McClellan was a great disciplinarian. So?

Jackson? Ever examined his performance at Cedar Mountain?

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...l+war+command&ei=EKKaSffAK5K6M_7-0aYJ#PPP1,M1

I can't speak lowly enough of it.

With Jackson, this type of performance was the exception. Cedar Mountain, the Seven Days, and You could probably pick on him for Kernstown. With McClellan... these types of failures and lackadaisical pursuits were the norm... not the exception. When you run into these problems, over and over... and you are constantly looking for someone else to lay blame on... at what point do you accept the responsibility as your own? With McC never... his ego would never allow it.
 
McClellan was a great disciplinarian, So?

Compare when Lee crossed the Potomac in his retreat from Antietam and when McClellan crossed the same river in pursuit of Lee. (Or one could compare how long both General's took getting their armies completely across the river)
 
With Jackson, this type of performance was the exception. Cedar Mountain, the Seven Days, and You could probably pick on him for Kernstown.

Actually no. There is not a single battle Jackson fought in he really did well in. Even his performance at 1st Manassas has been successfully deconstructed by Detzer as average. However, Jackson is incredibly well connected in Richmond, and is very close to the Richmond press. In fact while not a great General, he's terrific at PR.

Lee has already effectively sacked 4 of the 6 Corps Commanders he inherited (Apr 62 in order of seniority; Smith, Longstreet, Holmes, Jackson, Magruder and DH Hill all command Wings or Commands), and sacking Jackson (as he was considering for most of the Summer in 1862) was untenable.

With McClellan... these types of failures and lackadaisical pursuits were the norm... not the exception. When you run into these problems, over and over... and you are constantly looking for someone else to lay blame on... at what point do you accept the responsibility as your own? With McC never... his ego would never allow it.

Really, he only ever once entered into a pursuit phase, at Antietam, and did okay.
 
Cedar Mountain was botched - I can't and won't argue about that. The point was that he'd be on the move with vigor, not that he was incapable of making a bad decision.

However, two notes on his merits.

1) The Valley Campaign did a pretty good job at its intended goals, and Jackson was able to take just about all of his two divisions (his own and Ewell) to Richmond after it concluded - despite there still being Federals in the vicinity.

I'd say that counts as a credible performance. Perhaps not A+ material, but certainly comfortably better than average.

2) If Lee really and seriously had any lack of faith in Jackson's ability to command, sending him to capture Harper's Ferry was not a good idea.

You mind explaining how this all works out to Jackson the sort of okay?

On McClellan: In the contest of bumbling, Pendleton losing 4 pieces of artillery of the army's reserve was...probably the less inept.

McClellan should have been able to do more than that with the resources at his disposal.
 
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