[exmarine]

It is certainly possible that the Slaveocrats underestimated Lincoln after all they were aristocrats who looked down upon a nobody with no connections,...

Everyone underestimated Lincoln. Truly one of the great wartime leaders of all time. He did it in spite of very bad advisors. It was true what I was taught in elementary school (no longer taught due to corrupt educ. system)- Washington and Lincoln truly were our greatest Presidents.

[justshutupandtakeit]

No doubt about it.

Merry Christmas to all Civil War students.

[CAScot]

Well I can't let that one go! Lincoln in 1864 was even more inept a war leader than Johnson was in 1964!
Lincoln and Davis BOTH micromanaged the war to extreme, the only difference was that Davis was a West Point graduate and at least knew a little about such things, and Lincoln didn't have a clue about what he was doing!
To put Lincoln in a class with Washington as a war leader is shear idiocy, and proves a total lack of knowledge in military leadership principles! It wasn't until Teddy Roosevelt that we had another war leader who was in a class with Washington!
Granted there were men like Taylor who might have been competent in that area, but they were not leaders during wartime!