No single class of West Point--or possibly any academy--has been so indelibly written into history as the one that graduated form the US Military Academy at West Point in 1846. It fought in three wars, produced 20 generals, and left the nation a lasting legacy of bravery, brilliance, and bloodshed. THE CLASS OF 1846 is the fascinating chronicle of this singular group of men, their training their personalities, and the events in which they made their name and met their fate. In this book, we come to know the Class of 1846 intimately, not only as individuals but as members of a brotherhood linked inseparably by a shared history. From the day they arrive at West Point to their baptism as soldiers in the Mexican War and in the Indian campaigns of the West...to the day they turn their guns against one another in the bloodiest of all American wars, you will meet: George B. McClellan. Bright, confident, and affable, aristocratic Philadelphian shines as the star of the class. Great things are expected of him; only later would the disappointments set in. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Taciturn, eccentric, and unprepossessing, western Virginia mountain boy. Tom Jackson is accepted at the last minute only after another candidate drops out. In the first year, he passes by the skin of his teeth. No one expects much at all of "Old Jack." But he would surprise them at the Point, and he would surprise them even more 20 years later--with deadly consequences. A. P. Hill. At school, George McClellan and A. P. Hill are roommates for a time and best friends always. Even their rivalry for the hand of the lovely Miss Ellen Marcy (who first became engaged to Hill, but married McClellan) could not tear them apart. At Antietam, McClellan and his Union soldiers would bear the brunt of his Confederate roommate's pounding attack. We'll also meet: George Pickett, George Henry Gordon, John Gibbon and many more who shaped our nation's history In this most entertaining and readable book, Waugh offers us a collective biography of a class of West Pointers and their careers from when they entered the academy through the end of the Civil War. The two most prominent members of the class were George McClellan and Thomas Jackson; the better student proved the poorer general. In focusing on their careers , Waugh inevitably gives short shrift to the conflict after classmates George Pickett and John Gibbon confronted each other at Gettysburg. The stories are familiar but retold rather well; much less is made of the common experiences of the group and their impact on their generalship. Buffs and lay readers will nevertheless enjoy this well-written chronicle. - Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Perhaps imitating a good idea by Rich Atkinson, whose The Long Grey Line (1989) chronicled West Point's class of 1966, Waugh takes the same tack for the fifty-nine graduates of 1846. They went directly from the parade ground to the battleground in Mexico, where a few died, some were wounded, and all gained formative combat experience for the coming irrepressible conflict. That the leading generals of the Civil War personally knew their opponants often affected decisions, as at the Battle of Antietam--practically a class reunion, where A. P. Hill and "Stonewall" Jackson fought off McClellen and Gordon. Waugh presents the oft-told narrative of that battle, of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, too, from the points of view of the former classmates, building up to George Pickett, who was last in his class and, on the battlefield, first in futility. The author also briefly ranges among the less celebrated officers and their doings in the Indian wars. For the reader who tirelessly recycles the war's epic elements, Waugh's stories shade familiar details with human nuance. Gilbert Taylor The ``brothers' fight'' of Civil War legend and historical clich‚ is grounded in firm fact: not only did the war split many actual families along partisan lines, but a sizeable number of celebrated officers in blue and in gray had been bosom buddies at West Point and subsequently comrades and mess-mates in the prewar Federal army. In an exceedingly well-written narrative, Waugh tackles this subject head-on, following school friends of the 1846 West Point graduating class from their four rigorous years at the Academy through the questionable heroics of the Mexican War and the early Indian wars on the Great Plains to the grim carnage of America's Iliad. The ``Class of `46'' produced ten generals on the Union side, including the ultimately unsuccessful George McClellan (who at least survived the war), and nine on the Confederate, including those fabled warriors ``Stonewall'' Jackson and A.P. Hill (both of whom were killed) and the luckless, ultimately bitter George Pickett, who had graduated last in his class. By a perversity of fate, the number-one man in the class (McClellan was ranked second) never made it higher than colonel