video@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Henry J. Cobb) (05/24/91)
From: video@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Henry J. Cobb) > [Meatgrinder campaigns always deserve lambasting. > A general who has no better use for good men than turning > them into sausage deserves no praise, successful or not. > --CDR] Grant's 'directness' was a reaction to greater southern mobility. (The south had less of a supply train to tie themselves down with. :) But his strategy was mostly indirect, a narrow outflanking of cities with few direct assaults. He learned the folly of direct assault against a prepared defense, several times. -- Henry J. Cobb video@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu SFB Tyrant Ph# (512) 447-8957 1400 Rabb Rd. Austin, TX 78704
silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman) (05/31/91)
From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman) > Grant's 'directness' was a reaction to greater southern mobility. >(The south had less of a supply train to tie themselves down with. :) > But his strategy was mostly indirect, a narrow outflanking of >cities with few direct assaults. > He learned the folly of direct assault against a prepared defense, >several times. A factor in Grant's "directness" was the larger army sizes he had in the East compared to those employed in the Wilderness campaign. Time and time again, in 1862 and 1863, numerically superior Union forces were defeated due to their own command and control problems (chiefly those created by expecting sub-moronic, petty, and egotistical generals to carry out plans that required even a rudementary level of coordination.) Another factor in Gran't directness was the presence of Mead, the hero of Gettysburg, as his chief of staff. For political reasons, it seems that most orders went through Meade, in the later phases of the war there were few occasions on which Grant showed the sort of tactical initiative he had earlier in the war. There is quite an extensive discussion of this in "From the Jaws of Victory", a very informative book on military incompetence. (I have, alas, forgotten the writers name.) [Followups to soc.history, please. --CDR] -- ami silberman - janitor of lunacy silber@cs.uiuc.edu