Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc At least they named a saddle after him. What other general had that honor? Jerry Marc James Small wrote: > At 08:29 PM 9/6/03 -0400, Don Dory wrote: > >I understand that as a Virginian by residence you would have good things > >to say about McClellan. As long as he was in charge of the Army the > >Army of Northern Virginia enjoyed a marked advantage. But I would like > >a little more discussion on McClellan as a trainer. > > Don > > Training WAS McClellan's forte. He took a dispirited, disorganized, > ill-equipped, and untrained Army under his wing after First Manassas and > soon organized, trained, and equipped it to be a magnificent force. But he > simply lacked the will to commit this instrument on which he had given so > much of himself to its destruction, and, so, he proved himself a > magnificent trainer and a lousy field commander. Grant was the reverse: > he cared little for the setting-up of an Army, but knew how to use it. The > Armies he was with at Appomattox, those of the James and Potomac, had been > much ground down by the incessant combat from the Wilderness to Five Forks > and were not nearly the instrument they had been in the spring of 1864: > this was Grant at his best, using a tool to the limit of its strength and, > thus, winning a war. > > (My own family were bluebellies, by the way: a great-grandfather and HIS > father and brothers all served in Pennsylvania Volunteer Infatnry units, > and I have a slew of others in PA, WV, and MD units.) > > Marc > > msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 > Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html