Command Fatigue

[Andy Cardinal]

I recently finished reading two outstanding biographies by David Jordan about Warren and Hancock. While reading them along with Ralph Peters' Hell or Richmond, I got to thinking about the burden of command. Both Warren and Hancock seemed to suffer some breakdowns due to the stress of ordering men to their deaths. Obviously other factors were involved as well. For Hancock his Gettysburg wound never seem to heal and continued to bother throughout the rest of the war. Warren also apparently suffered from periods of depression which would have affected his outlook.

This does not seem something that has been talked about much in what I've read of the Civil War. Is it legitimate to consider this as a factor when talking about a commander's performance, whether an army commander or a small unit commander? I am trying to distinguish this from battle fatigue or PTSD caused by the experience of combat itself, or maybe rather than distinguish it, as an added layer on top of battle fatigue. What I am talking about here is the effect of ordering men to their deaths on the commanders who had to give the orders. I believe this is something that has not been considered very often but it is certainly a factor that should be considered when analyzing a commander's performance.

This topic came to mind again last night while watching Saving Private Ryan. There are several examples in the movie illustrating command fatigue. The tremor in Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) hand, the scene in the church where he is counting the number of men killed under his command. This scene, where he breaks down after the assault on the radar station, best shows what I am talking about.

One possible example I can think of from the Civil War would be McClellan's behavior during the Seven Days when, as Sears writes, he "lost the courage to command." Another example might be Burnside's reaction to the slaughter at Fredericksburg. His desire to lead the 9th Corps in an attack in person on December 14th shows he had lost his grasp on reality.

I am curious whether any of you think if this is a legitimate thing to consider and, if so, if any of you have read or seen anything that would shed some light on it. Secondly I am curious if anyone can think of any other examples Civil War commanders (army, corps, division, brigade, or regimental) who experienced a mental breakdown due the burdens of their position. Thanks

 

[Alaskazimm]

I think it's quite likely. That can certainly weigh on a person to have to do that. But I would also suggest that during a campaign plain old fatigue played a role as well.

The upper echelon commanders, while on campaign, were often up very late and then again early in the morning. True, many times the troops had to make overnight 20+ mile marches to reach the battlefield; so did the officers. But the troops could grab some sleep whereas the officers would be seeing to orders, dispositions for the next day, recon . . . etc.

It's said that during the Valley campaign, Jackson routinely got less than 3 or 4 hours of sleep, and many suggest that this played a great role in his lackluster performance during the Seven Days battles.

 

[Yankeedave]

Hancock's wound was inside the thigh. Riding opened the wound. He was unable to direct from a ambulance, and the riding a horse opened the wound. He was appointed head of the Invalid Corps and eventually military districts such as the valley. He served briefly in the west until he bacame a miltary district governor in the south. And ran for president. When he died in 1886, he was still in the service, having joined in 1844, serving for having served for 42 years. Never disgraced the uniform.

 

[Jimklag]

I recently finished reading two outstanding biographies by David Jordan about Warren and Hancock. While reading them along with Ralph Peters' Hell or Richmond, I got to thinking about the burden of command. Both Warren and Hancock seemed to suffer some breakdowns due to the stress of ordering men to their deaths. Obviously other factors were involved as well. For Hancock his Gettysburg wound never seem to heal and continued to bother throughout the rest of the war. Warren also apparently suffered from periods of depression which would have affected his outlook.

This does not seem something that has been talked about much in what I've read of the Civil War. Is it legitimate to consider this as a factor when talking about a commander's performance, whether an army commander or a small unit commander? I am trying to distinguish this from battle fatigue or PTSD caused by the experience of combat itself, or maybe rather than distinguish it, as an added layer on top of battle fatigue. What I am talking about here is the effect of ordering men to their deaths on the commanders who had to give the orders. I believe this is something that has not been considered very often but it is certainly a factor that should be considered when analyzing a commander's performance.

This topic came to mind again last night while watching Saving Private Ryan. There are several examples in the movie illustrating command fatigue. The tremor in Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) hand, the scene in the church where he is counting the number of men killed under his command. This scene, where he breaks down after the assault on the radar station, best shows what I am talking about.

One possible example I can think of from the Civil War would be McClellan's behavior during the Seven Days when, as Sears writes, he "lost the courage to command." Another example might be Burnside's reaction to the slaughter at Fredericksburg. His desire to lead the 9th Corps in an attack in person on December 14th shows he had lost his grasp on reality.

I am curious whether any of you think if this is a legitimate thing to consider and, if so, if any of you have read or seen anything that would shed some light on it. Secondly I am curious if anyone can think of any other examples Civil War commanders (army, corps, division, brigade, or regimental) who experienced a mental breakdown due the burdens of their position. Thanks

It is totally unrelated to the US Civil War, but I would recommend the 1949 movie Twelve O'clock High as a brilliant study on the effects of the stress of command. For what it's worth.

 

[Andy Cardinal]

I think it's quite likely. That can certainly weigh on a person to have to do that. But I would also suggest that during a campaign plain old fatigue played a role as well.

The upper echelon commanders, while on campaign, were often up very late and then again early in the morning. True, many times the troops had to make overnight 20+ mile marches to reach the battlefield; so did the officers. But the troops could grab some sleep whereas the officers would be seeing to orders, dispositions for the next day, recon . . . etc.

It's said that during the Valley campaign, Jackson routinely got less than 3 or 4 hours of sleep, and many suggest that this played a great role in his lackluster performance during the Seven Days battles.

I believe that is true. Jackson's performance during the Seven Days is the most well know example of that. On June 30 Jackson fell asleep with a biscuit in his mouth, then woke and said, "Now, gentlemen, let us at once to bed, and rise with the dawn, and see if tomorrow we can do something." Jackson's failure to act that day allowed McClellan's army to escape from White Oak Swamp. His sluggishness during the Seven Days has often been attributed to physical and mental exhaustion.

I also read an essay by Emory M. Thomas in The Gettysburg Nobody Knows that suggests Stuart was also similarly exhausted during the retreat from Gettysburg. I have copy and pasted the relevant passage here:

But a few days later Stuart drifted into an altered state of consciousness again. This time he and McClellan were riding through the Maryland countryside at night. Stuart dictated orders as they rode and then stopped at a turnpike tollhouse to permit McClellan to write down the instructions. While McClellan wrote, Stuart laid his head on the table and went to sleep. When McClellan awakened the general to read his orders, Stuart appeared alert enough. But in the third of three dispatches he crossed out the names of the towns in Maryland he had dictated earlier and wrote "Aldie" and "Shepherdstown" in their place. In context, Aldie and Shepherdstown, two towns in Virginia, made no sense at all. McClellan had to awaken a man who was vertical with his eyes open and correct the General's corrections, before dispatching his dispatches. "Harry" McClellan included the "eggs" and "Aldie/Shepherdstown" incidents in his memoir of service on J. E. B. Stuart's staff to illustrate McClellan's belief that "the mind can act and yet be unconscious of its actions." Historians and others who ponder Stuart's conduct during the Gettysburg campaign might well wish to extend McClellan's anecdotes and suggest that Stuart was in some sort of altered state throughout the entire period.

 

[Andy Cardinal]

Hancock's wound was inside the thigh. Riding opened the wound. He was unable to direct from a ambulance, and the riding a horse opened the wound. He was appointed head of the Invalid Corps and eventually military districts such as the valley. He served briefly in the west until he bacame a miltary district governor in the south. And ran for president. When he died in 1886, he was still in the service, having joined in 1844, serving for having served for 42 years. Never disgraced the uniform.

Agree completely about Hancock. He's one of my heroes of the war. Regarding my previous comment about command fatigue, in Warren's case that seemed to manifest itself in a refusal to follow orders and in explosions of anger. In Hancock's case, he became irritable and got into arguments with some of his friends in the army. This could have simply been the reaction of a proud man who could not do his duty the way he expected to due to his wound, which caused him not to be able to ride a horse comfortably. But I think the stress of command wore on him too. He was not the same man at the end of 1864 as he had been even in the Wilderness.

 

[Yankeedave]

I agree. I think Hancock had a hot temper from day one and a bullet in the crotch didn't help.
As far as Warren...thats for another thread.
There are other commanders who went home to die. The war was still on but physically and i bet mentally were used up.

 

[67th Tigers]

One possible example I can think of from the Civil War would be McClellan's behavior during the Seven Days when, as Sears writes, he "lost the courage to command."

Whilst a fun read, Sears' case is very weak once you read his references. Certainly McClellan remained in command and control of the army apart from a 4-hour period on 1st July where he issues a written order placing Sumner in command during his recce of Harrison's Landing. Tired and overworked he certain was, but he continued to exercise command relatively effectively.

 

[Saruman]

I am curious if anyone can think of any other examples Civil War commanders (army, corps, division, brigade, or regimental) who experienced a mental breakdown due the burdens of their position. Thanks

Robert Anderson and William T. Sherman, both commanding in Kentucky in 1861.

 

[novushomus]

I am curious whether any of you think if this is a legitimate thing to consider and, if so, if any of you have read or seen anything that would shed some light on it. Secondly I am curious if anyone can think of any other examples Civil War commanders (army, corps, division, brigade, or regimental) who experienced a mental breakdown due the burdens of their position. Thanks

While not necessarily a mental breakdown, rebel Lt. Gen. Theophilus Holmes broke down following a failed assault at the Battle of Helena in which he lost over twenty-one percent of his army. The stress of this bloody repulse, along with Holmes's frittered worrying about his military reputation being in tatters, triggered an illness that forced Holmes to abdicate command of the Confederate District of Arkansas to Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. This change of command right during the outset of the Little Rock Campaign certainly impacted Confederate strategy for the defense of Little Rock. Holmes would briefly return to command after the fall of Little Rock, but the following March:

HDQRS. TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DEPT., Numbers 60,

Shreveport, La., March 11, 1864.

* * * * * * *

II. At this own request Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes is relieved from the command of the District of Arkansas, and will report in person to the Department of War, at Richmond, Va. In relieving the commander of the District of Arkansas the lieutenant-general commanding recognizes the purity of purpose and self-sacrificing patriotism with which, under the most trying circumstances, he has always administered his command.

By command of Lieutenant General E. Kirby Smith:

S. S. ANDERSON,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

 

[novushomus]

Brig. Gen. Phillip St. George Cocke, who had commanded a brigade in the Confederate Army at Manassas, left the service after an emotional breakdown that would eventually lead to the taking of his own life.

 

[Will Carry]

Excellent post! I am going to sit back and listen, having little to add. I do know that toward the end of WWII in Europe American Army officers were starting to drop like flies from fatigue. From mental break downs, to suicide. I can only imagine they weren't the only ones.

 

[Andy Cardinal]

Not quite in line with my original post, but....

At Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863, General James Lane "went to pieces" when his brother Julius Rooker Lane was killed while serving as a volunteer aide. In the words of Frank O'Reilly's Blue & Gray magazine piece on the battle (vol. 29, no. 5, o. 21), "The general forgot his responsibilities and cradled Rooker's mutilated body, bathing it in tears."

It was a rough 24 hours for Lane. In addition to his brother's death, it was troops from his brigade that had mistakenly fired into Stonewall Jackson's party the night before, mortally wounding the general.

 

[Jamieva]

Ewell whacking his troops with the flat of his sword when they broke at Spotsylvania.

 

[rpkennedy]

Colonel William Carlin after the first day of Chickamauga. After the fighting ended, he found his horse dead on the field, took off his saddle, sat on it and cried. He wrote something along the lines that for a few minutes, he just couldn't stop crying over his dead horse.

Ryan

 

[rebatheart]

Phillip St George Cocke was my wife's Great-great-great grandfather.His father was John Hartwell Cocke who owned Bremo Plantation in Va. General Robert E Lees wife would stay at Bremo sometimes during the Civil War .
We used to have a written family history for her side of the family. It was like a Who's who in American history. I wish she still had it.

 

[JOHN42768]

Phillip St George Cocke was my wife's Great-great-great grandfather.His father was John Hartwell Cocke who owned Bremo Plantation in Va. General Robert E Lees wife would stay at Bremo sometimes during the Civil War .
We used to have a written family history for her side of the family. It was like a Who's who in American history. I wish she still had it.

Welcome, enjoy

 

[JOHN42768]

Fatigue: physical, mental or spiritual effects the bodies ability to perform as one would normally. It doesn't take much imagination to understand what both officers and enlisted men endured in such a long drawn out conflict. Lack of rest, food, sleep and seeing your fellow soldiers killed or terribly wounded is going to effect even the strongest among us.

 

[lelliott19]

Goode Bryan and Benjamin Humphreys after the failed assault on Fort Sanders where so many of their men were trapped in the ditch and dismembered by short-fused shells dropped from the parapet. After the column fell back, the two brigadiers met and attempted to exchange words. Neither was able to speak and, it is said, they turned from the scene and wept.

 

[jackt62]

Was the case of General Hooker at Chancellorsville some sort of fatigue related ailment that governed his behavior once the AOTP had crossed the Rappahanock/Rapidan rivers? His decision to pull back into defensive positions frustrated and angered his subordinate corps commanders. Things got even more complicated when Hooker was struck by a house column that had been shelled. While Hooker regained consciousness after a few hours, he remained in command but the blow and stress of battle seems to have taken a toll on his ability to reason clearly.