Judging the other generals.

[major bill]

We could argue about General Lee and General Meade until we run of of things to say. My question is which other generals made a real difference at Gettysburg and which side had generals who performed the best.

Commanding general usually get the credit for victory or blamed for defeat. But commanding generals do not fight the battle by themselves and the performance of subordinate generals can mean the difference between victory or defeat. At Gettysburg each side had over 50 other generals and each one contributed, in their own way, to the outcome of the battle. I believe we can all name some of the "goats" of Gettysburg and some of the heroes. I am not trying to discredit the Confederate generals but in my opinion General Meade did not win the battle, he simply had better support from his subordinate generals than did General Lee.

Most of the Confederate Corps and senior division commanders were talented leaders and fought well in other battles, but over all they seemed to have struggled at Gettysburg. Had all the senior Confederate general "brought their A game" I believe the out come at Gettysburg would have been different. Although some of the senior Union commanders performed poorly at Gettysburg, most of the senior Union commanders performed above their usual game performances. What do you think?

 

[Pat Answer]

"Defense is the stronger form of waging war." -- Carl von Clausewitz

 

[Mary763]

I agree that the Union Generals out performed their Confederate counterparts at Gettysburg. They also benefitted from mistakes made by the Confederate generals over the 3 days. If we are looking at which Union generals made a difference, you would have to mention General Buford, General Warren, and General Howard. Buford for his efforts on holding off the Confederate advance on July 1st. Howard for seeing the significance in securing Cemetery Hill and Warren for scouting out Little Round Top and getting troops to cover it.

 

[brass napoleon]

We could argue about General Lee and General Meade until we run of of things to say. My question is which other generals made a real difference at Gettysburg and which side had generals who performed the best.

Commanding general usually get the credit for victory or blamed for defeat. But commanding generals do not fight the battle by themselves and the performance of subordinate generals can mean the difference between victory or defeat. At Gettysburg each side had over 50 other generals and each one contributed, in their own way, to the outcome of the battle. I believe we can all name some of the "goats" of Gettysburg and some of the heroes. I am not trying to discredit the Confederate generals but in my opinion General Meade did not win the battle, he simply had better support from his subordinate generals than did General Lee.

Most of the Confederate Corps and senior division commanders were talented leaders and fought well in other battles, but over all they seemed to have struggled at Gettysburg. Had all the senior Confederate general "brought their A game" I believe the out come at Gettysburg would have been different. Although some of the senior Union commanders performed poorly at Gettysburg, most of the senior Union commanders performed above their usual game performances. What do you think?

I agree. Hancock the Superb tops my list. But he's followed closely by Buford, Hunt, and Warren, and for too short a time Reynolds.

 

[major bill]

For example, when one names the best Civil War generals I think Longstreet often gets less credit than he deserves. Longstreet was one of the reasons the Confederacy was able to survive as long as it did. We can look at some battles where Longstreet performed very well and was one of the keys to a Confederate victory. This was not the case at Gettysburg. In no way do I blame Longstreet for all the things that went wrong for the Confederacy at Gettysburg but I do not believe it was one of Longstreet's best performances. I have never believed Longstreet made any major mistakes at Gettysburg but he did not doing anything spectacular either. All generals have good battles, average battles and poor battles and at Gettysburg Longstreet preformed average at Gettysburg and what the Confederacy needed was one of his above average performances.

Lets us forget JEB Stuart's long ride and just look at his performance east of Gettysburg on the third day. General Stuart was a great cavalry general, but his performance on day three was not his best battle of the war. I see his performance as average at best.