Category: Battles and Military History

Content related to Civil War battles, tactics, officers, units, military history, etc.

The Best Political General of the Civil War: Benjamin Butler – Actions that Altered the Course of the War

Who was the best political general of the Civil War?
Benjamin Butler

By Paul Burkholder
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the February 2023 Roundtable meeting was: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those four presentations.

Who was the greatest political general of the Civil War? If measured by their contribution to ultimate victory, there’s just one, indisputable answer to that question: Benjamin Butler.

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The Best Political General of the Civil War: John C. Breckinridge – A Great Military Leader

Who was the best political general of the Civil War?
John C. Breckinridge

By Kent Fonner
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the February 2023 Roundtable meeting was: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those four presentations.

“. . . Breckinridge demonstrated that a man did not need to go to West Point to be an excellent general . . .”

–Civil War Historian Albert Castel

Facts

John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875) in 15 years (1850-1865) served as a Kentucky legislator, congressmen, U.S. senator, vice president of the United States under President James Buchanan, presidential candidate in 1860, brigadier general and then major general CSA, and secretary of war CSA, all before he was 45 years old. Well educated with a degree from Center College, a semester of graduate work at Princeton, law study under Governor Owsley of Kentucky, and an LL.D. from Transylvania University, he had no formal military education. But as a major in the 3rd KY Volunteers in 1847 in Mexico, he did have some military experience before the Civil War.

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The Best Political General of the Civil War: John A. Logan – Through the Merits of his Performance

Who was the best political general of the Civil War?
John Alexander Logan

By Bob Pence
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the February 2023 Roundtable meeting was: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those four presentations.

What is a political general?

A political general is a general officer or other military leader without significant military experience who is given a high position in command for political reasons, through political connections, or to appease certain political blocs and factions.

The most important reason for appointing political generals was to appease important blocs of voters. President Lincoln used such appointments as a way to get the support of moderate Democrats for the war and for his administration (“War Democrats”). The first three volunteer generals whom Lincoln appointed, John Adams Dix, Nathaniel Prentice Banks, and Benjamin F. Butler, were all Democrats.

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The Best Political General of the Civil War: Edward Ferrero – “Meritorious Service”

Who was the best political general of the Civil War? Edward Ferrero

By Charles Patton
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the February 2023 Roundtable meeting was: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four members made presentations on the topic; the article below was one of those four presentations.

I was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania at the Lincoln Forum, and we went over to tour the cemetery and the battlefield. I saw some USCT reenactors in uniform with a regimental flag showing their colors with the name of the commanding officer, General Edward Ferrero, proudly displayed. I had a conversation with one of the reenactors, who gave me a brief history of what action the 51st New York saw during the Civil War. When I saw the topic for this evening’s discussion, I recalled my visit to Gettysburg and the conversation with some of the reenactors.

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The Great Debate of 2023: Opening Remarks

Who was the best political general of the Civil War?

By William F.B. Vodrey – debate moderator
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: The subject of the annual Dick Crews Memorial Debate at the February 2023 Roundtable meeting was: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four members made presentations on the topic; the article below was the opening remarks made by the moderator of the debate.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome!

We’re here tonight for the annual Dick Crews Memorial Cleveland Civil War Roundtable Debate, named after my longtime predecessor as moderator. Dick once told me that the debate got its start as a Roundtable tradition because of the difficulty of finding speakers who were willing to travel to Cleveland in January. In moderating again tonight, I stand on the shoulders of giants, including Dick.

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The Great Debate of 2023

Who was the best political general of the Civil War?

The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2023, All Rights Reserved

According to available information, fewer than half of all the generals in the Union army during the Civil War were graduates of West Point. Because of a shortage of men to serve as generals, a number of men who lacked military training were given the rank of general. These generals are referred to as political generals, because they often received their rank due to political connections. Quite a few of these political generals, not surprisingly, proved to be inadequate – or worse. However, some of the political generals were effective and did well for the army in which they served.

The 2023 Dick Crews Memorial Debate posed the question: “Who was the best political general of the Civil War?” Four debaters presented arguments in favor of a political general whom each debater considered the best. The four political generals for whom arguments were presented are Edward Ferrero, John A. Logan, John C. Breckinridge, and Benjamin F. Butler. Below are the texts of those four arguments, along with moderator William Vodrey’s opening remarks.

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General Burnside of “Burnside’s Bridge” Fame Faced Infamy at Fredericksburg for Lack of a Bridge

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2022-2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the December 2022 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.

Exactly 160 years ago today on December 14, 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac (AOP) retreated from Fredericksburg after its disastrous winter assault on Confederate forces dug in and well positioned on the bluffs above the town and beyond. The defeat of the Union attack was so complete and comprehensive that it solemnly moved Robert E. Lee to utter one of his most famous quotes, recounted by Shelby Foote in Volume II of his The Civil War: A Narrative, “A British observer saw ‘Antique Courage’ in Lee’s manner as he turned to Longstreet…lowering his glasses after a long look at the blasted plain where still more Federals massed…’It is well that war is so terrible, We should grow too fond of it.'”

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“Old Abe” the Eagle

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2022-2023, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the September 2022 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.

As mentioned in my last history brief, this edition was to continue to whet the appetite for new Roundtable president Lily Korte’s upcoming annual field trip from September 22-24 to cover General Phil Sheridan’s 1864 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, with the completion of my recap of Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign. However, since tonight’s speaker is focused on the Valley, Lily thought it best for our group to have a different history brief topic tonight lest they feel overwhelmed with too much “Valley Campaigns”! To wit, what do “Old Abe,” the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and the modern-day 101st U.S. Airborne Division have in common? Many of you probably already know, but for the remainder and as a recap for others, you will now find out!

In 1861 in the state of Wisconsin, the leader of the Flambeau sect of the Chippewa Tribe of American Indians, whose name was Chief Sky (Chippewa name: Ahgamahwegezhig), cut down a tree with an American eagle nest that contained two baby eaglets. Only one of the eaglets survived. The chief, seeing an opportunity, traded the eaglet to a local farmer for a bushel of sweet corn.

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The Near Capture of Ulysses Grant by Confederate General Jackson

By David A. Carrino
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2022, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in January 2022.

Perhaps the two most intriguing words in history are “What if?” This is true whether the word “history” is used in the context of the past, itself, or in the context of the study of the past. In the latter context, “What if?” leads to interesting, enjoyable, thought-provoking, and sometimes intense discussions. When people who are interested in history concoct alternative histories based on some event happening differently (i.e., a what-if), the discussions that follow are one of the things that contribute to people’s interest in history. In the former context of the word “history,” a real-life what-if strategically placed into the past (if such a thing were possible) could, as George Bailey learned, produce a substantially different present than the one in which we now live, and this is a significant reason for those interesting, enjoyable, thought-provoking, and sometimes intense discussions when “What if?” is inserted into the study of the past.

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Jackson in the Shenandoah River Valley – March 10 to May 22, 1862

By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2021-2022, All Rights Reserved

Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the March 2022 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.

As mentioned in last month’s history brief, to whet the appetite of members for vice president Lily Korte’s September 2022 Cleveland Civil War Roundtable annual field trip to cover General Phil Sheridan’s 1864 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, the next several history briefs will focus on General Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign of 1862. The accompanying map will be helpful in following this narrative.

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