US Civil War Generals

ANSWER

During the last stage of the Battle of Cedar Creek, George Armstrong Custer led his 3rd Us cavalry division charging against the flank of the retreating Early's Army, litterally cutting them into two parts, thus transforming the retreat in a route, which ended only 50 Kilometers far away at New market.

The battle signed the end for good of the Confederate's offensive capability in the Shenandoah Valley, signing a decisive weakening of the whole Confederate Eastern Front as well. Even though Custer's performance during the battle was undoubtedly worthy of praise, saying that he "changed the Civil War" seems excessive, indeed.

The motivations were:

Resupply his army by living on the country.

By means of the strategic intimidation against Washington, attract the Army of the Potomac to give battle from an unfavourable position inflicting them a decisive defeat, thus "convincing " Great Britain to acknowledge the Confederacy as an independent State and intervene in the conflict.

General George B. McClellan was an excellent commander when it came to building and properly organizing troops. He displayed that when US President Lincoln summoned him to Washington DC in the Summer of 1861. McClellan was also a great military strategist. He made superb operational and battle strategies. His problems were over estimating the size of armies of the South he had to face and always asking for more troops. He mistakenly relied all too often on Allan Pinkerton to gage for him the troop strength of the Confederates. He was reluctant to march into battle unless he believed he had an overwhelming advantage. Additionally, he and US President Lincoln differed on the way to conduct the war. This eventually led to his battlefield career. He was dismissed from commanding the Army of the Potomac in November of 862 and was transferred to Trenton, NJ.

Twenty Nine

George McClellan, he was later fired for slow reaction time, hired back by Lincoln, then fired again for not doing anything when he had a chance to crush the Confederacy. And after he was fired I believe it was George Meade.

George A. Anderson was the commander of the last battle at Fort Mcallister, but Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman were the best and most well known commanders for the union.

J.E.B. Stuart was shot by Shedrick Pealer of the 1st NY Dragoons. The distance involved could have only happened with a Spencer carbine and not a revolver. Pealer was a marksmen and had his gun resting on a post when he shot at Stuart. John Huff, 5th Mich. who claims to have shot him, had a hand gun and was moving at the time. My info comes from a letter by Rev. James R. Bowen,

After marking off the distance and firing the 2 guns that Pealer and Huff had, a 4 foot target was hit 3 out of 5 times by the Spencer, and Huff's gun missed the target all 5 times!!!!!!.........Tom

The commanders of these two ironclads were actually lieutenant's. Lieutenant John Worden, US Navy, commanded the Monitor. The Confederate Merrimack was a captured and refurbished Union ship that was christened the CSS Virginia. She was commanded by Lieutenant Catesby Jones. Lieutenant Jones had just taken command of the Merrimack after the wounding of his commander, Commodore Franklin Buchanan on March 8, 1862.

Major General Sherman's March to the Sea was conducted to show the South how futile their continued fighting was, by demonstrating that the Union could march an army through the heartland of the Confederacy, destroying everything in sight by conducting total war.

Confederate General P.T. Beauregard graduated from West Point in 1838. Of the 45 cadets that graduated that year, Beauregard ranked second in his class. Beauregard is most remembered as the Confederate general that followed the orders of Jefferson Davis in the shelling of Fort Sumter in April of 1861.

Lincoln wanted enough troops to remain near Washington DC to defend it from Confederate attack.

McClellan had taken almost all of the Army of the Potomac into Virginia, and as shown later in the war, a determined Southern attack could force a large contingent to hurriedly return to Washington to protect the capital. The capital cities of Richmond and Washington are only about 100 miles apart.

Attrition.

He knew the Confederates were running out of manpower. So he simply ended prisoner exchange, and then just battered away at Lee's lines till they were too thin to hold.

It meant terrible casualties on both sides, and truly appalling conditions in the overcrowded prison camps.

But it brought victory.

By employing a process of victory at any cost, he used his advantages of manpower, industrial strength and a secure blockade to apply total war and scorched earth to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to the tables at Appomatox for their surrender.

US President Lincoln had to relieve General George B. McClellan after the Battle of Antietam because he failed to pursue the retreating enemy and McClellan could not be trusted based on his overall battle actions since 1861 and his political differences with Lincoln.

Lincoln was as fair to McClellan as possible. He did not even wait until the midterm elections to let the general understand he would be replaced.

On the days following General Lee's surrender to General US Grant at Appomattox, Lee had his soldiers sign parole papers as per the agreement he had with General Grant. The initial group of his soldiers who first signed their parole agreements numbered approximately 8,000. In the next few days Confederate soldiers arriving late from Petersburg and the surrounding areas amounted to approximately 28,000 troops.

Confederate General George Edward Pickett graduated from West Point in 1846. He ranked 59th in a class of fifty nine. Pickett is most remembered for his role in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was unfairly criticized for his repeated assaults on fortified Union positions during that battle.

General Fremont's issues during the US Civil War were noteworthy in several respects. As the commander of the Union's Department of the West, he made the error of declaring that all slaves in Missouri were to be freed. This was not President Lincoln's policy at that time and Fremont's orders were reversed. Fremont reemerged in 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. There he failed to halt the offensive activities of Stonewall Jackson.

Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith graduated from West Point in 1845. Smith was ranked 25th in a graduating class of cadets numbering 41. Smith was instrumental in Confederate battles in the Western Theater. He and General Braxton Bragg led a raid into Kentucky in 1862. Kirby served in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky.

General J.E.B. Stuart was a Cavalry Commander for the Confederacy. He was well known for his skilled reconnaissance and support. He contributed heavily to many Southern Victories, but was also was partly responsible for Lee's defeat at Gettysburg when Stuart was ambushed by Major General Alfred Pleasonton. Stuart was delayed from relaying Union Movements to Lee.

Jeb Stuart's father was named Archibald Stuart. He was a politician and a attorney, he represented his home, Patrick Country, in the Virginia General Assembly, and had fought in the War of 1812.

Braxton Bragg was a general in the Confederate States Army.

ANSWER

Because he loved to be photographed taking the same poses as those taken by Napoleon in his portraits and because, after his victorious campaign of Western Virginia he addressed to his Army a "Napoleonic proclamation"

McClellan was a very poor battlefield commander. If the ultimate test of a general's quality is how well he performs in battle, McClellan was a failure. McClellan always outnumbered his opponent, but talked himself into believing HE was outnumbered two to one. And he NEVER, EVER got all the men he had on hand into the fight. At Antietam, he had Lee outnumbered better than five to two, but failed to get two of his entire Corps into position to fire a single shot. The Confederates had the Potomac at their backs, and it was in flood stage after recent heavy rains. The Rebels barely held on by their fingernails. Yet the next day, Lee remained on the field, daring McClellan to attack again. He had the measure of his foe, and knew McClellan probably would not. Even such a military amateur as Lincoln understood what a colossal blunder this was, on McClellan's part at Antietam. Lincoln said "He had them in the palm of his hand, and all he had to do was close his hand on them". If McClellan had closed his hand on Lee, the war probably would have ended very soon after, in the fall of 1862.

What McClellan was good at was training an army. He had great organizational skills. But having taken a rabble and turned it into an army, he was not the man to get the most out of it.

because the North wanted the south to stop slavery and the south did not so they declared war.

ANSWER

The Northerner People fought to restore the Union and abolish the slavery.

The Southerner people fought for the Southern Independence, the Rights of the States and to preserve the "Peculiar Institution"

That would be General William T Sherman. He took troops across the South, attempting to cut it in half. On the way, they burned homes, crops and buildings. Trains, telegraph wires and bridges were destroyed to hinder the Confederacy's infrastructure.