Posted on 04/09/2017 8:20:32 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
What about Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur?
Well put and right on, IMO..
You are right on. Good points.
True, there comes a point when you have to meet the enemy head on. By that point in the Atlanta campaign Sherman had enough strength that he could use part of his force to fix the enemy and use the rest to probe for weak points. Also, at that point the confederates had gone thrugh several changes in command and John Bell Hood was in charge. John Bell Hood was no Robert E. Lee - or Joe Johnston for that fact.
Lee had almost no cavalry with him on the first day of Gettysburg. Ewell’s Corp had a battalion of cavalry assigned to it, but his forces were up around Carlisle and York PA. Each Corp command had a company or two of cavalry assigned as headquarters company. Stuart had detailed a couple of regiments of cavalry to escort the 25 mile long wagon train accompanying the Army. He had also assigned 3 regiments to guard the passes over the Blue Ridge. These three regiments were recalled but did not join the army until the 2nd day. Essentially Lee on the first day at Gettysburg was blind.
You are correct. Guderian was the father of the Blitzkrieg.
Except at Chickamauga, it was the Bragg’s Army doing the attacking. Rosecrans screwed up and pulled an entire division out of line. The open space in Rosecrans’s line was right in front of Longstreet’ Corp. He attacked and Rosecrans’s Army folded
Chickasaw Bayou: Sherman serving under Grant fought & lost the battle of Chickasaw Bayou in late December 1862.
Grant himself was also forced to withdraw because Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked & destroyed Grant's supply base.
Grant's overall Vicksburg campaign is seen as a brilliant victory, though not without many obstacles, of which Chickasaw Bayou was one.
Spotsylvania: May 8-20, 1864 inconclusive tactically, causing Grant to move again past Lee's southern flank.
Grant on offense outnumbered Lee about two to one, but Grant's casualties outnumbered Lee's by just 50%.
Grant could afford his losses, Lee could not.
Cold Harbor: early June, 1864, counted as a Confederate victory, but Lee's last.
Even though Grant's casualties exceeded Lee's by more than two to one, Grant could afford his losses, Lee could not.
Further, Grant's losses in his main attack on June 3 were less than Lee's had been at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
Point is: Civil War offense was very expensive in lives, Grant's no more so than Lee's when Lee was on offense.
More important, unlike Lee at Antietam or Gettysburg, after Cold Harbor Grant remained on offense, continuing to grind down Lee's forces.
Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor are just two of 14 major battles in the overall Overland Campaign of May-June 1864, which is considered a Union strategic victory and ended Lee's ability to fight from anything other than entrenched positions.
One of the Confederate officers is signing his acceptance of the surrender terms offer him.
When did Grant say that?
Rommel wrote one book and it was on infantry tactics.
Sherman had more room for maneuver in the west.
There weren't as many troops against him and there was plenty of room to get around them.
Grant would have a hard time applying the tactics in the ferociously contested eastern theater that he and Sherman had practiced in the west.
It was similar to what happened in WWI. The Western Front was too crowded and too well fortified for the free wheeling movement that were possible on the Russian Front.
Guderian developed his ideas by studying the work of the British officer Colonel, later major general, John Fuller. Guderian paid out of his pocket the have Fuller’s book Provisional Instructions for Tank and Armoured Car Training translated into German. If anyone, it was Fuller who invented tank warfare as we know it today.
Thank you!
Thanks for Ping
Another Union general, William Tecumseh Sherman, it is reported, considered him “the most remarkable man our civil war produced on either side.” He was unquestionably one of the Civil War’s most brilliant tacticians.
************************************************************
Well, I agree that my opinion doesn’t mean anything but I think the above opinion does.
I’ve read many other similar comments in the history books.
Your right about him not commanding a full Army. Your definitely wrong on “commanding infantry formations”. He often dismounted and fought on foot. The largest body he commanded, I admit I do not know.
cavalry on foot with carbines does not equal infantry with rifled muskets. Dismounted cavalry form skirmish lines, they do not stand in line of battle, the effective range of their fire is about 150-200 yards. Every 5th man has to fall out of formation to hold the horses. An infantry formation has a effective range of over 300 yards. Dismounted cavalry cannot stand against an infantry line of battle for any length of time. About 3500 mounted men is the largest formation Forrest commanded during the war. A Brilliant tactician does not equal the “greatest general of the war”
What that means you handle your forces efficiently against the objective you are operating against. And there is no doubt that Bedford Forest could do that.
All great generals make mistakes. It takes a great man to make great mistakes.
His mistake at Spotsylvania is he got there an hour or two too late. I always wonder how Lee knew that would be his destination.
All of his real mistakes at Vicksburg happened before he crossed the Mississippi, a move he made when all right thinking advice was contrary.
It's arguable that Sherman was both smarter and more effective than Grant. Sherman learned over the course of the war. Grant really didn't. If you compare how Sherman developed as a general, after his failure to entrench at Shiloh, the futile assaults at Chickasaw Bayou and Missionary Ridge, he seems to have reassessed his tactics. During the Atlanta campaign and the march to the sea he used maneuver as a means of taking objectives as opposed to frontal assaults on entrenched positions defended by skilled veterans armed with rifled muskets. Grant on the other hand just kept throwing bodies at fortified positions.
Sherman developed into a great general. He started the war with a terrible inferiority complex. His development was with the help and support of his mentor...Grant.
Sherman accomplished more with less loss of life, on both sides, than any other general among the good guys. Nevertheless, he made a terrible blunder at Kennesaw Mountain.
He also had a personality that would not allow the same or better outcome if he traded places with Grant. He would have failed miserably if he had been forced to take on the politicians and other generals who desperately wanted him to fail as was Grant's lot. Grant knew he had Lincoln's support and moved forward with that knowledge. With regard to the other guys on his side, he was a leader who won by leading.
Grant faced the arithmetic because he fought a different kind of war after he assumed overall command. By definition, Lee settled into unchangeable defense after Cold Harbor. Grant was left with siege warfare, a war he could not lose short of being undermined by his own people which was always a danger. Still he had to get across the James to make that work, and he made a brilliant calculation to get there.
Grant proved he could change tactics when needed, something he did at Vicksburg and in 3/10's of a second at Missionary Ridge.
He moved ahead when all of his previous generals would have retreated.
He also understood and assimilated Lincoln's desire for a peaceful peace in victory which so many in the North could not understand or agree to. As a result he earned the undying respect of the losers.
Historians have said it was the Grant-Sherman partnership that saved the country. There is something to that in a subordinate reality. It was the Lincoln-Grant partnership that really did the job. If there was another Northern general who could have accomplished what Grant did, I haven't yet read about him.
Good read
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.