Poor McDowell. Yours is a question, Keith, we shall never have an answer to. McDowell was unlucky enough to command the main Union army too early in the war, at a time when all the Army's (on both sides) officers, though trained and with some experience in most cases, had no experience in handling large bodies of men. It is true that McDowell did not want to advance in the summer of 1861; he wanted, but was not permitted to do, what McClellan was able to do in his wake- namely the organization and training of this mob of soldiers into an army.
McDowell is an 'unlucky' commander; things just never seemed to manage to fall out his way. He was further hampered as a corps commander under McClellan by having been the former top commander, and having been named to command by Lincoln and the War Department, and not by McClellan. And again, when McClellan proved to be an elusive presence to his commander, Lincoln, and then was down and out for a spell with typhoid fever, Lincoln, needing to consult with someone on military questions, brought in McDowell, which did not improve his position in the least in McClellan's eyes.
There is more, for whatever reasons, it being an uncertain time with 'traitors' lurking, conceivably, behind every bush, the men took an unreasoning dislike to McDowell, and his specially designed hat, (to promote airflow in the summertime and be more comfortable,) was taken by the men to be a signal to the enemy. The poor guy just couldn't win! And then he gets to be a corps commander under Pope in the Valley and have the unhappy consequence of being lumped in with that worthy and the debacle of Second Bull Run. McDowell can certainly make his case of affliction of hard luck!
However, McDowell is a diligent and loyal officer, always endeavouring to do his best, and is not without talents. Lincoln liked these qualities he perceived without difficulty in McDowell, and never let him slide too far. He kept him after First Bull Run, giving him a corps in the Army of the Potomac and an important command in Northern Virginia, shielding Washington and hooking up with McClellan's right on the Peninsula. (Of course, this too led to unfortunate problems (named Jackson and Lee) for McDowell.) He stayed in command after the Peninsular Campaign, but this time, unluckily again, under Pope. Removed until the mess was investigated in Washington, he did bureau work until sent out to the Pacific Coast late in the war.
In the end, McDowell was more sinned against than sinning. And had he been given more of a chance, I believe he would have performed adequately, if not admirably, and been a great asset to the Union side he so loyally served. He certainly, had he been retained after First Bull Run, would have served Lincoln faithfully and carried out to the best of his abilities the orders of the War Department, and been a responsive commander. Able to work with Washington, unlike McClellan, he might actually have been able to achieve a degree of success, which McClellan, fighting his war front and rear, did not.
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'It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag'
-Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC. |
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