Mike Scholl
Posts: 9349
Joined: 1/1/2003 From: Kansas City, MO Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: andysomers Right - let's be exact. McClellan was not an idiot. He was a vain, egotistical moron. He built the AOP from the ruins of 1st Manassas, and his men liked him - that's all I can give him. Above that, he hung around for months on the Peninsula with at that time the largest Army every assembled on the North American continent outnnumbering J Johnston (perhaps the only CS general as cautious as McClellan) two to one, and begged for reinforcements, refusing to move. Afterwards, he won every battle in the Seven Days that Lee launched against him, but still retreated after every one all the way back to his base. McClellan, take two: a starving, poorly-supplied enemy in your territory divides its force in your front (which, oh-by-the-way you conveniently outnumber again 2 to 1). Voila! September 13, you find this - SPECIAL ORDER NO. 191! Exact disposition of your foe. Move your army between the divided forces, crush each one piecemeal in detail right? NO! Wait four days and attack his concentrated army entrenched along Antiteam Creek!!! After the battle, which, after launching three uncorrdinated assaults, you somehow still manage to take the field, do you follow up quickly on their heels? No!!!! Wait in place for a month! Let them slip away, rally, reinforce, and resupply! Even after this, call your President an ape, etc., and still go on with the bravado assumption that you are still the savior of the Union. McClellan, as long as an army did not need to fight, was a brilliant general. To me however, that's like saying a guy is a master mechanic just because he does a great detail/wax job on a car. Looks wonderful, as long as the car doesn't actually have to go anywhere. AS ALRIGHT! Someone out there actually "gets it". As a field commnader, the man was worthless. A good leader gets up to the front and sees for himself what is happening, and which subordinate needs a "kick in the pants" to get going, and to look for developing opportunities. Mac seemed to think that once he'd drawn up a plan, BOTH sides would conform to his wishes and his job was to brief the press on his own brilliance. And Lee's ONE mistake in Maryland was letting the order get captured. The rest (dividing his forces all over the countryside) he did because he KNEW McClellan would take forever to actually move forward and he's have plenty of time. Even with the captured order, McClellan STILL gave him the time (barely) to gather his scattered forces. Lee had to be audacious as Hell to have a chance; All McClellan ever had to do was announce "OK..., EVERYBODY pick up a stick..". Lincoln was reduced to pleading with the Army of the Potomac's Commanders, "This time put in ALL your men."
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