THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN IN 1862.  Papers read before the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts in 1876-77-78 and 80.  Printed for the Society.  Vol.  I, octavo, pp. 249.  Boston:  James R. Osgood and Company, 1881.

The Military Society of Massachusetts was organized in 1876, with the object of investigating questions relating to the civil war.  Up to the date of the publication of this volume, about forty papers were read, six of them being devoted to the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, eleven to General Pope’s campaign of 1862, three to the campaign of Chancellorsville, three to the Antietam campaign, sixteen to the campaign of 1864, and one each to the battle of Mobile Bay and Grouchy controversy,—­all, with the exception of the last two, bearing upon the operations of the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and 1864, and including discussions from different standpoints of the objects and general plans of the several campaigns and battles in which it participated, and of the controverted questions that have arisen concerning them.  The first printed volume of the Society contains the following papers:—­“General McClellan’s Plans for the campaign of 1862, and the Alleged Interference of the Government with them,” by John C. Ropes, Esq:  “The Siege of Yorktown,” by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. John C. Palfrey, U.S.A.:  “The Period which elapsed between the Fall of Yorktown and the Beginning of the Seven-Days-Battles,” by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. Francis W. Palfrey, U.S.V.  “The Seven-Days Battles—­to Malvern Hill,” by same author.  “The Battle of Malvern Hill,” by same author; “Comments on the Peninsular Campaign,” by Bvt.-Brig.-Gen. Charles A. Whittier, U.S.V.  All of these are earnest discussions,—­but of unequal worth—­of the various merits or demerits of General McClellan in the Peninsular campaign, or the attitude of the government toward him at that time.  The ground is traversed as often before; all the old arguments are again brought into comparison, and a very small amount of new evidence is discovered.  What has previously been said in many books and pamphlets and by a score of writers, is here said in one volume by three writers.  But nothing appears to be freshly said, and, as usual, the conclusions reached are colored by the political likes or dislikes of their several writers.  The sole merit of the volume lies in the fact that its papers embody a mass of very valuable material, gleaned from trustworthy sources, for the future historian.  It is very safe to assume, however, that the future historian while expressing gratitude for their investigations, will not be tempted to place much weight upon the conclusions of the gentlemen who hold the monopoly of this volume but have not solved a single mooted question.

  LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, Fifteenth President of the United
  States.  By George Ticknor Curtis. 2 vols. octavo, pp. 625, 707.  New
  York:  Harper & Brothers, 1883.