It seems that many a general was killed during the Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, John Sedgwick, and a lot of others.
In the “old days,” even kings were not exempt from shedding blood: Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings.
Nowadays, by contrast, it seems as though generals and heads of state never get killed in battle (in case anyone is wondering, I would prefer that no one was killed). If I am wrong, please say so. But if I am right, I would like to know both when war started getting safer for the folks at the top, and what caused this change.
I’m not sure about when, but what caused this change is quite probably technology. Consider that in the recent conflict in Iraq, the command staff were in relatively safe areas removed from the conflict by some distance. General Tommy Franks, for example, pretty much stayed at Central Command in Qatar. Advancements in communications technology (in particular) allow the generals to direct the combat from a sophisticated command center removed from the battlefield. To use your Civil War example, the generals had be close to battle to give commands and get information on enemy troop movements.
Aw, nuts. I didn’t realize this was general questions. Sorry.
Smarter generals
Its simple really, in order to give the right commands to your units you need to know where your enemy is and where your own units are. Untill very recently the only way to know anything about a battle was to be present on the battlefield. With the invention of radio and other communication devices it first became possible to command battles away from the field and then it became to your advantage to be at some distant communications center to get a better picture of the whole battle.
[Pink Floyd]“Forward!” he cried from the rear, and the front rank died.[/Pink Floyd]
Well actually. Generals used to want to be right up there with their men. To inspire them. Bobby Lee was very good at that. But the military has changed. Most General officers wouldn’t have diddly to do with the enlisted ranks now.
I wouldn’t be suprised if some Iraqi Generals were killed in the last war.
It’s technology and to a certain degree, changing roles. Back in the day, the generals managed the battle as best they could, but since control and communications were so primitive, the battles were generally more decided by pre-battle planning instead of on-the-fly generalship. Once battle was joined, the generals’ role was to be visible and rally the troops by being fearless, etc… That’s why the kings and famous generals of the past wore easily recognizeable armor and had standards, etc… Nowadays, the generals have much more effective command and control technologies and structures, so they’re much better able to influence the battle as it goes on than they could in the past.
Also, battles in the past were on a MUCH smaller scale. The entire Battle of Gettysburg was fought by 29 divisions and 176000 men in a 25 square mile area- looks like about 6 x 4 miles on the map. By comparison, a WWII US division’s typical sector of responsibility was about 5 miles wide. Generals these days can’t control the battle and also lead from the front as effectively due to sheer distances.
Didn’t Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. get killed on the beach on D-Dad (or am I thinking of someone else)?
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Didn’t Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. get killed on the beach on D-Dad (or am I thinking of someone else)?
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General Roosevelt was the highest ranking officer to land on the beach on D-Day (and was half of the only father-son pair to do so that day) but he was not killed that day. He died of a heart attack a few weeks later.
Maybe you’re thinking of Lt General Leslie McNair, who was the highest ranking American officer killed in the war. He also died a few weeks after D-Day. Ironically, he was killed by “friendly fire” - an American bombing attack that missed its intended target.
The highest ranking American officer directly killed by enemy fire was Major General Maurice Rose, who was shot by a German soldier in 1945.
I found one site that said 136 German Generals were killed during WWII. However it says 84 of them were executed by the Nazis. Of the remaining 52, most were killed by allied bombing missions.
I think there is a misconception floating around here that there is one rank called “General” when in fact there are several different ranks of generals.
In the US they range from Brigadier General (1 star) to general of the Army (5 star). The higher ranking generals are a relatively recent invention, The rank of Lieutenent General, for example, was created for U.S. Grant when he took command of all the US Armies at the end of the Civil War.
Even today, you could still find a Brig. General on a battlefield, but part of the answer is that today there are just more higher ranking generals, the new ranks having been added to the top of the command structure.
Even in the US Civil War, the highest generals did not ride along near the front. Robert E. Lee led his Army from a command post a mile or more from the front; ** Reeder’s ** assertion is not really accurate at all. In the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, Lee attempted to lead a countercharge himself, but his own men protested and returned him to the rear; so his time at the front was brief. Jackson was killed by his own men from behind, so it’s a bit disengenous to say he was killed in battle at the front.
Another factor is the rise of the professional army.
The low morale and inexperience of a conscripted soldier requires greater supervision by superior officers.
A volunteer in a professional standing army has the training and discipline to act more indepently, and therefore the officers can stay further away from the front.
What about Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr, who died on the Pacific front?
I have been told that as a rule-of-thumb, the higher the rank, the higher the casualty rate. I don’t know of any cites to back this up. In recent conflicts, the allied casualty rate has been too low to check this out. I don’t know what the figures for the Falklands war might be, but I suspect that they would be in line with the state rule.
Certainly, at the battle of Waterloo, every one of (or was it all except one) of Wellington’s immediate subordinates became a casualty.
There were plenty of high-ranking casualties in WWII (especially axis).
Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. was a Lieutenant General in command of all ground troops on Okinawa when he was killed by Japanese artillery fire.
Side note: Buckner’s father happened to be the guy who guaranteed U.S. Grant’s hotel bills when Grant resigned from the Army prior to the Civil War. There was some bad blood between the two when Grant demanded “unconditional surrender” of Buckner and his superiors at Fort Donelson. He was exchanged, served the rest of the Civil War without being severely wounded, as best I can tell, and was the last surviving Confederate Lieutenant General of the Civil War when he died in 1914.
It’s also an answer to a question in The Hardest Damned Military History Trivia Quiz Ever, which I’ve been working on for you guys for the past two years. Should be complete soon.
Minor nit-picks…
Jackson technically died of pneumonia.
And the rank of “Lieutenant General” predates Grant’s appointment. Washington was the United States’ first one, and we took our rank structure largely from the Brits…
I can think of a few possible explanations. The simplest was that the website I read had their facts wrong. Or maybe they were talking about the European theatre and I didn’t notice. Or maybe they didn’t consider artillery fire a direct form of killing. General Rose was shot by a soldier who saw him and knew he was killing a general officer. (The soldier was a tank crewman who captured the General, with his aide and driver, while he was visiting a frontline unit. General Rose surrendered but the German mistakenly thought he was reaching for his sidearm and shot him.)
Stephen Ambrose, in his book on D-Day, mentions that one US general was killed during the initial fighting there. It’s a big, big book and I can’t find the reference by leafing through it, but I remember it because Ambrose emphasized that he was the only general to die.
Teddy Roosevelt Jr. had already had a heart attack before D-Day, even though he was one of the first to land. He used a cane to help him walk throughout the fighting.