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Yup. Though had he been put in the right places rather than be held back by the stupid Confederate government officials, things could have turned out far differently. For example, if Davis had unleashed Forrest on Sherman's supply lines in the spring and summer of 1864, Sherman would have been forced to call off his attack on Atlanta, thus giving the Confederacy a valuable victory and saving an extremely improtant city. Indeed, Forrest was allowed in the fall of 64 to attack Federal supply lines in Tennessee, and did massive amounts of damage (upwards of 12,000,000 dollars), but by then Sherman was well beyond Atlanta and was no longer dependent on his supply lines from Tennessee. The Confederate government was often guilty of working against its own army, appointing inept generals disliekd by their men but loved by the enemy. For example, Patrick Cleburne (who proposed to free the slaves!), a division commander at the time of his famous proposal, was passed up when a corp slot came up, most likely becuase several politicians in Richmond were ruffled up at him. However, much of the Army of Tennessee was not only supported him, but also his proposal (even the army's commander was perhaps partial to it-he declined to condenm it, and while he did not voice support-out of fear for losing his position no doubt-it is likely he supported it). However, the Union was perhaps even worse at selecting inept generals-greatly to the Confederacy's advantage. Many a general in the Union army was in his high position because of politics. Many good generals got sidestepped and sent to some obscure departement. Of course the North won in the end (I think because of vastly superior numbers-Grant finially defeated Lee only when Lee was outnumbered 20 to 1!), but thanks to their use of inept generals, many good men died needlessly.