re: Ulysses S Grant is the Undisputed GOAT US General

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It’s also why I mentioned Grant vs Jackson

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Jackson was a corps commander whereas Grant commanded armies, theaters, and finally the entire war effort. You can't compare the two. I'd also argue Longstreet was a better corps commander than Jackson.

I know you keep maintaining that, but Grant would have starved out Pemberton no matter what. If Lee had moved South crossing the mountains he would have been really screwed. He would be walking into a huge army group that was well supplied and followed by a large Army of the Potomac. He would have gotten squeezed

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When you have a massive numbers advantage with unlimited supplies and DGAF about casualties you tend to win

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The Joseph Stalin strategy in WW2 as well. The Nazis were way more sophisticated and technologically advanced with better generals but the Soviets had too much disposable manpower and manufacturing capability to quickly churn out a bunch of cheap made tanks that they didn’t care if they lost

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Grant built his reputation beating shitty generals in the West.

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Albert Sidney Johnston wasn’t a shitty general.

You are largely correct. The sheer pace of operations Grant executed was impressive. Good write-up.

Drunk and idiot

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The colonists didn't fight the British at full strength.

Logistics and the British underestimated the war effort caused them to lose the war.

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A big part of that was because of Washington though. He had to be extremely careful in engaging the British. He knew he could not just fight them openly on the field until the end. He wore them down as they assumed they could defeat the rabble that they considered the Colonists and he kept beating them very strategically and often by surprise. Then finally he waited for their big mistake and caught Cornwallis at Yorktown and it was over.

Washington also insisted on being the last soldier to get housed at Valley Forge. He used the arrogance of the British against them and won as a massive underdog. This from a man that was literally the richest man in North America at the time. His selflessness and statesmanship are still uparalleled.

Oh, and though he didn't technically accomplish his deeds as a US General, Sam Houston deserves some mention in this thread. Taking out Santa Anna at San Jacinto was absolutely masterful.

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A much more massively industrialized Union with greater manpower was just waiting for a general willing to throw them into the fire.

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Grant had a lower casualty rate than Lee over the course of the war. His work at Vicksburg certainly wasn't predicated on manpower alone.

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Stonewall Jackson

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I can't think of a more overrated and lionized Civil War leader than Stonewall Jackson. The dude was undoubtedly on the spectrum, was a hypochondriac, and always kept his plans secret from even his closest subordinates. This really hurt him on more than one occasion.

- At First Bull Run, where his reputation was made, he had the luxury of fighting on the defensive against a foe who attacked his line with one regiment at a time. Never once did McDowell manage to bring more than two regiments to bare against Henry Hill in a coordinated attack on the Confederate lines there.

- In his famed Shenandoah Valley Campaign, the one in which he became a legend, his primary opponents were political generals who didn't have a shred of military experience or training. He was outnumbered to be sure, but the men he was up against did not have the skills needed to coordinate and communicate due to the fact that they weren't professionals but politicians. It was still a brilliant campaign that managed to accomplish its objectives but consider his competition.

- Jackson really let the Confederate cause down in the Seven Days' Campaign. Had he been where he was supposed to be and when he was supposed to be, Lee might have come close to achieving the victory he was looking for against McClellan. At the very least, McClellan would have seen one or two of his very large infantry corps mauled by aggressive Confederate assaults. Instead...every single attack (bar the one at Gaines' Mill) was a defeat for the Confederacy due to Jackson's failure to be in position and to coordinate his attacks.

- Jackson maneuvered brilliantly during the Second Manassas Campaign but once the main battle got underway his failings as a battlefield commander were laid bare. He had a golden opportunity to destroy a large chunk of Pope's army on the battle's first day but poor coordination and battlefield tactics prevented him from doing that. On the battle's third day, when Longstreet counterattacked and routed Pope's army from the field, Jackson failed to support Longstreet's advance and thus the Union army was able to secure Henry Hill long enough to retreat successfully. Had Jackson gone in sooner, it might have been a different story.

- Jackson performed admirably in the Maryland Campaign. He successfully enveloped and captured the important town of Harpers Ferry and arrived in time to assist Lee at the Battle of Antietam. His wing of the army successfully parried attacks from the First, Second, and Twelfth Union Army Corps. You can't fault Jackson for his performance in this campaign at all.

- At Fredericksburg, however, Jackson was lucky he didn't blow the entire ball game. He failed to properly reconnoiter his own line and, as a result, failed to spot the gap in A.P. Hill's position. A Union division under George Meade was able to exploit this gap and cause some serious damage before reinforcements were able to drive him away. However, had William Franklin sent all 40,000 of his men forward as ordered by Burnside (instead of just Meade's division of 7,000), it could have been a bad day for the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

- Jackson was lucky to go out on top as his May 2, 1863, assault at the Battle of Chancellorsville has gone down in history as among the most famous actions in American military history. What people don't realize, however, is that tactically the assault did very little to alter the course of the battle. If anything, the attack ended up putting the Confederate army at a disadvantage as it failed to link up with the rest of Lee's army, thus dividing Lee's army precariously in two. The attack also put the Union army in a stronger defensive position.

It was JEB Stuart, and not Jackson, who was most responsible for saving Chancellorsville for the Confederacy. He took over after both Jackson and A.P. Hill went down and acquitted himself well linking up with Lee's wing of the army.