During the early months of the war, Lincoln struggled to get the generals to do what he wanted. Part of the reason why this happened was because Lincoln only gave gentle suggestions rather than firm orders, since he believed that his own knowledge was limited.
But the lack of victories in the west and Macllelan’s glacial movements (And disrespectful dismissal of the President) cause him to consider leading the Union armies himself. He even read a couple books about the subject, but he realized that such an idea was unrealistic.
Source: Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald.
John_Oakman on
The problem goes way beyond the generals as the rapid expansion of the armies (on both sides) from a population without a history of militarism meant that most of the officers and NCOs are ill equipped to handle complex orders. That’s the reason why the first few years looked like drunken slugfest more than anything else.
GandalfTheJaded on
“If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”
SasquatchMcKraken on
The fact of the matter is, at the beginning of the war Lincoln had an officer corps which (at the upper levels) didn’t really have their hearts in it. He had to tread carefully with these [redacted]s at first, and he personally was never as radical as the most Radical Republicans. He also saw how important it was to keep the border states onside if the war was going end as soon as possible.
Frankly a lot of these early commanders were straight up Democrats [of the era], or at the very least “the Union as it was” dipshits who didn’t know (or pretended not to know) what time it was. George McClellan in the East and Don Carlos Buell in the West were the last people you’d want in command yet there they were. It’s no accident McClellan would be Lincoln’s opponent in 1864. Wildly racist even by 1860s standards with deep sympathies for the South, all his best friends in West Point joined the Confederacy. Viscerally opposed to going anywhere near the institution of slavery. Etc.
Buell was even worse, married into a slaveholding family, very pro-Southern personally who in his private letters constantly praised Southern soldiery while denigrating (his own) Northern troops. “Kid gloves” doesn’t *begin* to describe his Rules of Engagement he placed on his army. When he was finally relieved of command he became even more open about his sympathy for the Southern cause and distaste for interfering with slavery.Â
It’s always painted as a skill issue but the Southern armies were just as fresh and untrained, and they had no navy to speak of most of the Navy stayed loyal. But they were committed and saw it as a real war in a way that early Union leadership wasn’t, largely for ideological reasons.Â
DirectDisplay4460 on
There is the extremely steep trail to the high ground at Harper’s ferry. It’s a really cool place to go to (free). for those of you who don’t know. It’s on the border of Virginia West Virginia and Maryland. Anyway you start climbing up this trail, and there’s a sign that marks where Lincoln turned around. He understood that if you were to get trapped on that hill, it would be a strategic boondoggle.
It’s pretty funny when you’re hiking it yourself.
SPECTREagent700 on
It was a good idea to not do that. I can’t really think of any modern examples of a political leader taking personal command of his armies and it working out. Czar Nicholas II and Hitler being two examples where it ended up being particularly disastrous.
Impressive-Panda527 on
60 years later, Tsar Nicholas II: I’ve got a great idea!
TurretLimitHenry on
Putin in 2022
ThroawayJimilyJones on
And he shouldn’t have.
Yes, american general were terrible, because…well most of them had no experience and started in a total fog. Add the stress, the fact any mistake litteraly cost live, and the general inpredictibility of a war and they end up behaving like a bunch of idiot.
Still, at this point they had a list some knowledge and experience. Lincoln had none. He would probably have done every worse *cough* Nicholas 2.
9 Comments
During the early months of the war, Lincoln struggled to get the generals to do what he wanted. Part of the reason why this happened was because Lincoln only gave gentle suggestions rather than firm orders, since he believed that his own knowledge was limited.
But the lack of victories in the west and Macllelan’s glacial movements (And disrespectful dismissal of the President) cause him to consider leading the Union armies himself. He even read a couple books about the subject, but he realized that such an idea was unrealistic.
Source: Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald.
The problem goes way beyond the generals as the rapid expansion of the armies (on both sides) from a population without a history of militarism meant that most of the officers and NCOs are ill equipped to handle complex orders. That’s the reason why the first few years looked like drunken slugfest more than anything else.
“If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”
The fact of the matter is, at the beginning of the war Lincoln had an officer corps which (at the upper levels) didn’t really have their hearts in it. He had to tread carefully with these [redacted]s at first, and he personally was never as radical as the most Radical Republicans. He also saw how important it was to keep the border states onside if the war was going end as soon as possible.
Frankly a lot of these early commanders were straight up Democrats [of the era], or at the very least “the Union as it was” dipshits who didn’t know (or pretended not to know) what time it was. George McClellan in the East and Don Carlos Buell in the West were the last people you’d want in command yet there they were. It’s no accident McClellan would be Lincoln’s opponent in 1864. Wildly racist even by 1860s standards with deep sympathies for the South, all his best friends in West Point joined the Confederacy. Viscerally opposed to going anywhere near the institution of slavery. Etc.
Buell was even worse, married into a slaveholding family, very pro-Southern personally who in his private letters constantly praised Southern soldiery while denigrating (his own) Northern troops. “Kid gloves” doesn’t *begin* to describe his Rules of Engagement he placed on his army. When he was finally relieved of command he became even more open about his sympathy for the Southern cause and distaste for interfering with slavery.Â
It’s always painted as a skill issue but the Southern armies were just as fresh and untrained, and they had no navy to speak of most of the Navy stayed loyal. But they were committed and saw it as a real war in a way that early Union leadership wasn’t, largely for ideological reasons.Â
There is the extremely steep trail to the high ground at Harper’s ferry. It’s a really cool place to go to (free). for those of you who don’t know. It’s on the border of Virginia West Virginia and Maryland. Anyway you start climbing up this trail, and there’s a sign that marks where Lincoln turned around. He understood that if you were to get trapped on that hill, it would be a strategic boondoggle.
It’s pretty funny when you’re hiking it yourself.
It was a good idea to not do that. I can’t really think of any modern examples of a political leader taking personal command of his armies and it working out. Czar Nicholas II and Hitler being two examples where it ended up being particularly disastrous.
60 years later, Tsar Nicholas II: I’ve got a great idea!
Putin in 2022
And he shouldn’t have.
Yes, american general were terrible, because…well most of them had no experience and started in a total fog. Add the stress, the fact any mistake litteraly cost live, and the general inpredictibility of a war and they end up behaving like a bunch of idiot.
Still, at this point they had a list some knowledge and experience. Lincoln had none. He would probably have done every worse *cough* Nicholas 2.