Re: Was Maclellan [sic] a southern sympathizer?

Brad Meyer wrote:
On Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:07:44 -0800, Dan <dnadan56@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Brad Meyer wrote:
On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:29:33 -0800, "deemsbill@xxxxxxx"
<deemsbill@xxxxxxx> wrote:

He realized McClellan had enough troops to do the job....
Based on what criteria? His tea leaves? Mary? Certainly not from any
professional criteria at all. He gave Grant many more troops to use
against many fewer confederates. Are we to believe that Lincoln
thought Grant would need more troops then Mac to fight fewer
confederates? When did he "realize" that?

of
course, McClellan never thought he had enough troops. Keeping some to
protect DC was a pretty smart move.
60,000+ scattered from DC to Winchester? Just how did four divisions
in the Valley protect Washington? Against what?

No, when they couldn't agree on what the job was exactly. Not only
that, but disagreeing with the military on how to do the job is akin
to disagreeing with one's contractor while building something. One
doesn't deal with that by witholding and redirecting supplies and
resources. One either reaches an understanding with that contractor or
fires one and hires another.
Not always. What happens when the contractor keeps asking for more
and more money?
I either pay or fire the contractor and get a new one. What do _you_
do?
And that is what Lincoln finally did...

Unfortunately, he spent to much time wrangling with his current
contractor and was way too slow to hire a new one. He had, for
instance, ample opportunity and cause to fire Mac long before the
Penninsula campaign was ever submitted (probably before it was even
thought of). Mac's failure to name corps commanders or to participate
in the Feb advace were both sufficient reasons. Instead, he trimmed
and equivocated and hemmed and hawed until he had gotten Mac defeated
on the Peninsula and Pope defeated at Manassas (by the same troops!).
When he finally fired Mac and got another "contractor" he picked one
that said up front that he wasn't equal to the task (Burnside).

IMO if one is going to assume any sagacity at all on Lincoln's part in
his selection of commanders one must also assume he meat the war to go
on beyond 1862. Rather, I think he was just a poor picker pf people.
Not surprising, really. He had no executive and minimal administrative
background.

FDR sent "suggestions" to subordinate commanders.
Cite? Insofar as I know he only wrote to one officer in his guise as
CinC and that was to congratulate an ADM for capturing the U 505. He
certainly made suggestions to his JCS (and I suppose to the rest of
the CCS), but virtually none involving operational matters.
Which is very different from Hitler, Churchill, and Stalin. I'm not sure about Tojo.

Tojo, at least, was a career military man. Churchill was a Sandhurst
trained officer, a vetern of three wars (at least) as a combatant. A
couple of more as a correspondent. (It is pretty much forgotten, but
is worth noting anyway, that from the 1880's until WW I WSC was
considered by many to be the foremost war correspondent in the world.)


And everything Churchill touched militarily went south.

Absolutely necessary for the home front, mind you, but militarily a disaster.

Dan
.

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  • Re: Was Maclellan [sic] a southern sympathizer?
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