[MuttTheHoople]

George MacClellan was a lousy field commander, but perhaps one of the best training officers in US military history. He took a bedraggled crew that got their butts kicked at Bull Run, and forged them into the best army of the 19th century.

Once Lincoln got the fighting General he needed in Grant, victory was inevitable.

[nathanbedford]

“best army of the 19th century”

Bracketed in time as the federal army of 1861-1865 was by the continent wide victories of Napoleon’ s army and the decisive victories of the Prussian army in Denmark, Austria and France in the 1860s and 70s, one might pause before rendering such a broad conclusion.