Question of the Week: Who was the most capable commander who didn’t survive 1861?
Which of the following military leaders who died in the war’s first year do you think was most capable and why? – Albert S. Johnston, Nathaniel Lyon, Barnard Bee, Edward D. Baker
Albert Sidney Johnston, without a doubt.
Albert Sidney Johnson but he died in April of 1862.
Is the question restricted to just the four names mentioned in the question, or for any commanders who died in 1861?
I’m going to chose a name not listed – Elmer Ellsworth. Due to his connections with the Lincoln Administration, I believe he would have risen up the ranks. He never got a chance to fight, so we can’t really judge how he would have done under fire. I’m picking him based off potential more than anything else.
Johnston, because of the respect he engendered in the ranks, and because of the mercurial Davis’ trust in him.
Without a doubt, Nathaniel Lyon. The question posed does not ask how each man *might* have developed as the war progressed; it asks for an evaluation of capability in 1861. By that measure, Lyon wins hands down. None of the other three exhibited a tenth as much capacity for effective action in 1861 as Lyon, who repeatedly took decisive action against secessionist military and political personnel in Missouri. He was a – perhaps the – key figure in the retention of that state for the Union. Lyon raised and organized troops, outmaneuvered secessionist state guards, capturing many, and appears to have fought effectively against heavy odds at Wilson’s Creek until his death. Even then, the battle checked the movement of the Confederate forces.
Lyon was an aggressive, brave hands-on commander with a get-things-done attitude, for sure. But on the other hand, he tended to overwork himself, which may have clouded his judgement. His attack at Wilson’s Creek was ill advised and his attack plan even more so. He failed and in the process lost his life.
Cleburne, Sedgwick, or perhaps Phillip Kearny and Grant and Sherman probably would have said McPherson
For those that say Albert Sidney Johnston, you may not want to read Timothy Smith’s Iron Dice in Battle, https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Dice-Battle-Albert-Johnston/dp/0807180483/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1E9Z0VKNCMQJB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3NggDlHpheEEOXXA8SAMTamV7lKPvgjFeTmUx_k7aCT6v33ZQSArLrRWy_n7OUETyOEJ9eu83ZEu5DVn87Ur23qp8rRCEtdP6kDYt-ZEd6QmdwsHwAxei_qjSasxwCc1.ThgfmkDF1hqBJ6_6IeGqS-7i8JrYInS81S3so1RmgSg&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+iron+dice+of+battle&qid=1762791375&sprefix=the+iron+dice%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1
A.S. Johnston- if he had not died at Shiloh, he would have conducted the war in the Western Theater without the toxic presence of Braxton Bragg, plus he would have known the strategic importance of controlling the Mississippi River at all costs.
I’m going to say Charles P. Stone. While he survived Ball’s Bluff, his career didn’t. He became a sacrificial lamb to the Joint Committee because of Sen. Edward Baker’s death, although Baker was at fault.
My pick would be Commander James H. Ward. The Union Navy was hardly wanting for capable naval officers throughout the war, but one can only wonder what Ward, as one of its most promising officers, would have achieved had he not died so early in the war.
Sticking with 1861, I would throw Confederate Brig. Gen. Robert Garnett’s name in the mix, killed on July 13, 1861 at Corrick’s Ford. Acting briefly as Lee’s adjutant at the start of the war, he was considered one of the finest officers in the US Army, having been breveted twice for bravery during the Mexican War and serving admirably thereafter. His death so early in the war, however, makes it difficult to speculate how he would have fared as a general officer as the war progressed.
Nathaniel Lyon by a mile — an action-oriented soldier and savvy civil-military affairs practitioner who saved Missouri for the Union in the spring and summer of ’61.
Albert Sydney Johnston survived 1861 just fine, and bled to death after suffering a bullet wound that severed the popliteal artery at his right knee on April 6, 1862, at the Battle of Pittsburg Landing.