Sofa King: “Sherman kicked Joseph E. Johnston’s ass in the march to the sea”
John Corrado disposed of this claim masterfully, and I would have to agree that Sherman did not kick Johnston’s ass. I would also note that Bruce A. Catton maintained (sorry, I cannot remember in which book) that Jefferson Davis’ decision to can Johnston sealed the Confederacy’s fate as Hood lost Atlanta. With Johnston in command of the Grey, Sherman was stalled outside the city.
In his book, “Ordeal by Fire,” Fletcher Pratt presents evidence that Lincoln was so pessimistic in August 1864 he thought he was in danger of losing the election, and the Democrats’ own rhetoric and political platform would force them to make peace.
“Grant kicked Lee’s ass, and won the war.” Simply not true. Grant did finally figure out how to beat Lee – and I think he and Union general George Thomas are the most underrated generals in our history – but look at the casualty figures for the 1864 campaigns. There is no way you can call that a Union ass-kicking. Hell, the people and papers called Grant a butcher until it became obvious he had figured out to win. Of course, the North’s superiority in population and industrial production helped.
“Furthermore, the North ruthlessly sacked its bad generals (many of them, anyway), while the South merely shuffled the bad ones around to places where they could do the least harm. Southern promotion was rigidly based upon seniority, rather than ability.”
Not true. Hooker was kept on after the battle of Chancellorsville in spite of Lincoln’s wishes simply because the Radical Republican faction liked him.
smiling bandit: “Lee proved himself incompetant for leading an offensive campaign, where he would be expected to attack. Twice, at Gettysburg and Antietam, he found himself humiliated and evaded complete destruction only by incompetance of the commanding Union General.”
At Antietam, the North had the overwhelming advantage, blown by McClellan’s incompetence, of having a copy of Lee’s battle plans. I would say that Antietam proves Lee’s ability because his forces pretty much fought the North to a standstill and he was able to save his army crippled IN SPITE OF THE FACT that his enemies knew his exact plans. Had those plans been lost, the war might have had a different outcome – read Harry Turtledove’s novel “How Few Remain.”
I agree that Gettysburg is not Lee’s finest hour, but several of his subordinates shared the blame. Stuart should have joined the Army much sooner, so Lee could take advantage of the cavalry, rather than romping about the countryside. Longstreet’s delay in attacking at one key point was critical. Had Lee had cavalry from Day One and had Longstreet executed his orders in a more diligent fashion, that battle might have been different.
“Here’s an interesting idea for you: Grant, Sherman and co. were better than Lee not because they were outright more adapted to combat, but because they worked their way up the ranks.”
Lee did work his way up through the ranks. He was a captain in the Mexican War. After the failure of his West Virginian campaign, he served as a staff officer. He did not assume command of the Army of Northern Virginia until 1862, and then only because Joe Johnston was wounded.
And, frankly, I do not see how anyone can accuse Lee of not knowing how to handle his forces. Read about the Battle of Chancellorsville sometime.
mintygreen: “On the other hand, Southern generalship is vastly overrated. When you’re fighting a defensive war, it’s not all that hard to fight to a draw, which is essentially what the South did again and again in the first couple years. But if you’re going to win a war against a foe with superior manpower and resources, you’ve got to do more than just hold your own in trading shots, and there’s scant evidence that the Confederates were all that good at going on the offense.”
The decision to fight a defensive war was a political decision. The Southern leadership wanted to secede from the Union, not conquer Yankee territory. During the West Virginia campaign in 1861, Lee (and this campaign, admittedly, was one of his worst failures) refused to march through Union territory because, as Pratt said, “he had high-minded ideas in those days about entering enemy territory.” Furthermore, the defensive strategy would have succeeded had Davis and the other secessionists persuaded Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland to come over to the Southern’s side. Read the early chapters of Pratt’s “Ordeal by Fire.” He outlines how Lincoln persuaded those states to stay, more or less, on the Northern side. Had Davis had more political savvy he might have persuaded some of the border states to join the Confederacy. I think that had Maryland and Kentucky alone, hell, maybe Kentucky alone, come over the South, the Confederates would have won. They would have had the perfect defense along an Ohio River line.
Johnathon Chance: I would argue that a mark of a superior general is the ability to detect superior talent in subordinates and allow them to use it.