[Tamaroa]

Hi Andy, I fell that Butler was pretty bad. Don't forget that his command was the one that screwed up the attack on the crater at Petersburg. Also, A bunch of Ragtag Confeds were able to keep him bottled up at Bermuda Hundred for the last three months of the war. The Rebs pretty much kicked him out of the party so to speak.

As for McClellan, I think it can be pretty much proven that he whipped the army into shape for more abler generals to use it. I think Mac's tenure as an observer during the Crimean War may have colored his opinion of soldier's deaths and as a consequence, he didn't want to see his men die. Lee was just the opposite and Sharpsburg was an excellent example of that:

Rough numbers: Union 80,000, Rebs 40,000
Casualties were almost equal with 12k and change on each side. However, the Confeds % was much higher because of Lee's aggressive use of a defensive posture. Little Mac screwed up by attacking the Upper Bridge area first than the middle bridge than the lower bridge soon to be known as Burnside's bridge. So Lee met the first attack and parried it incurring casualties. Later in the day, McClellan shifted a completely new attack to the center of the line. Lee took men who survived the first attack and used them to bolster the center of the line for the second attack.

Again he parried Mac's thrust. Mac later in the day ordered Burnside to cross the lower bridge. Now some men who had been exposed in two earlier attacks were exposed once more. In other words, many of the Rebs were exposed three times more than his Yank counter part. In fact, Burnside finally did succeed in crossing the bridge and pushed the Georgian sharpshooters back. At the Reb left flank behind the crest of the hill where the Georgians were dug in, was Pickett's Division, They started to give way as well. It was only the timely arrival of A.P. Hill's Light Division from Harper's Ferry that saved the day for the Confeds. Strategically, I suppose you could say the Yanks won, But tactically it was a draw. Both sides left the field with pretty much the same positions that they had at the beginning of the fight.


Bill