's forces on a 55-mile maneuver to Lee’s immediate rear, (which went undetected by Lee’s forces).
Decisions made by commanding generals, deliberately is rarely stated.
For obvious reasons, security being paramount, the same applies to other participants.
Intelligence information received, more likely would have affected decision-making.
The LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA has maps that went with reports to the governor and field maps of the southwestern part of the state.
They were found in books that belonged to the Confederate Gen. William W. Loring.
And in this corner: This update is by modern supporters of Gen. Geo. B. McClellan
Some of the archived intelligence files were stolen in 1962.
Some may be large and bulky. They remain un-recovered to this day.
Many of those had been copied by author Edwin C. Fishel prior to the theft.
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