Posted on 08/18/2003 5:36:11 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
In the preceding column I listed the Union generals I consider to be the worst: Benjamin Butler, Nathaniel Banks, Franz Sigel and John McClernand. All were politically valuable to President Abraham Lincoln but complete disasters in military matters.
Professional military generals who performed terribly for the North were, in my opinion, Ambrose Burnside, John Pope and Don Carlos Buell. All were West Point graduates.
The Confederacy had its own generals who performed poorly, and I list them here.
As a veteran of World War II, I have only contempt for any officer who deserts his men to save his own hide. (My exception is Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who on March 11, 1942, under direct orders from the president, left his post on Bataan to go to Australia and assume command of all Allied forces in the Pacific theater.) I consider John Buchanan Floyd and Gideon Johnson Pillow to be on this list of shame.
Both were political generals. In February 1862, at Fort Donelson, Tenn., Floyd was in command of Confederate troops whose job it was to save the fort from Union soldiers led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Floyd turned command over to Pillow, who turned it over to Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. Floyd and Pillow left the fort.
Buckner, West Point '44, surrendered to Grant. His surrender to a superior force was no cause for shame.
Gen. Braxton Bragg, West Point, '37, is also on this list of poor Confederate generals. He never seemed to know when he had won a battle. He drove Union forces into Chattanooga in September 1863 and had victory within his grasp had he but followed up.
Bragg simply could not get along with other Confederate generals. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest flatly refused to serve with or under him: "I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel ... If you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path, it will be at the peril of your life."
Gen. George Pickett, class of '46, is on the list not because of his performance at Gettysburg - his famous charge was doomed from the start - but because he was not with his soldiers at Five Forks on April 1, 1865, the battle that finally turned the Confederate lines before Petersburg. The South lost 5,200 men that day.
Gen. John Bell Hood, class of '53, never understood that the South could win only if the war could be prolonged until the North decided its losses were not worth the goal of maintaining the Union. Hood preferred aggressive - and costly - military campaigns. He attacked and lost 2,500 men at Peachtree Creek (July 20, 1864) during the campaign to defend Atlanta and 8,500 more men during the Battle of Atlanta two days later.
On July 28, 1864, at the Second Battle of Atlanta, he lost 4,300 men. Atlanta fell to Union forces on Sept. 2, 1864. At Nashville in December '64, Hood lost the entire Confederate Army of Tennessee.
Gen. John Pemberton, class of '37, was twice cited for gallantry during the Mexican War but in the Civil War, he never understood how to use large forces. He lost several battles during Grant's Vicksburg Campaign (mid-April to July 4, 1863) and succeeded only in withdrawing his army into the city's defenses. The siege lasted 48 days; the Vicksburg campaign cost the Confederacy more than 39,000 casualties.
Virginia readers' choices for worst Confederate generals:
Bruce Bonniwell of Vinton notes Braxton Bragg first and adds, "John Bell Hood: Brave soldier but a total failure as an army commander."
Bob Hopkins of Lynchburg agrees that Bragg was "one of a succession of poor choices" for command. He also includes "Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard [who was] more interested in his image than his nation" and Gen. Joseph E Johnston, who "... wouldn't fight unless conditions were perfect, constantly making excuses for not fighting, retreating to avoid it, and blaming the government when he lost."
Gary Calhoun of Roanoke also mentions Gen. Bragg as if "not the most incompetent general in the Confederate army, he was certainly the most incompetent general with the highest rank."
James Dillon Hutton of Glade Spring wrote that "Generals Grant and Sherman were the best" of the Union generals. "Gen. Hooker and Gen. Meade were also good." He added a personal memo: "Now I am 8 years old." Happy birthday, James Dillon, from an old U.S. Army Air Force veteran.
It's not too late to send your selections for the five best and five worst Union and Confederate generals.
I gotta vote for Benjamin F. "Spoons" Butler as worst on the Yankee side. Rotten and corrupt Massachusetts politician, couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. Somewhere around here I have his obituary from a Memphis paper - it's a classic! I'll go hunt for it and see if I can turn it up.
Gotta love it. Them was the days when an editorial WAS an editorial:
"If there be a future of peace in store for Ben Butler after his entrance upon eternity then there is no heaven and the Bible is a lie. If hell be only as black as the Good book describes it, then there are not the degrees of punishment in which some Christians so firmly believe. He has gone, and from the sentence which has already been passed upon him, there is no appeal. He is already so deep down in the pit of everlasting doom that he couldn’t get the most powerful ear trumpet conceivable to scientists and hear the echoes of old Gabriel's trumpet; or fly a million kites and get a message to St. Peter who stands guard at heaven's gates.
Gen. John Bell Hood, class of '53, never understood that the South could win only if the war could be prolonged until the North decided its losses were not worth the goal of maintaining the Union. Hood preferred aggressive - and costly - military campaigns.
At the risk of being flamed right off FR I point out that the same thing has been said of Robert E. Lee.
Wasn't it Lee who order Pickett's charge?
The difference being that Lee tended to win battles while Hood lost them.
There is a group of historians who blame the South's defeat on Lee's aggressive strategy, with it's high and unsustainable casualty levels. I think Longstreet also believed this.
Five Best Union
Grant
Sheridan
Hancock
McPherson
Thomas
Five Worst Union
Pope
McDowell
Burnside
Buell
Butler
Limiting the list to 5 worst generals was hard...but so was limiting it to 5 best. The Union corps and division commanders aren't as well known as their confederate counterparts but, on the whole, were much better.
Five Best Confederate
Jackson
Lee
Forrest
Stuart
Johnston, Joe
Five Worst Confederate
Bragg
Polk
Hood
A.P. Hill
Pillow
I think the author was too hard on Joe Johnston and not hard enough on Hill.
The Confederates considered McClellan one of the best. I think Grant is vastly overrated. He was competent but little else. He suffered defeats which would have destroyed Lee's army but since he had such overwhelming numbers it didn't matter.
He was saved at Shiloh by sheer luck.
Yes, but every battle led to another battle which let to yet another. Lee's casualty rates were enormous and unsustainable.
I'm aware of this but I confess I never understood it. It's true that McClellan had great organizational skills and was very charismatic but as an army commander he was a failure.
I read "Killer Angels" not too long ago (great book, by the way). I believe that the book said that Lee ordered Pickett's charge. If that's so, that was a really bad decision. I also have visited Gettysburg many times and have seen the terrain. I wonder what Lee was thinking?
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.