WI: Grant fighting in the AOTP before 1864.

Kiryan

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Jan 4, 2013
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Victoria Australia
Apparently Grant raised and trained several regiments once the war started, and also came close to seeing McClellan several times, and was refused, in Illinois before McClellan was shipped east to command the AOTP. So, what if McClellan sees Grant and transfers him east with him.

Essentially, i am asking what would it be like if Grant was in the AOTP at the beginning of the war?
 
There is an advantage being some distance from the seat of power in Washington and Grant enjoyed this while he put up some important victories. The AOP was rife with politics, something Grant was less good at. Even when he got there in '64 he had to put up with political generals who let him (and the soldiers down).

That said, Grant might not have invited the defeats on the Peninsula, Second Bull Run (First was probably unavoidable given green troops), Fredericksburg, etc. Maybe the question should be how might Grant have handled those battles? I've studied Grant, but not those engagements. ISTM that those Union defeats were the result of some pretty basic failures in generalship.
 
If Grant was in command at gettysburg:
1) would he have taken up a defensive position as for day 2 and 3? or would he have taken the offensive?
2) Would he have counter charged and swept the field after the pickett,Trimble,Pettigrew charge failed?
3) And would he have let the ANV cross the Potomac?
 
Didn't Grant seek an audience with Mac, and get turned down? Grant would travel with Mac if Mac needed a stable boy. Maybe Grant becomes the head of the 9th Corps. Also think there is a difference in the way the war was fought in the west as east and particular types rise as suits best.
 
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