Most Underrated General

[Nytram01]

....And "Lincoln" was a movie recently, right?

Didn't he kill vampires with an axe?

 

[Elennsar]

My compliments, Col. Elennsar. Take your own personal survey, as I have done, and prepare to be not a little alarmed.

I trust your results. I know from what I have talked about with the nonhistory minded friends of mine that while Meade might be recognizable as the commander at Gettysburg (but no more), Hancock is almost certainly a "Who?".

 

[LZRD WZRD]

I think he was a good brigade and division commander, it seems to me he was out of his league any higher.

It would seem he thought the same way, since he rejected command of the AotP twice because of this.

 

[KILLroy1978]

I fully expect to be shot for this one.....
George Thomas was a better General and should have been given command. Not Sherman.....

 

[NedBaldwin]

I fully expect to be shot for this one.....
George Thomas was a better General and should have been given command. Not Sherman.....

Why would you expect to be shot?

I dont think Thomas belongs in a thread about "underrated" generals because most people think he was very good.

 

[KILLroy1978]

Why would you expect to be shot?

I dont think Thomas belongs in a thread about "underrated" generals because most people think he was very good.

I am one of the people who think Thomas was very good. Outside the ACW community, there are few people who know who Thomas was. When you mention "Marching Through Georgia" People automatically think of Sherman.

 

[Elennsar]

I am one of the people who think Thomas was very good. Outside the ACW community, there are few people who know who Thomas was. When you mention "Marching Through Georgia" People automatically think of Sherman.

. . . that's because Thomas wasn't part of Sherman's March to the Sea. He was up in Tennessee doing what he did best - smashing Confederate armies dumb enough to assume that because Old Slow Trot wasn't fiery he wasn't a fighter.

If we're talking people forgotten by popular history, I think Thomas might be one of the best of those just plain not remembered, but I do want to note that Generals in Blue starts the description of Thomas by referring to him as "(the) third of the triumvirate who won the war for the Union . . ." - where as Sherman is merely "the most widely renowned of the Union's military leaders next to U.S. Grant" and Sheridan "one of the three Union generals who won the greatest fame in the Civil War".

 

[JeffBrooks]

I dont think Thomas belongs in a thread about "underrated" generals because most people think he was very good.

Most people think he was very good, but not many people think he was the best the Union had. Those who think he was the best the Union had, among whom I count myself, can therefore make a fair claim that he is underrated.

 

[diane]

I fully expect to be shot for this one.....
George Thomas was a better General and should have been given command. Not Sherman.....

That's an interesting thought. Sherman in Nashville instead of Thomas? Thomas marching through Georgia? Thomas simply would have declined. Sherman would have never won big time at Nashville because he never won big time anywhere. Sherman earned no nicknames like Hammer of Nashville!

 

[JohnnnyReb]

I always felt that Imboden was underrated and definately underestimated and sneered at by the west pointers. For someone with no military training he did extremely well in the field.

 

[Civil War Scholar]

Absolutely.
Civil War Scholar.

 

[Lincoln65]

You think? He's considered by many to have been the best division commander on either side.

I don't know, I just feel like most high school textbooks will mention Meade, Rosecrans and Thomas and maybe Hancock, but they don't ever mention Cleburne.

 

[JohnnnyReb]

You forgot to mention New Market, his greatest achievement as a soldier. Also, his punitive expedition into East Tennessee in late 1864 was quite an achievement and is almost entirely unknown, even by Civil War aficionados.

I think Breckinridge, being a lawyer and politcal man, did quite well in the field but was overshadowed by Bragg and his dislike of him and constant blame pointed to Breckinridge and not himself. I mean, you blame him for so much of your failures, yet you only remove him from command just before you, yourself resign. So in this same statement, Bragg way overrated, Breckinridge definately underrated.

 

[BillO]

I don't know, I just feel like most high school textbooks will mention Meade, Rosecrans and Thomas and maybe Hancock, but they don't ever mention Cleburne.

My youngest daughters social studies book covered the entire civil war in a page and a half, including pictures. The only people mentioned were Harriet Tubman, Abe Lincoln and Gen. Lee. A friend of mine grew up in Jacksonville Fla. and wasn't aware that Florida had been in the war. I don't think a single black friend of mine was aware that there were such things as free blacks before the war or that there were blacks who owned other blacks in the south. Never under estimate the ignorance of your fellow citizens.

 

[Lincoln65]

I don't think a single black friend of mine was aware that there were such things as free blacks before the war or that there were blacks who owned other blacks in the south. Never under estimate the ignorance of your fellow citizens.

I've always been interested in those free blacks who owned other fellow, blacks. From what I've read, most of them were located in New Orleans. The Crescent City still had a very French vibe to it, which made it more "liberal" than other cities in the South.

 

[BillO]

I've always been interested in those free blacks who owned other fellow, blacks. From what I've read, most of them were located in New Orleans. The Crescent City still had a very French vibe to it, which made it more "liberal" then other cities in the South.

I know of one in Richmond but there could very well have been a few others.

 

[Jamieva]

I don't know, I just feel like most high school textbooks will mention Meade, Rosecrans and Thomas and maybe Hancock, but they don't ever mention Cleburne.

I think you're overestimating the depth of a high school history book on the CW to think Rosecrans, Thomas or Hancock would be in it.

 

[Lincoln65]

The ones I used (American Pageant & America: Past and Present) mentioned them.

 

[JohnnnyReb]

Imagine how great some of these Generals could have been if one or two incidents were changed.
I have always thought that Maj. Gen. Arnold Elzey was a superb leader and his career should have been filled with greater glory if not for a bullet to the face at Gaines Mill.

 

[Elennsar]

I think Breckinridge, being a lawyer and politcal man, did quite well in the field but was overshadowed by Bragg and his dislike of him and constant blame pointed to Breckinridge and not himself. I mean, you blame him for so much of your failures, yet you only remove him from command just before you, yourself resign. So in this same statement, Bragg way overrated, Breckinridge definately underrated.

Given that Bragg's ability to get rid of the people he wanted to get rid of was essentially nonexistent, what do you expect?

And I think this might be the first time I've heard anyone describe Bragg as overrated.