Title
Dennis Mahan’s Leadership and Tactics: How a West Point Professor Shaped the Course of the Civil War
Class Year
2018
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
11-1-2017
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Abstract
This summer, while doing research at Stratford Hall, I happened across the name of one West Point professor who quite literally taught every cadet who fought in the Civil War. It is fairly common knowledge than many of the war’s great commanders were classmates together at West Point. For example, the class of 1842 contained George McClellan, James Longstreet, and John Pope. Such commanders influenced the course of the war by drawing upon their West Point education, and while they may have held different military outlooks, they all drew upon the teachings of one man: Dennis Mahan, professor of mathematics as well as military and civil engineering. Thus, Mahan, a relatively unknown figure, had a direct impact on how the war was waged during some of its most crucial days. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Tarchis, Nick, "Dennis Mahan’s Leadership and Tactics: How a West Point Professor Shaped the Course of the Civil War" (2017). The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 279.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/279
Comments
This blog post originally appeared in The Gettysburg Compiler and was created by students at Gettysburg College.