The Civil War featured many great generals from both the Union and Confederate a
ID: 404717 • Letter: T
Question
- The Civil War featured many great generals from both the Union and Confederate armies. Some of these men had gone to college together at West Point Academy with the common goal of defending their nation but now found themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. Choose any three Civil War generals and rank them in order of their ability to command. Support your response with specific accomplishments or failures of each general. REFERENCE INFORMATION
The Civil War featured many great generals from both the Union and Confederate armies. Some of these men had gone to college together at West Point Academy with the common goal of defending their nation but now found themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield. Choose any three Civil War generals and rank them in order of their ability to command. Support your response with specific accomplishments or failures of each general. REFERENCE INFORMATION
Explanation / Answer
Ulysses S. Grant [US] It was Grant's understated brilliance that won The Civil War. With the Mississippi River heavily fortified, Grant sidestepped the Rebels by travelling up the Tennessee and Cumberland River, capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the first major Union victory. His stubborn defense at the Battle of Shiloh turned defeat into victory. After freeing the Mississippi River of Confederates at Vicksburg, he rescued the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga before continuing east to assume the role of General-in-Chief, U. S. Army. His orders to his subordinates were simple:pursue the Rebels wherever they went and destroy them. He engaged the Confederates repeatedly, fighting a war of attrition (The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and Petersburg) with Lee until the end of the war. Robert E. Lee [CS] After the Surrender at Appomattox, General George Meade asked Lee how many men he had at Petersburg. Lee said he had held the entire Petersburg line with 33,000 men. Meade responded "I thought there were that many in front of me alone." It was Lee's innate ability to get the most out of his men that stands the test of history, as well as his understanding of his opponents and willingness to let subordinates make decisions. After replacing a severely injured Joe Johnston at Fair Oaks, Lee forced George McClellan into theSeven Days Retreat. The indecisive battle of Antietam was offset by clear victories at Fredericksburg and Chancelorsville, only to move north to defeat atGettysburg. Slowly forced south under the pressure of an overwhelming force by Grant, Lee defended a perimeter around Richmond and Petersburg with less than 40,000 men. Patrick Cleburne [CS] Cleburne is probably the most underrated general in either force during the Civil War, but he repeatedly withstood vastly superior forces under some of the best generals to earn his sobriquet "Stonewall Jackson of the West." At Billy Goat Hill during the Battle of Missionary Ridge he repeatedly repulsed Union forces under William Tecumseh Sherman in spite of being outnumbered 10-to-1 forcing Ulysses S. Grant to order a desperate frontal assault on Missionary Ridge. Performing rear guard duties at Ringgold, Georgia, Cleburne positioned his men himself and his division withstood an attack byJoe Hooker's XX Corps. At Pickett's Mill he spread his line east and absorbed an attack by General George Thomas, at Kennesaw Mountain he and Benjamin Cheatham [CS] again repulsed Thomas in an area today known as Cheatham Hill. During the Battle of Atlanta he advanced to Leggett's Hill, where brutal hand-to-hand combat at the top of the hill and a late-day charge by John "Blackjack" Logan [US] turned his men back. At Jonesboro (GA), Cleburne's 5,000 men held a line against 50,000 of Sherman's Yankees