The American Civil War

[Sheilbh]

I've been reading around the ACW and some questions have occurred to me which I thought this place could probably answer.  Or at least enjoy arguing about.

Big question I've got is why does the Union seem to have so many duff generals at the start of the war?

[11B4V]

Thats a pretty broad sweeping condemnation of brigade and higher leadership.

[The Brain]

Traitors are rarely good generals. They lack moral fibre.

[dps]

A big part of the problem was that the pre-war army was just so small.  Nobody had any experience leading large bodies of troops.

[CountDeMoney]

This thread is going to blow up like a motherfucker 

I will post a longer response to the issue of early war Union generalship later, when I have the time to compose it.  But I will say there was definitely a problem of picking the wrong man for the wrong job at several early turns by Lincoln.  And McClellan was an insolent and insubordinate self-promoting, self-important clusterfuck politician of the third degree.

[DontSayBanana]

This thread is going to blow up like a motherfucker 

I will post a longer response to the issue of early war Union generalship later, when I have the time to compose it.  But I will say there was definitely a problem of picking the wrong man for the wrong job at several early turns by Lincoln.  And McClellan was an insolent and insubordinate self-promoting, self-important clusterfuck politician of the third degree.

That's a lot of the problem there.  One wonders why Lincoln played softball with McClellan for so long, given how badly he was screwing things up.

[dps]

This thread is going to blow up like a motherfucker 

I will post a longer response to the issue of early war Union generalship later, when I have the time to compose it.  But I will say there was definitely a problem of picking the wrong man for the wrong job at several early turns by Lincoln.  And McClellan was an insolent and insubordinate self-promoting, self-important clusterfuck politician of the third degree.

That's a lot of the problem there.  One wonders why Lincoln played softball with McClellan for so long, given how badly he was screwing things up.

Partly because McClellan was popular with the troops, and partly because everybody else he put in command of the Army of the Potomoc before Meade did an even worse job than Little Mac.

[Norgy]

Wasn't McClellan a Democrat? Showing a united front in the face of the conflict might have been important to Lincoln.

And were his flaws that apparent right from the start?

[alfred russel]

I've been reading around the ACW and some questions have occurred to me which I thought this place could probably answer.  Or at least enjoy arguing about.

Big question I've got is why does the Union seem to have so many duff generals at the start of the war?

I think someone on here once posted that the officer corps of the prewar army was disproportionately southern. West Point had a lot of northern entrants, but they didn't stick with military careers as often since they had more economic opportunities at home.

[dps]

Wasn't McClellan a Democrat? Showing a united front in the face of the conflict might have been important to Lincoln.

Yes, but that was a relatively minor point.  Even though the Democrats nominated McClellan for President in 1864, he wasn't really politically important before that.

And were his flaws that apparent right from the start?

No, not really.  He did spend a lot of time reorganizing the Army of the Potomoc after 1st Bull Run, but it was obvious after that battle that the war wasn't going to be ended quickly and the army did need a lot of training and building up.  And he had been quite succsess in small-scale actions before being given command of the AotP.


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[dps]

I think someone on here once posted that the officer corps of the prewar army was disproportionately southern. West Point had a lot of northern entrants, but they didn't stick with military careers as often since they had more economic opportunities at home.

That's true, but it's not as true as some people would have us believe.  For one thing, not all the Southerners in the officer corps abandoned the Union.

[jimmy olsen]

I've been reading around the ACW and some questions have occurred to me which I thought this place could probably answer.  Or at least enjoy arguing about.

Big question I've got is why does the Union seem to have so many duff generals at the start of the war?

I think someone on here once posted that the officer corps of the prewar army was disproportionately southern. West Point had a lot of northern entrants, but they didn't stick with military careers as often since they had more economic opportunities at home.

The higher ranks were certainly disproportionately Southern for that reason. The lower officer ranks were more representative of the nation at large.

[jimmy olsen]

Wasn't McClellan a Democrat? Showing a united front in the face of the conflict might have been important to Lincoln.

And were his flaws that apparent right from the start?

His flaws as a general weren't, his work organizing and training the Army of the Potomac was great, and he'd won the small battles he'd commanded in up to that point.

Personality wise he was a douchebag from day one IIRC.

[11B4V]

I think someone on here once posted that the officer corps of the prewar army was disproportionately southern. West Point had a lot of northern entrants, but they didn't stick with military careers as often since they had more economic opportunities at home.

That's true, but it's not as true as some people would have us believe.  For one thing, not all the Southerners in the officer corps abandoned the Union.

Thomas comes to mind off the top of my head.

[CountDeMoney]

I've been reading around the ACW and some questions have occurred to me which I thought this place could probably answer.  Or at least enjoy arguing about.

Big question I've got is why does the Union seem to have so many duff generals at the start of the war?

I think someone on here once posted that the officer corps of the prewar army was disproportionately southern. West Point had a lot of northern entrants, but they didn't stick with military careers as often since they had more economic opportunities at home.

Yeah, there's a lot of bullshit mythology with the whole West Point thing;  there were tons of West Pointers in command positions in the South, but so many opponents in Congress, politicos in the North and Lincoln's administration considered West Point a bastion of conservative Southern thinking, outmoded military thought, and dilletantism.  Which is why so many of  Wade's and Chandler's Jacobins on the Hill detested McClellan--who had held the "Southern Genteelman" concept in high regard, considering his own self-esteem issues.  The man was so well-known for his sympathies for the Southern life, even the rebel papers wrote well of him.

But the fact is Lincoln always wanted to put the "best resume" in the best box, and McClellan's career was practically built for it:  West Pointer grad at age 20, Mexican War veteran, observer of the Crimean War whose writings became the permanent Army standard of record for that conflict, a "player's coach" with the troops, arguably the most accomplished scholar in the entire army, etc.  And Rich Mountain didn't hurt him at all.
He was, on paper, the best man for the job at the time.