A Main Selection of the History Book Club and winner of the New York Civil War Round Table’s Fletcher Pratt Award for the best nonfiction book of the Civil War published in 1994.
No single class of West Pointers is so indelibly prominent in American history as the antebellum class of 1846. Their names are legendary: Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, George Brinton McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, George Stoneman — just a few of the 59 men of this illustrious class. They fought in three wars, produced twenty generals and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed.
This award-winning book is an intimate chronicle that traces the lives of these unforgettable men — their training as cadets, their personalities, and the wars in which they fought, met their fates, and made their names immortal. Drawing heavily on the rich reservoir of letters, diaries, and personal accounts, it is a collective biography of masterful proportions, as vivid and engrossing as fiction in its recreation of these brilliant figures and their pivotal roles in the turbulent America of the 19th century.
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John C. Waugh is a journalist turned historical reporter:
1956–1973, staff correspondent and bureau chief on The Christian Science Monitor. Honors included the American Bar Association’s 1972 Silver Gavel Award for the best national reporting, for a series on American prisons.
1973–1976, media specialist on the staff of Republican Vice President Nelson Rockefeller of New York.
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1983–1988, press secretary to Democratic U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.
Since 1989, he has been writing about history full-time — books on the Civil War era.
"Covering the past is not unlike covering the present, except all my sources are dead (I prefer it that way). It also means I can return to my favorite century, the 19th, on a daily basis".
Between stints in the newspaper and political worlds, and since, he has contributed to periodicals, including Civil War History, American Heritage, Civil War Times Illustrated, Columbiad, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times, The New Republic, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald American, and Country Magazine.
Over the years he has also been a consultant to various organizations — National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Atlantic Richfield Company, President’s Council on Environmental Quality, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and West Virginia Public Radio.
He was born in California, reared in Arizona, and now live in North Texas. I'm a product of the Tucson public schools and the University of Arizona (1951, journalism major, history minor) plus graduate work in history and political science at UCLA and St. Johns College. I'm married to Kathleen Dianne Lively, a social work administrator and a Texan. We have two grown children, Daniel, a lawyer in Providence, Rhode Island, and Eliza, a writer in Austin, Texas, and four grandchildren.
“If asked to list my dozen favorite Civil War books, The Class of 1846 would be included.... John C. Waugh, a distinguished journalist, gives to his story of the class a special and very human dimension that is missing from their standard biographies and autobiographies.”
— Edwin C. Bearss, Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service
“First rate and moving.... A grand account.... Waugh has vividly reconstructed the stirring, and often tragic, account of perhaps the most illustrious class ever to emerge from the military academy.... Thanks to Waugh, the legacy of that class — its sense of duty and honor — rings as clearly now as then.... This is history, but in the form of drama based on a broad array of background materials, including letters and memoirs.... Waugh’s account of the West Point class of 1846 seems likely to become a minor classic.”
— The Christian Science Monitor
“First class work....Waugh has catapulted himself into the first circle of those writers who concentrate on the Civil War. His first foray into the field is poignant and exciting, top notch in every way. Scrupulous in its research, enormous in breadth and scope, this is a highly readable history on the same level as the best of Catton or Foote. This is history as it should be told, powerful and sweeping, evocative to the very core.”
— The Tampa Tribune and Times
“[A] wonderful saga.... Of epic proportions equal to that of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels....With wit and anecdote John C. Waugh has masterfully written this story of ‘a brothers war.’ ”
— Book Page
“A collective biography of epic proportions.... Masterfully chronicled.... With meticulous research, deft organization and graceful prose, Waugh has produced a vivid and engrossing book that will appeal to everyone interested in American history. The book’s approach is original, and its impact is as resounding as a battery of Parrot fieldguns.... The author skillfully interweaves human and historical detail, anecdotes, and humor, in a stunning chronicle of young men learning to become warriors.... All in all, the class of 1846 was as star-studded — and star-crossed — a class as ever marched through the hallowed halls of West Point, and author Waugh has told their story well.”
— America’s Civil War
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