"Who was the best ACW political general?" Topic

Not a West Point trained professional officer, but a civilian before the war who rose to general rank through political influence.
I realize that could about Grant or Sherman, but they were West Point.
For the sake of this poll, I specifically EXCLUDE West Point lads.
Some West Point professionals were pretty bad, but that's for another poll.

Sickles. He was from a wealthy family, no military experience, commanded a corps at Gettysburg, went on to become the ambassador to Spain. And before the war he killed his wifes lover and was the first man in history to use temporary insanity as a defense and he won!

I second Logan. He didn't get his corps decimated, unlike Sickles.

Joshua L. Chamberlain.

I guess I should nominate someone, since I started the poll.
I have always liked Banks. If you ignore all his blunders (Red River never happened ), he did rather well in independent command. I would rank Port Hudson with Vicksburg.

JJ, applying your criteria, Logan rose through the ranks on merit too.

Top three, imho are

Butler
Banks
Sickles

Gen. John Adams Dix. He saved Maryland for the Union without firing a shot. He calmed NYC after the draft riots as well.

I like all your choices but we need to give the "devil" his due. Nathan Bedford Forrest .

A difficult question, as some generals were originally appointed as Brigadiers due to political influence but were subsequently promoted based on merit.

Top three, imho are

Butler
Banks
Sickles

With all due respect,

Butler, tied up at Bermuda Hundred, has numerous chances to get pats the Confederates and into Petersburg and blows every single one, through incompetent Generalship and poor staff work.

Banks, the Confederates nicknamed him "Commissary Banks" because of all the supplies they took from him. And let's not forget the Red River Campaign.

Sickles, disobeys orders and gets his Corps destroyed at Gettysburg. Have you walked the line he was supposed to hold? I have, had he stayed there he would have been able to hold off Longstreet and he wouldn't have needed the help of the IInd, Vth, VIth and (while they didn't get into the fight they were called away from Culp's Hill) the XIIth Corps.

While I am a fan of Chamberlain he never commanded above a Brigade so I leave him out of this. My choices are;

Logan
Forrest (this is sort of a stretch because Forrest also never had a really large command (numerically))
Cleburne (again something of a stretch, he really wasn't "political" and he had served in the British Army but only rose to the rank of Corporal (I have sometimes seen claims that he was a Sergeant.) And of course he never got above Division.)

From my reading I would agree with Logan.

Logan was good. I'd also put in a vote for Lew Wallace. Took the fall for Shiloh, but did a great job at Monocacy in slowing up Early.

Sickles, while entertaining in the extreme, was a terrible general. I'm with Jowady--having walked the line at Gettysburg several times, I've always wondered what the devil Sickles was thinking when he moved off his position.

regards,
HesseDarmstadt62

jowady,

Your points are valid. However…

Butler invented "contraband" as a way of freeing thousands of slaves, circumventing the law that required them to be returned to their "owners". He also provided invaluable political support to the Union cause, hence his remaining in command.

Banks abandoned tons of supplies to the needy Confederates but he saved his command. Something that many other better generals were unable to accomplish when faced with Stonewall. He also attacked Stonewall at Ceder Mountain, gave him a bloody nose and again saved his command even though he was badly outnumbered. He thought the Red River Campaign was a terrible idea but was ordered to undertake it anyway.

Sickles did as you say but you can make a small case that his unauthorized and potentially catastrophic movement may have delayed the unenthusiastic Longstreet's attack giving time for Union reinforcements to move up. Of course he also made it necessary for those reinforcements to move up. He raised substantial NYC recruits, an area not exactly pro-union at the time, to the Union cause even after inventing the legal precedent for using temporary insanity as an excuse for homicide. After suffering a serious wound due to his folly at Gettysburg he was able to get his "story" out before Meade could release his – the second liar doesn't stand a chance! And what other general has an amputated leg in the Smithsonian?

I don't think all of the ones I chose count as political generals. A better question is "Who are the best ACW Generals that did not attend West Point".

A political general is a little hard to pin down. Especially ones that were any good.

Chamberlain – Nope, rose through the ranks on ability alone.

Nathan Bedford Forrest – Maybe a political appointment.

Black Jack Logan – Probably was

Patrick Cleburne – Nope, rose through the ranks on ability alone.

Nathan Bedford Forrest while you can say what you want about him. IMHO he was a battlefield genus. Did not have a days training before the war.

Sherman

Logan and Forrest.

Cheatham? Certainly not spectacular, but his Tennesseans adored him.

I don't think all of the ones I chose count as political generals. A better question is "Who are the best ACW Generals that did not attend West Point".

Yeah, I agree. That's probably closer to what I wanted. So that excludes Sherman, who certainly had political connections.

States rights gist – confederate general

Served from bull run to franklin
Political appointee