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US Civil War Generals
Ask questions here about famous US Civil War generals, on both the Union and Confederate side.
750 Questions
How did former General George B McClellan die?
Former general and governor George B. McCllean died of a heart attack on October 29th, 1885 at the age of 58 at his home Maywood in West Orange, New Jersey. As an aside he also had been the governor of New Jersey later in life.
When was William Tecumseh Sherman a US President?
He never was.
When the idea was suggested, he declared "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve."
What caused the attempted raid on Washington DC by Confederate General Jubal Early to end?
Historians have suggested that General Early was delayed in reaching Washington on his attack through the Shenandoah Valley, having fought at Maryland Heights before resting his troops from July 4 to July 6, 1864. This allowed veteran reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac (VI Corps) to reach the outskirts of the city before the Battles of Monocacy (July 9) and Fort Stevens (July 11), the latter of which was directly observed by President Abraham Lincoln. Facing at least a numerically stronger Union army, and having no chance at reinforcement, Early withdrew to Virginia.
Both US President Lincoln and General in Chief Henry Wager Halleck ordered and expected General Rosencrans to advance against the army of Braxton Bragg. Rosencrans explained to Washington DC that by holding his ground, he prevented more Southern troops to aid Vicksburg. He may have been correct.
When did Confederate General Armistead Lindsay Long graduate from West Point?
Famous cavalry commander Confederate General James Ewell Stuart graduated from West Point in 1854. He ranked 13th among his graduating class of 46 cadets. Stuart was a key figure in the battles in Virginia. He also had served under Robert E. Lee when Lee captured John Brown in 1859. Stuart saw extensive service in the Army of Northern Virginia. Stuart was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.
Sadly, the most remembered act of General Nathan B. Forest was the capture of Fort Pillow. This was in April of 1864. There he and his men slaughtered 229 Black Union soldiers who were attempting to surrender. Somehow, he escaped prosecution as a war criminal after the war. It's a shame that for historical purposes his other war efforts are recorded here. These are noted by bullet points:
1. At Fort Donelson he captured a Union artillery battery;
2. He escaped from the US Grant siege on that same fort;
3. He took command at Nashville and prevented at that time a Union capture of the city;
4. In July of 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general;
5. He severed Union supply lines and bought more time for Vicksburg;
6. He caused the surrender of 1,700 Union troops in May of 1863;
7. He was promoted to major general in December of 1863;
8. He was given his own command of cavalry and with 3,000 troops managed to capture Union war supplies;
9. Despite the commands of President Lincoln, Forest refused to treat Black Union soldiers as soldiers;
10. Somehow he was pardoned for war crimes by the US Congress;
11. He disrupted General Sherman's Southern campaign and defeated a Union army of 8,500 troops with his 3,500 cavalry force and captured huge Union supplies; and
12. Captured a Union gunboat in 1864 and continued successful raids on Union supplies until the end of the war.
What was the next objective of Union General Halleck after the capture of Corinth Mississippi?
Union General Henry Halleck's immediate objective was to keep troops guarding the Memphis-Charleston railway. Also, to clean up Souther guerrilla activities in Northern Mississippi and Western Tennessee.He believed that trying to follow Confederate General Beauregard into the swamps of Mississippi would be a bad idea. Also, he believed the Beauregard's troops had nowhere to go being locked into an area with no railway lines or waterways.
Why was Winfield Scott not a particular asset to the Union's US Civil War effort?
Quite simply Scott at 75 when the Civil War began was to old and in such poor health that he was unable to take to the field. To his credit, the often derided Anaconda Plan was his creation and was used by the Union. He retired in 1861 and died on 29 May 1866 at 79 years of age. Some believe that because he was a Virginian his sentiment lay with the South, however he was strongly anti-slavery.
At the beginning of the US Civil War, Lincoln relied on Scott's opinions but did not always follow through on them.
Also, at one point US President Lincoln traveled to West Point to ask General Scott his opinion of the Union war effort.
Scott was unappreciated. This was seen as the Union installed almost to a "T" his anaconda plan.
What was the relationship between Union General George B McClellan and his chief of staff in 1862?
Union General George B. McClellan had a loyal staff of Union army generals. McClellan's chief of staff was his father in law.
Answer I think because he lost to many men in the war, and didn't act fast enough. so, he lost many good advantages Answer Yes. He was slow to act. He took months to move his troops against the Confederate forces around Washington. He was great at training his troops. Answer McClellan was promoted to high command too soon. He had only commanded the Department of the Ohio and a relatively minor campaign in West Virginia when he was called up to command the entire Eastern department and soon after all of the United States forces. He was a great trainer and builder of Armies, he was great at winning the support and loyalty of the men under his command, he was good at logistics and relatively good at tactics and strategy. McClellans problems were in a lack of confidence in the face of his enemy and in being unable to deal with his superiors in Washington. More time in a minor theatre would have allowed him to iron out his flaws to a degree that would have allowed him to be more effective but because of his ego, his ambition, the northern press and Lincoln desire to find someone who wins at the earliest possible moment meant that he was never going to get that time to improve.
For the most part the first answer has currency, except for one major detail. That one concerns the loss of Union soldiers. Under Grant, with Lincoln's approval, US Civil War casualties on both sides were due to the strategies and tactics of total war. Neither men wanted extra bloodshed, however that was the price of victory. That price almost had Lincoln to not be the Republican candidate in 1864. In addition, Burnsides disaster at Fredericksburg where charges were led against fortified Confederate positions cannot be overlooked.
It might be an overstatement that George B. McClellan lost too many men. Despite McClellan's faults, it should be remembered that at times, US President Lincoln became obsessed with capturing Richmond. That cost the North many wasted lives and despite its location, so near to Washington DC, Richmond could have been captured based on the short distance it was from Washington DC along with the number of Union troops that could have been concentrated into an overpowering military force. It can be said that Lincoln gave McClellan more than enough chances. It can also be said that when subordinates fail, the buck stops at the top. The top was Lincoln. He had a habit of choosing the wrong Union generals much too often. As an aside, Lincoln made the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac a revolving door.
What was General George B McClellan's plan on the conduct of the US Civil War?
General George B. McClellan had his own plans for the conduct of the US Civil War. His plan centered around three points. These were the legal and military consequences of secession, the status of slavery, and the division of power between the presidency and a proposed "Commander in Chief of the Army.McClellan did not favor slavery, however, the fact that a substantial part of the US was in outright rebellion against the Federal government meant that there was a just cause that had to be addressed. If such was the case, then the issue of slavery was not part of a reconciliation between the North and the South.
And, in order to prosecute the war in a logical and humane manner, the president only needed to be concerned with "Northern" issues.
The newly appointed "Commander of the Army" would conduct the war in such a manner as to bring each side to the bargaining table.
Why did the North fight the Civil War?
There were two big reasons why the North fought in the Civil War. One was because they wanted to unite the country back together, because the South had formed a new country called the Confederate States of America.
The second reason was to end slavery, which was a major issue during that time and the largest cause for the beginning of the Civil War...
Who was the commanding Confederate cavalry general of the South?
For the majority of the Civil War, John Mosby was the General that led the Southern Cavalry. He was known for his speed and the ability to disappear.
Confederate Major General Braxton Bragg's army was recuperating in Tupelo, Mississippi and he was having problems keeping his men from not reenlisting and with deserters. Bragg used a series of stringent policies to keep his army in tact. He used threats to those soldiers who failed to reenlist and sent out search parties for deserters.Food supplies were a problem along with railway transportation. Telegraph communications with Richmond reached such a terrible status that he resorted to the regular mail to keep Richmond informed of his status. Gradually all these problems were resolved. Historians credit Bragg's organizational skills and efficiency to have his army ready to take the field.
How large were Union General Sherman's troops as he began his drive to Atlanta in May of 1864?
Union General had an army of 100,000 troops on May 7, 1864 as he prepared for his drive to capture Atlanta, Georgia.
After Confederate General Robert E. Lee's retreat from Sharpsburg and the Battle of Antietam, Lee's extended position gave Union General George B. McClellan the opportunity to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia that he did not take. US President Lincoln along with General Halleck wanted McClellan to have a plan to cross the Potomac River while still keeping Washington DC protected. That however, was not the worst of the situation.As for McClellan, his position, privately, was that his enemies in Lincoln's cabinet should be removed. He added Halleck to the list of his enemies and McClellan believed that he should be appointed general in chief.
Tactically, the deadliest battle in the history of the United States, was a draw, however, Lee had no choice but to withdraw to the safety of Virginia. As far as McClellan was concerned he had "saved" the Union.
Not at all was this the opinion of Lincoln, who was astounded that McClellan had failed to pursue Lee, and allow the Army of Northern Virginia to escape back to Virginia. And, Lee's army would live to fight another day.
As an aside, the failure of a victorious army to pursue was commonplace throughout the war.
While McClellan rested his troops after which was indeed a horrific battle, Confederate JEB Stuart's cavalry forces conducted raids in Maryland and Pennsylvania, virtually unopposed. While it was true that these raids were not of significant importance, it only added fuel to the fire of Lincoln. It was embarrassing that these raids were not stopped at once.
McClellan's dismissal was based on more than Antietam, however. There was a fundamental difference between Lincoln and McClellan on the conduct of the war in general.
With fairness to each man, the differences developed as events unfolded. It should be remembered that both Lincoln and Confederate President Davis expected the "rebellion" to be short lived and total loss of 600,000 plus men in 4 years was not expected. Not only was it unexpected, it would not have been tolerated if the combatants had a crystal ball. Faced with the true extent of the destruction of life and along with it, the reduction of what was considered a part of the Union ( the South ) reasonable leaders would have found another way to salvage a situation that would have substantially weakened the United States,
McClellan was not simply a military man and Lincoln was not simply a political leader. With that said, the entire reason for McClellan's dismissal was also based on his view that the war should not cause any undue harm to the civilian population of the South. He wanted to avoid battles that caused huge losses and would embitter each side against one another.
McClellan believed that a war of strategy and out maneuvering the enemy would lead to the South believing it could not win and sue for peace.
McClellan, in retrospect, to many historians believed that the war conducted by the British in the Revolution, which was not a blood & guts one, could be successful if done with the genius of a McClellan.
The issuance of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamationin the wake of Antietam, as example, was further evidence to McClellan that Lincoln ( as the South thought all along ) was not just waging a war to preserve the Union, but for the abolition of slavery and tearing apart the fabric of Southern society.
Still, Lincoln, did not yet replace McClellan. A cynical view would be that until the assurance that the off- year Congressional elections and vital races for State Governor would favor Republicans, did Lincoln fire McClellan.
Historians differ on this.
Who had the anaconda strategy?
The Union or the US side had the Anaconda Plan. It was devised by the aged General In Chief, Winfield Scott. It was a plan to blockade the Southern coast and capture ports along the Mississippi River in order to choke off Confederate supply lines from Europe as well as from the western reaches of the Confederacy.
What US Civil War situation was agreed upon by both the North and the South?
When Union General in Chief Halleck was in Washington DC, he and US President Lincoln agreed that based on previous experiences, the Union army should steer clear of Richmond because of its vast network of entrenchments. Ironically, Confederate General Robert E. Lee felt the same way.For Lee, Richmond's dependence on food from the Shenandoah Valley, was reason enough not to have Richmond under a Union siege at that time.
Now the Union high command failed to understand this as a weakness. Undoubtedly Lincoln and Halleck failed to understand that a farmland nation would have difficulty in supplying Richmond or the Army of Northern Virginia when it was two-fold dependent on both a railway and a canal to supply Richmond and/or a Southern army on the move.
What happened to JEB Stuart's children?
If you know much about Mr. Flamboyance (JEB), his second child, little Flora, died in 1863. She was sick for nearly three weeks, but JEB only got word of her being sick about two weeks into the sickness. The Stuarts' first child JEB jr.(Jimmy) lived on. When JEB died (his father) JEB Jr. was willed his father's french saber, and his golden spurs in which JEB Sr. treasured. They also had a third child; Virginia Pelham Stuart. Virginia for the state, Pelham for his favorite artillery major who had just died, and you know the rest. Virginia was very young when her father died. Today, there are living descendants of JEB and Mrs. Flora Stuart.
None. Jeb Stuart was at the Battle of Gettysburg with his cavalry getting whipped by a much smaller force led by General Custer. Stewart was attacking from the north while Pickett's division attacked from the south. The two forces never joined in the middle as Lee had planned.
Two goals of the anaconda plan?
1. Establish a blockade of Northern ships around the Southern State's coastline; and
2. Prevent the South from exporting cotton and receiving supplies.
The third part of General Winfield Scott's plan was to take control of the Mississippi River. This would enhance the Union's use of this major waterway by having it act as a supply route and transportation of troops vis the river instead of railways and roads. Large cargo loads would be made possible via the river.
What was the Confederate plan of attack at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862?
General Albert S. Johnson led the Confederate Army of the Mississippi. His plan of a surprise attack seemed to be working fine as the Federals were hastily forced into a retreat. Johnston's original plan of attack was to assemble his army in a single battle line with one corps held back as a reserve. His experienced General PT Beauregard offered to Johnston a different formation of attack which Johnston accepted. This involved forming multiple lines of attack. On its surface, there was nothing wrong with Beauregard's plan. The problem that did arise was due to this "last minute" change of plans. The result was that officers were given command over units that they were unfamiliar with. The advance of the lines of attack were not properly coordinated which hampered the effectiveness of the attack.
