The Great Generals

These days there is agreement among many historians of the military that Ulysses S. Grant was the greatest general this country has produced.  His innovative campaigns get taught in military schools around the world.  Grant was quick to praise others and never boasted. He fought the Civil War in a private's uniform (with his stars on his shoulders). He looked and behaved like an ordinary man--and he had never wanted to be a career soldier. 

Grant's opinions of the Confederate generals might be of interest to some. I don't recall how Grant rated Longstreet, who was his best man when Grant married.  He  certainly liked Longstreet, and their friendship survived the war. Like other experts, Grant considered Albert Sidney Johnston probably the most promising general in the South, but Johnston was killed at Shiloh. As Grant put it, "he died too soon." Grant thought highly of Stonewall Jackson, who also died before the battle tactics changed.  The general who made Grant most uneasy was Joe Johnson. Grant thought Robert E. Lee "a good man" but of a "slow, conservative, cautious nature, without imagination or humor, always the same, with grave dignity."

When Grant was hailed as the man who won the Civil War, he replied that he was one man among hundreds of thousands who came from their homes and fields to save the union.  He considered Sherman, McPherson and Sheridan excellent leaders, with Thomas and Meade as very good. (McPherson was killed near Atlanta, and somehow never became as famous as the others.)