From: cowan@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu (P.L. Cowan)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Re: Grant in the East (was Jackson at the Seven Days)
Date: 19 Dec 92 16:47:23 -0800
Organization: SSRL, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lab
NNTP-Posting-Host: ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu

In article <tecump.724721812@purple>, tecump@purple.ucsb.edu (Dominic J. Dal bello) writes:
> whale@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stephen Schmidt) writes:
> 
> i>He was, nonetheless, the second-ranking corps commander. Turnover in the
>>Army of the Potomac high command was exceedingly high, largely because
>>many officers (Couch, Franklin) refused to serve under Hooker and were
>>transferred.

Sumner and Franklin ranked Hooker, but Sumner was burned out after
Antietam and Franklin was discredited for allowing McLaws to escape
from Maryland Heights to join Lee at Sharpsburg. Couch did request
reassignment after Chancellorsville becouse he couldn't get along with
Hooker. He commanded the Pa Militia during Lee's invasion of
Pennsylvania, but fortunately for all concerned they managed to avoid
engaging Lee's veterans to any significant extent.

>>The ranking corps commander was John Reynolds: the command was first
>>offered to him and he declined it. See below.
> 
> yes, i know that John passed it up.  And thus he was killed on Sem.
> Ridge.  he wsa probably the finest officer in the union army, or at least
> what an officer was supposed to be.  Poor John. 
> 

By all acounts Reynolds was a hero at Gettysburg, and was well spoken
of after his death. Still, wasn't he captured in his tent (asleep?) at
Gaines Mills?

>>The command of THE army is appointed by the President but the command of
>>a field army (ie, AotP, Army of the Cumberland, etc.) is not. It falls
>>to the senior general assigned to that field army. You can always pull
>>shenanigans here: for example, for 2nd Bull Run, most of AotP had been
>>sent to Pope but McClellan had not been ordered to proceed there, if he
>>had the battle would have been under his command and the (badly deluded)
>>administration wanted Pope to command. So they just sent all McClellan's
>>units to him :) but didn't send Little Mac along.
> 
> You are overlooking the fact that the Pres. is the Commander in Chief of
> the Army.  A junior officer commands under Presidential order.
> If there is no commander specified, then of course it falls to the
> senior officer.  Now, how was Meade appointed?  By the President, even if
> the orders go through Halleck, it is the pres. who decides who will
> command, and it does not necessarily need to fall on the next senior
> officer, although it is the normal practice. 
> 

Lincoln gave Meade authority to appoint commanders at all levels
regardless of  seniority. Meade did not have much time to shuffle the
structure of the AotP  since he found himself in the biggest battle in
the histroy of the Western Hemisphere within one week of taking the
job, but he did jump 4 young West Point grads from Captain to
Brig.Gen. in command of Cavalry brigades. These included a certain
Cpt. George A. Custer. Considerably more restructuring took place
after the battle.

> The 2nd Bull Run thing is confusing at best.  Was not McClellan relieved
> of command of the Army of the Potomac? (although still commander of the
> ARMY) and his units ordered to support the Army of Virginia under Pope?
>  

I believe that it is technically correct to say that G. McClellan was
the commander of the AotP continuously from its creation until he was
replaced by  Burnside. However the AotP had no units left in it at the
time of 2nd Manassas, since as McClellan sent them north from the
Peninsula, they were assigned to Pope's Army of Virginia.

> In any event, I think we should give Burnside more credit for knowing his
> own limitations, at least in 1862 when he tried to keep command of the AoftheP
> at arms length.  As a corps commander he was alright.  As an army commander,
> eh. But the command of the AoftP was Meade's, and would not be Burnsides.
> The 9th Corps wsa in fact put back in the AotP, and Meade, not Burnside,
> was the commander.  Grant did not have to be there. 
> 

One of Lincoln's first requests of Grant after USG became
General-in-Chief was that he find some use of the various discarded
Union Generals, Fremont, Buell, Burnside, etc. Grant had had
relatively good success with Hooker as a commander of an independent
corps, and adopted the same model with Burnside.  

I don't think it is realistic to claim that Grant was compelled to
stay in the East against his better judgement in order to coordinate
Meade and Burnside.  The more significant task was coordinating the
AotP (Meade) and the Army of the James (Butler), not becouse of
seniority issues, but because they were acting separately to converge
on a common goal. From what little I know about military strategy, I
am led to understand this is one of the most difficult things to
accomplish in the face of an enemy.

-- 
Paul Cowan     
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