This piece is very interesting, well written, and to my knowledge of the events described (very skimpy) accurate.
James Ewell Brown Stuart I believe to have been a very decent man, kind and warm, and the best sort of leader. Not a Nathan Bedford Forrest, for sure, but who is?
Phillip Henry Sheridan was one tough hombre. Great grasp of time and distance, of Corps level operations, I think. What they call "operational art" these days.
You folks might think from the above that I have an exaggerated regard for Bedford Forrest. On the contrary. Forrest was the greatest Anglo fighting man since Robert the Bruce.
Not talking about Commanders in Chief. Statesmanship is required of them. I like George Washington as the greatest American Commander in Chief, though, believe it or not, George Walker Bush may eclipse even General Washington.
And, Matthew, I suspect King Wladyslav II Jagiello, King of Poland, might be another of this caliber. Gruenewald (July 15, 1410) was only a small part of his remarkable career.
Maybe Wallenstein, who so nearly ended the Thirty Years War. The vile Richelieu, again. SAM, don't believe there aren't Frenchmen I really, really do not like. Poincare, for instance, started the First World War, bringing about what is nearly now seen to be the end of Western Civilization.