ECW Digital Shorts – Supplies are the Great Question
At a gathering of Civil War historians I once overheard the statement: “Amateurs study tactics, pros study logistics.” Many would rightfully disagree, but it is certain that many eschew digging into the tedious logistical quagmire in preference to the more compelling battle narratives. In another of the first batch of new Emerging Civil War Digital Shorts, Britt McCarley dives in to Sherman’s issue of supplies during the Atlanta Campaign, a prelude of what would be to come during Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Read more at https://www.amazon.com/Supplies-are-Great-Question-Logistics-ebook/dp/B01M9D7YLW/
One of the most compelling things about Dave Powell’s recently concluded ECW series on Longstreet going west was Powell’s focus on the general’s logistical problems in the defense of Confederate positions outside Chattanooga and Longstreet’s campaign against Knoxville.
Ulysses Grant’s experience as a quartermaster in the antebellum Army served him well in the Civil War. During his Overland campaign and the siege of Petersburg, Grant repeatedly attempted to lure the Army of Northern Virginia out of its entrenchments by trying to threaten the R.E. Lee’s logistics. Lee, through brilliant maneuvering and a bit of luck, thwarted Grant until April 1865. Grant’s eventual success in cutting off Lee’s logistics resulted in the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and the demise of the Confederacy.
That’s a great observation about Grant and the Overland Campaign. Knowing the appreciation he had for logistics makes his Vicksburg overland campaign all the more impressive, I think. He could have easily been crippled by a fear of a shaky logistical network once he crossed the river, but instead, he had the capacity to think outside his former profession’s box.