Best Civil War Leaders: North, South, & Honorable Mention

[roo_ster]

So, who do think was the best on each side?

IMO, the Civil War was the war with the most lessons to teach that went unheeded by those who followed in subsequent wars.

North: William Tecumseh Sherman
I think Sherman was the best on either side.  Lee was masterful and Grant was ferociously determined.  But, Sherman was the one who cracked the hard shell of the CAS and scooped out the rotten, gooey center.  He tore out the CAS' heart and stomped that sucker flat (all respect to Lewis Grizzard).

Sherman understood it was a clash of civilizations and waged a war on the Confederates' very civilization, not just its armies, when he had the opportunity.


South: James Longstreet
This was more difficult than the WTS pick.  Jackson's performance in the Shenandoah Valley was a masterful use of cartography and movement.  I give the nod to Longstreet, because he was the first to understand the nature of the changed battlefield and he was the first to put into practice the tactics to cope with those changes. 


HM: Nathan Bedford Forrest
His mounted infantry approach to move as fast as the transport would take him to the point of decision, allowed him to do more with lesser numbers than anyone during the war.


So, what think you?

[Waitone]

I think this one will head for the ditch in short order.

[roo_ster]

Yeah, if folks react like Obama fan-boys toward their particular favorite, I can see that happening.

I will be optimistic and assume folks will not act that way.

[slingshot]

You can't make a list like that without including U. Grant and Robert E. Lee.  The Civil War was very traditional from a modern perspective.  You need generals like Grant and Lee or the whole effort would fail.  You could say the same thing about D. Eisenhower during WWII.

[Gewehr98]

Let's keep things on an even keel in here, folks.

Just sayin'. 

[charby]

You do realize that 1008 officers were appointed to rank of general during the US Civil War? 425 CAS and 583 Union.

There were lots of good and bad leaders in the US Civil War but these are a couple of my favorites.

Union: Phillip Sheirdan first to use the scorched earth policy in the Shenandoah Valley 1864.

CAS: John Hunt Morgan with 900 soldiers he captured 1200 Union troops, ran raids to the rear of Union forces and when he was captured in Salinesville he and fellow officers were able to tunnel out of a prison in Ohio and make back south to fight again. Unfortunately he was killed in when his encampment was raided in TN in 1864.

[Tallpine]

North: William Tecumseh Sherman
I think Sherman was the best on either side.  Lee was masterful and Grant was ferociously determined.  But, Sherman was the one who cracked the hard shell of the CAS and scooped out the rotten, gooey center.  He tore out the CAS' heart and stomped that sucker flat (all respect to Lewis Grizzard).

Sherman understood it was a clash of civilizations and waged a war on the Confederates' very civilization, not just its armies, when he had the opportunity.

So, what think you?

War criminal 

[mtnbkr]

And there we go.  Locked.

Chris