Posted on 04/06/2017 4:51:47 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
Confederate General Albert S. Johnson's 40,000 man Army of Mississippi attacked General Ulysses S. Grant's 45,000 man Army of the Tennessee camped at Pittsburg Landing, MS near a small church called Shilo. The attack that morning was successful, Grant's forces were driven back three miles all the way to the Mississippi River.
Not quite the case. Lee never admitted that the assault on Cemetery was a mistake. Grant, however in his Memoirs said ordering the assault on the ANV at Cold Harbor was the worst mistake he made a General.
Longstreet was one hell of a General, and a great leader of men. I admire him.
Longstreet invented modern mobile warfare.
Hood was tough as nails. Lose a leg and arm but still on horseback leading troops? Holy crap.
Of course, it reminds me of that old joke about the man visiting a farm who sees a pig in the pen hobbling around on three legs. When the visitor asks the farmer about the pig, the farmer says “Well, he’s a special ‘un. My farmhouse caught on fire last year, and he saved me and my family by waking us up. Yeah, he’s special.” So the visitor said “Wow! Did he lose his leg in the fire?”
The farmer said “Oh, no. A pig that good, you just can’t eat all at once!”
(No disrespect intended to Gen. Hood...it was just what came to mind!)
It could be his injuries. It could be morphine. It could be the fact that some men rise above their abilities. While Hood was fantastic as a division and brigade commander, and excellent as a corps commander, he was a bloody disaster as an army commander.
cannot cite the source, but years ago I read that upon General Hood’s appointment to command the AOT, General Lee stated to an aide that he thought General Hood “to much wolf, and not enough fox to command the army.”
Thanks for that.
I also rank Longstreet very high (1 Lee, 2 Jackson, 3 Forrest, 4 Longstreet, 5 Cleburne) but am uncertain how Southerners view him, considering his whole life.
You vote puts Longstreet firmly in fourth place among Confederate generals, in my opinion.
Longstreet was not thought well of by a lot of Southerners after the war. Some blamed him for Lee’s failure at Gettysburg. Longstreet was also somewhat critical of Lee in his post war writings. He became a Republican and supported Grant for President. Later he was appointed to various Government posts in Republican administrations.
If you wanted to make a perfect Civil War Army and forgot about which side they were on you’d have Longstreet as the supreme commander with McClellan in charge of logistics. Stuart or Sheridan to run the cavalry. Lee in charge of the infantry with corp commanders Hancock, Jackson, Johnston(Joe). Without question Gen. Hunt in charge of artillery.
There are better U.S. generals to stick on the $50 if you just want military accomplishments alone.
For example?
I would be in favor of eliminating presidents from our currency altogether. But I hesitate to say that outside of FreeRepublic because I wouldn’t want to encourage the lefties to replace them with celebrities and sports figures.
The Union had many good generals but IMO Grant is not one of them.
To each their own.
Cue up the currency from “Idiocracy”!
Dixie ping
Trump20162020: “ There are better U.S. generals to stick on the $50 if you just want military accomplishments alone.”
The name Douglas MacArthur comes to mind, but by 1952 Democrats hated him and Republicans went with the political general, Eisenhower, over the showboat.
The fact is that both General Grant and President Grant were highly popular in their time.
You could even say Grant was a perfect match for his time.
As a general, Grant’s statistics on offense compare well to Lee’s on offense.
The difference is Grant won all his battles, whether sober or less than.
Born into a distinguished South Carolina family and descended from Revolutionary War patriots, He organized a cavalry force, and outfitted them at his own expense.
He rose to brigadier quickly, was wounded at First Manassas, Seven Pines and Gettysburg, and was promoted to major general in August of 1863.
A year later, after the death of Stuart, ee was given command of the Army of Northern Virginia's cavalry corps.
Almost immediately, he engaged the enemy. In early June of 1864, General Philip Sheridan led 6,000 Federal cavalrymen on an expedition to destroy a vital section of the Virginia Central Railroad. Just after daybreak on the morning of June 11th, He and 5,000 Confederate cavalrymen intercepted Sheridan's force at Trevilian Station in Virginia. A fierce battle erupted in dense woods, forcing the cavalrymen to fight on foot.
In the heat of the fight, however, He seized the opportunity to mount a charge against the Federals in a dusty clearing near the railroad. “Charge them, my brave boys, charge them,” he ordered, and courageously led the attack atop his favorite mount, a big bay named “Butler.”
Around him, the troops in gray and butternut surged toward the enemy through a haze of smoke and dust. Bolstering his veterans was a force of newly arrived South Carolinians that included the Cadet Rangers - Company F of the 6th South Carolina Cavalry - which had been organized at the Citadel. Typically, the General led with his saber - then, in hand-to-hand combat, switched to his revolver. Saddles were emptied on both sides, and he single-handedly took down three adversaries.
The battle shifted to other fields and continued the next day. It was finally decided when a bold Confederate counterattack shattered the Federal line.
On June 13th, Sheridan and his troops retreated without destroying the railroad. The Geneeral had driven back the enemy - and had demonstrated his ability to assume J.E.B. Stuart's mantle of leadership.
Mr. Terry M. Gatch, author. General Wade Hampton, Confederate hero.
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