14 Responses to Question of the Week: Who was the luckiest Civil War officer?
John Alexander Logan. Joining the fight for the Union by picking up a rifle-musket and blasting away during the July 1861 Manassas Campaign, unlawful combatant Logan avoided capture, made his way back to Washington, resigned his seat as Representative from Illinois… and soon was Colonel of the 31st Illinois Volunteers. Wounded at Fort Donelson, Colonel Logan was fortunate to have had his dressing changed by Mother Mary Bickerdyke [a simple procedure that may have saved his life.] At Shiloh, newly-minted Brigadier General Logan got through the bloody two days unscathed… because he was not there, still away recovering from Fort Donelson. Wounded once more during the Siege of Vicksburg, John Logan remained on the field and found himself acknowledged as “one of the best performing general officers.” Fast forward to 1864 and the Atlanta Campaign, Major General Logan was in the right place at the right time… and stepped into the role of Commander, Army of the Tennessee upon the shocking death of Major General James McPherson. Later that year, Logan did NOT relieve George H. Thomas at Nashville [although authorized by U.S. Grant to do so] …and cemented his reputation as “competent, zealous, NOT self-serving.” John Logan’s reputation survived the Civil War intact; he returned to politics, and in 1884 he ran for Vice President of the United States, part of the Blaine/Logan ticket… To find out more about this remarkable man… begin by visiting the “General John A. Logan Museum” online at loganmuseum.org
Lee managed to save Richmond in 1862, smash Pope at Second Manassas, hang on at Antietam, inflict enormous U.S. casualties at Fredericksburg, and win at Chancellorsville despite overwhelming numbers against him. Luck was with him because in each case Lee was fortunate to face a Union commander whose particular flaws led to critical mistakes that opened the door to his victory. Granted, Lee made his own luck in part by decisions he made, but without him luckily facing the commanders he did in each separate situation he might have suffered catastrophic consequences for his decisions.
Honorable mention to U.S. Grant, who at times luckily faced John Floyd, Gideon Pillow & John C. Pemberton, while Albert Sydney Johnson was luckily removed at a critical moment at Shiloh.
He’s lucky he got killed, and painlessly. Apologies to his family. There’s many generals who were inches away from death by cannonball or minie, and by that measure were highly lucky, even those like Meade who were wounded but survived somehow in the barely above midieval surgery of the day, with its pain, bleeding and infection potential, but my vote for luckiest is one who many a minie may have missed but got killed without feeling it probably by a hexoganal whitworth bullet. “Uncle” John Sedgwick as he was known by his adoring troops, has a great reputation, one that sucked me in. But his performance getting to Gettysburg battlefield, at Gettysburg, and persuing Lee after Gettysburg, his independent command performance at Fredericksburg and Salem Church during the battle of Chancellorsville, and his judgement about the capabilities of Confederate sharpshooters at Spotsylvania makes me think his post-death reputation got hyper inflated and he is remembered as being a great general, while one of his peers, Confederate General Porter Alexander wrote, well after the war but in a respected book of his experiences, “I have always felt surprise that the enemy retained Sedgwick as a corps commander…, for he seems to me to have wasted great opportunities, & come about as near to doing nothing with 30,000 men as it was easily possible to do.”
I’m voting for John B. Gorden at the Bloody Lane at Antietam. Shot five times and nearly drowned on the blood accumulating in his kepi in which his face was lying. Gotta count your stars after that kind of experience! Dr. Paul Severance
Maybe Nathan Bedford Forrest on the Confederate side – could have been killed, captured, or defeated a number of times.
On the Union side I will say Ulysses S. Grant because he was able succeed and kind of fail early in the war (1861/62) but received enough political slack to survive politically and progress up the chain of command to the very top by 1864.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain when the Confedrate officer’s revolver misfired at Little Rond Top on the late afternoon of July 2nd, 1863, near Gettysburg, PA., then survived the near mortal wound at Petersburg in 1864.
Chamberlain would be my nominee as well. Besides the examples you cited, there is also his lucky escape at the Battle of Lewis’s Farm. He was wounded, separated from his troops, and surrounded by Confederates. In this tight situation, he managed to trick them with the cry, “Surrender? What’s the matter with you? What do you take me for? Don’t you see these Yanks right onto us? Come along with me and let us break ’em.” The Confederates followed him and the tables were turned when they ran into a group of Union soldiers.
From the strategic point of view, I think the luckiest officer was James Longstreet at the Battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863. As a result of a hugh gap that developed on Rosecrans defensive line on the second day of the engagement, “Old Pete’s” brigades charged into the hole and routed the Federal forces back to Chattanooga. If not for George Thomas’ stout defensive stand at the Horseshoe Ridge this lucky move could have spelled complete disaster for the Union. I think this fits into a truism, « I would rather be lucky than good any old time. »
Actually, “Old Pete” was the beneficiary of that sort of luck on two occasions. Something similar happened at Chinn Ridge on August 30, 1862 when the inept Union command caused its left flank to be virtually undefended as Longstreet’s assault swept forward. Personally I put both events in the “lucky AND good” category. Longstreet put together two strong attacks – similar to his equivalent assaults at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 and at the Wilderness on May 6, 1864, both of which were very “near misses”.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. He had a few good days, but nearly always fought lackluster opponents, which covered a lot of his tactical errors (such as at Cedar Mountain). He also died right after his best day, so we tend to forget his many poor performances – Fredericksburg, Seven Days.
Grant. After his fumbling and bungling, his complete lack of a grasp of tactics, his drinking binges, getting caught being away from his troops on at least two occasions, and then launching the most vicious pogrom against American Jews in history, he was brought East by Lincoln, given 564,000 troops to fight Lee’s 60,000, as well as given unlimited resources and license to do whatever he wanted no matter how badly he failed and no matter what he did, including getting whipped by Lee & Co. at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, the North Anna River, Cold Harbor, the first Battle of Petersburg and the Battle of the Crater…and then they let him be President. If he’d been just a little worse, they’d’ve kept him around to lose millions of men in World War I.
Somebody in here said the luckiest was Stonewall Jackson. Really? Saves the army at First Manassas; his Valley Campaign is taught to this day at West Point and Sandhurst – but nothing done by Grant is taught at either place; Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, the march from the lower Shenandoah Valley to Fredericksburg, and no fault can be ascribed to him at that battle; then the masterpiece at Chancellorsville. That ain’t luck – that be genius.
I’m not going to even bother addressing your rather silly criticisms of Grant – a pogrom? Really? But, I’m happy to defend my comments about Stonewall:
Jackson had his good very days at First Bull Run and Chancellorsville, no one doubts that. But, more often than not, he was lucky. Let’s review, shall we? Start with the Shenandoah Valley campaign. After a very rough start at Romney, Jackson managed to thrash a couple of Yankee back benchers who were so inept that they were unable to even coordinate with each other. But, later that spring, in the Seven Days’ Battles, he bungled badly and cost thousands of Confederate lives. His troops were never where they were supposed to be, and he literally slept through some of the battles without giving his subordinates orders. Except for the direct intervention of R.E. Lee with the Confederate War Department, Jackson would not have been elevated to corps command.
In August 1862 Stonewall fought a competent but hardly inspired defensive battle at Second Bull Run. At Cedar Mountain, his command was surprised and only barely scraped up a draw against Nathaniel Banks— another no-name opponent. Jackson’s rapid investment of Harper’s Ferry in the fall of 1862 was only possible because the garrison commander foolishly gave up the key terrain uncontested. Jackson did reasonably well under supervision at Antietam, but his performance was hardly that of a genius. At Fredericksburg, Jackson failed to inspect his lines properly and left such a big gap that Meade’s attack would have unraveled the entire Confederate position if it had been properly supported by the inept Burnside. Then there is Chancellorsville, which was undoubtably Jackson’s best hour even if it was against arguably the worst of the Union corps. Luckily for his reputation, Jackson died shortly thereafter, and we tend to remember his Chancellorsville victory rather than his lucky breaks. And yes, I taught all about Jackson’s campaigns at West Point when I taught cadets up there, but because they were a part of history, and not because they conveyed any real military insight or genius.
I’d hardly call Nathaniel P. Banks, governor of Massachusetts until Jan 1861 and former Speaker of the House, a “no-name opponent.”
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As exemplified in the comments we all have our biases which dictate who we consider either heroes or goats. In reality, and the chaos of war, they all at one point benefitted from some really good luck or fortune. So therefore I shall nominate all of the prominent officers involved in the myriad of battles as ONE group.
Who would you consider the luckiest Civil War military or naval officer? Why?
John Alexander Logan. Joining the fight for the Union by picking up a rifle-musket and blasting away during the July 1861 Manassas Campaign, unlawful combatant Logan avoided capture, made his way back to Washington, resigned his seat as Representative from Illinois… and soon was Colonel of the 31st Illinois Volunteers. Wounded at Fort Donelson, Colonel Logan was fortunate to have had his dressing changed by Mother Mary Bickerdyke [a simple procedure that may have saved his life.] At Shiloh, newly-minted Brigadier General Logan got through the bloody two days unscathed… because he was not there, still away recovering from Fort Donelson. Wounded once more during the Siege of Vicksburg, John Logan remained on the field and found himself acknowledged as “one of the best performing general officers.” Fast forward to 1864 and the Atlanta Campaign, Major General Logan was in the right place at the right time… and stepped into the role of Commander, Army of the Tennessee upon the shocking death of Major General James McPherson. Later that year, Logan did NOT relieve George H. Thomas at Nashville [although authorized by U.S. Grant to do so] …and cemented his reputation as “competent, zealous, NOT self-serving.” John Logan’s reputation survived the Civil War intact; he returned to politics, and in 1884 he ran for Vice President of the United States, part of the Blaine/Logan ticket… To find out more about this remarkable man… begin by visiting the “General John A. Logan Museum” online at loganmuseum.org
Robert E. Lee.
Lee managed to save Richmond in 1862, smash Pope at Second Manassas, hang on at Antietam, inflict enormous U.S. casualties at Fredericksburg, and win at Chancellorsville despite overwhelming numbers against him. Luck was with him because in each case Lee was fortunate to face a Union commander whose particular flaws led to critical mistakes that opened the door to his victory. Granted, Lee made his own luck in part by decisions he made, but without him luckily facing the commanders he did in each separate situation he might have suffered catastrophic consequences for his decisions.
Honorable mention to U.S. Grant, who at times luckily faced John Floyd, Gideon Pillow & John C. Pemberton, while Albert Sydney Johnson was luckily removed at a critical moment at Shiloh.
He’s lucky he got killed, and painlessly. Apologies to his family. There’s many generals who were inches away from death by cannonball or minie, and by that measure were highly lucky, even those like Meade who were wounded but survived somehow in the barely above midieval surgery of the day, with its pain, bleeding and infection potential, but my vote for luckiest is one who many a minie may have missed but got killed without feeling it probably by a hexoganal whitworth bullet. “Uncle” John Sedgwick as he was known by his adoring troops, has a great reputation, one that sucked me in. But his performance getting to Gettysburg battlefield, at Gettysburg, and persuing Lee after Gettysburg, his independent command performance at Fredericksburg and Salem Church during the battle of Chancellorsville, and his judgement about the capabilities of Confederate sharpshooters at Spotsylvania makes me think his post-death reputation got hyper inflated and he is remembered as being a great general, while one of his peers, Confederate General Porter Alexander wrote, well after the war but in a respected book of his experiences, “I have always felt surprise that the enemy retained Sedgwick as a corps commander…, for he seems to me to have wasted great opportunities, & come about as near to doing nothing with 30,000 men as it was easily possible to do.”
I’m voting for John B. Gorden at the Bloody Lane at Antietam. Shot five times and nearly drowned on the blood accumulating in his kepi in which his face was lying. Gotta count your stars after that kind of experience! Dr. Paul Severance
Maybe Nathan Bedford Forrest on the Confederate side – could have been killed, captured, or defeated a number of times.
On the Union side I will say Ulysses S. Grant because he was able succeed and kind of fail early in the war (1861/62) but received enough political slack to survive politically and progress up the chain of command to the very top by 1864.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain when the Confedrate officer’s revolver misfired at Little Rond Top on the late afternoon of July 2nd, 1863, near Gettysburg, PA., then survived the near mortal wound at Petersburg in 1864.
Chamberlain would be my nominee as well. Besides the examples you cited, there is also his lucky escape at the Battle of Lewis’s Farm. He was wounded, separated from his troops, and surrounded by Confederates. In this tight situation, he managed to trick them with the cry, “Surrender? What’s the matter with you? What do you take me for? Don’t you see these Yanks right onto us? Come along with me and let us break ’em.” The Confederates followed him and the tables were turned when they ran into a group of Union soldiers.
From the strategic point of view, I think the luckiest officer was James Longstreet at the Battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863. As a result of a hugh gap that developed on Rosecrans defensive line on the second day of the engagement, “Old Pete’s” brigades charged into the hole and routed the Federal forces back to Chattanooga. If not for George Thomas’ stout defensive stand at the Horseshoe Ridge this lucky move could have spelled complete disaster for the Union. I think this fits into a truism, « I would rather be lucky than good any old time. »
Actually, “Old Pete” was the beneficiary of that sort of luck on two occasions. Something similar happened at Chinn Ridge on August 30, 1862 when the inept Union command caused its left flank to be virtually undefended as Longstreet’s assault swept forward. Personally I put both events in the “lucky AND good” category. Longstreet put together two strong attacks – similar to his equivalent assaults at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 and at the Wilderness on May 6, 1864, both of which were very “near misses”.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. He had a few good days, but nearly always fought lackluster opponents, which covered a lot of his tactical errors (such as at Cedar Mountain). He also died right after his best day, so we tend to forget his many poor performances – Fredericksburg, Seven Days.
Grant. After his fumbling and bungling, his complete lack of a grasp of tactics, his drinking binges, getting caught being away from his troops on at least two occasions, and then launching the most vicious pogrom against American Jews in history, he was brought East by Lincoln, given 564,000 troops to fight Lee’s 60,000, as well as given unlimited resources and license to do whatever he wanted no matter how badly he failed and no matter what he did, including getting whipped by Lee & Co. at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, the North Anna River, Cold Harbor, the first Battle of Petersburg and the Battle of the Crater…and then they let him be President. If he’d been just a little worse, they’d’ve kept him around to lose millions of men in World War I.
Somebody in here said the luckiest was Stonewall Jackson. Really? Saves the army at First Manassas; his Valley Campaign is taught to this day at West Point and Sandhurst – but nothing done by Grant is taught at either place; Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, the march from the lower Shenandoah Valley to Fredericksburg, and no fault can be ascribed to him at that battle; then the masterpiece at Chancellorsville. That ain’t luck – that be genius.
I’m not going to even bother addressing your rather silly criticisms of Grant – a pogrom? Really? But, I’m happy to defend my comments about Stonewall:
Jackson had his good very days at First Bull Run and Chancellorsville, no one doubts that. But, more often than not, he was lucky. Let’s review, shall we? Start with the Shenandoah Valley campaign. After a very rough start at Romney, Jackson managed to thrash a couple of Yankee back benchers who were so inept that they were unable to even coordinate with each other. But, later that spring, in the Seven Days’ Battles, he bungled badly and cost thousands of Confederate lives. His troops were never where they were supposed to be, and he literally slept through some of the battles without giving his subordinates orders. Except for the direct intervention of R.E. Lee with the Confederate War Department, Jackson would not have been elevated to corps command.
In August 1862 Stonewall fought a competent but hardly inspired defensive battle at Second Bull Run. At Cedar Mountain, his command was surprised and only barely scraped up a draw against Nathaniel Banks— another no-name opponent. Jackson’s rapid investment of Harper’s Ferry in the fall of 1862 was only possible because the garrison commander foolishly gave up the key terrain uncontested. Jackson did reasonably well under supervision at Antietam, but his performance was hardly that of a genius. At Fredericksburg, Jackson failed to inspect his lines properly and left such a big gap that Meade’s attack would have unraveled the entire Confederate position if it had been properly supported by the inept Burnside. Then there is Chancellorsville, which was undoubtably Jackson’s best hour even if it was against arguably the worst of the Union corps. Luckily for his reputation, Jackson died shortly thereafter, and we tend to remember his Chancellorsville victory rather than his lucky breaks. And yes, I taught all about Jackson’s campaigns at West Point when I taught cadets up there, but because they were a part of history, and not because they conveyed any real military insight or genius.
Hope that clarifies my position. Cheers.
I’d hardly call Nathaniel P. Banks, governor of Massachusetts until Jan 1861 and former Speaker of the House, a “no-name opponent.”
As exemplified in the comments we all have our biases which dictate who we consider either heroes or goats. In reality, and the chaos of war, they all at one point benefitted from some really good luck or fortune. So therefore I shall nominate all of the prominent officers involved in the myriad of battles as ONE group.