Midway through Robertson's Back Door to Richmond... should've finished it by now, but have been overtaken by life to an unpleasant extent. :: grumble :: [Any time not spent reading is as close as darnit to time wasted.]
It appears that what I doubted may indeed have been the case... Ben Butler, the "arrogant amateur and supreme egotist," appears to have actually backed down from his subordinates, particularly Baldy Smith, on more than one occasion, apparently yielding to their experience! And yet, in at least one case, had Smith and Gillmore actually gotten off their duffs and put Butler's order into operation instead of coming up with a list of reasons why it couldn't be done, they could have either had Petersburg or have at least put a lodgement in place across the railroad that would have put it out of commission for all intents and purposes. Richmond would still have had the railroad to Danville, of course, but that would have cut the available arteries in half, and made the one remaining just that much more vulnerable...
One of the ironies here is that if Butler was actually a true military leader, he should have been able to make his orders stick, no matter if he had the military/tactical know-how or not. He proved himself unable to manage his subordinates. Beauregard, by contrast, at the very same time wasn't having any of that foolishness-- when he found out that one of his subordinates was communicating directly with Bragg at Richmond, he addressed that problem immediately (this was Colonel J. W. Hinton, commanding at Weldon: p. 123, citing Official Telegrams, Beauregard Papers, Library of Congress). Meanwhile, Butler had the free rein and distant superior command that Beauregard would have loved to have had...