Question of the Week: Which Civil War general or admiral is overrated?
In your opinion, which Civil War general or admiral is significantly overrated for their contributions?
In your opinion, which Civil War general or admiral is significantly overrated for their contributions?
This will be controversial, but I think R. E. Lee is highly overrated. He was a good general, but he made a lot of mistakes he couldn’t afford to make, made the same mistakes repeatedly (*cough* Pickett’s Charge), and gave far too much leeway to subordinates.
Well, he probably isn’t “over-rated”; but the horrific John Bell Hood is among the worst generals of the entire 19th century. He sneaks around and backstabs Joe Johnston and upon getting command(from idiot Jefferson Davis); promptly has his men slaughtered at Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, Franklin and Nashville; killing(among others) the “Stonewall of the West”; Patrick Cleburne. He also apparently had the IQ of a tree stump.
Nathan Bedford Forrest. Certainly feared, with a wonderful fighter reputation, but where was he when Bragg was surprised and driven out of Central Tennessee in Rosecrans’s Tullahoma Campaign? Where was he while Sherman was moving towards Atlanta on a single vulnerable rail supply line? I suppose one could defend him by blaming superiors for misusing him, but the fact is he went MIA in critical campaigns.
To steal George Steinbrenner’s baseball player slight, Forrest might have been good sometimes but when it mattered most he was “Mr. May,” not “Mr. October.”
Great tactician, poor strategist?
Yes. One might say that he was the reverse of Stonewall.
Going to say this then duck… Thomas J. Jackson. Very good, but prickly personality, too secretive with orders, unable to see his own weaknesses and address them. (ducking now)
Incoming……..
Albert S. Johnston on the Confederate side and John Reynolds and James McPherson on the Union side definitely benefited (in terms of reputation) from getting killed. I’m not saying they were bad generals, but their reputations were built in part by dying.