McClellan McClellan would excel...today!

[matthew mckeon]

If Grant had taken command in the wake of Bull Run, could he have whipped the army into shape? Some of it comes down to politics. McClellan looked and acted like a winner, and the politicians were chastised enough by Bull Run into letting him have his way. At first, as the AoP revived and grew in confidence and strength, McClellan's political capital increased. Grant's political capital rose out of his hard fighting and early victories, but at this point, he hadn't won anything. He had no political capital

Grant would have launched a campaign in the fall of 1861. Could he have won against Johnson? Probably he could have pushed him away from Manassas(Johnson didn't want to hold there anyway). Did Grant have the political capital to wage the kind of campaign like the Overland Campaign in 62?

If Grant had McClellan's idea of advancing up the Peninsula, its hard to see him taking as much time. A quicker advance meant the Confederates wouldn't have the time to assembly the large army they did.

Grant at the gates of Richmond in 62, if Lee assumes command at this point would have resulted in the match up beloved by civil war nuts everywhere: Grant vs. Lee with nearly equal numbers. Of course Lee hadn't the time to organize the Confederate troops into the Army of Northern Virginia yet.

 

[BillO]

It would have turned into the overland campaign on the peninsula. The problem with this scenario is that the north would have been appalled at the level of bloodshed sustained over a period of time. I doubt if Lincoln or congress could have supported such a waste of life so early in the war.