"Cedar Mountain 1862 " Topic

"PARENTAL WARNING: Possible Disrespect to a Revered Confederate Icon
A caution to those of you who may be fans of Stonewall Jackson; my discussion of this lessor known battle in which he is credited with a miraculous victory may not put him in the most glowing light. I am not a member of his press corps. In fact, while I was growing up, though my dad, as a Texan, seemed to be a sympathetic Confederate (he used to get all choked up whenever we'd visit Gettysburg and stop at the Lee memorial), as a clinical psychologist he once told me that he attended a convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in New Orleans where one of the symposium topics was a debate on whether Stonewall Jackson might have been diagnosed as a schizophrenic today. He said that the great general had all the symptoms of someone suffering from that illness.

Wish I could have witnessed that debate. But I was only nine then.

I have never, myself, been a big fan of Jackson. Sorry. I think he did some remarkable feats as a leader (in the Valley Campaign and at Chancellorsville), but I also think he was pretty inconsistent. Lee seemed to be infatuated with him, though. Jackson was fractious and practiced blatant favoritism. He antagonized nearly all of his would-be allies at one time or another by constantly bringing up court martial charges against colleagues and subordinates. And his organizational skills were, at best, amateurish and exasperating…."

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Amicalement
Armand

This guy knows his stuff!

This guy's main criticism of Jackson is he was hard to work for. Who cares? At one time or another he seemed to always have one of his subordinates under arrest. But he won battles.

Bedford Forrest was just as hard or harder to get along with but he was a genius at warfare. How Jackson earned his nickname has nothing to do with anything. I doubt he cared one bit about it. It wasn't perfect but I would want on my side. He take all the naps he wants.

It was an interesting battle. We used to reenact it on the actual battlefield.

I do not understand why people have to dislike one general to promote the view another general is good.

So this author liked Longstreet. So do I. I think Lee should have listened to Ole Pete. Probably would have defeated the Union army south of Gettysburg.

Jackson took naps!? Slept through artillery duels?! During a battle?! Hello, wake up…..soldiers do that at times. Called cat naps. While seeming deep asleep, they hear everything. Bet if the author took a time machine back to the battle and walked the line…..he would find some soldiers laying down "resting with their eyes closed" while others watched.

Napoleon took naps. Yes Yes Waterloo, but even during victorious conflicts he did.

Jackson had his faults just like Grant, Banks, Longstreet, Lee, Lincoln etc etc etc etc Jackson won battles.

Was he mad? When George II was told Wolfe was a madman, the King responded that he hope he would bite some of his other Generals.

Oh and the Battle was Banks to lose? Yep and Jackson's to lose also. And was Bank's to win and Jackson's to win. Bank's lost. He did poorly. His troops did not live up to expectations. Jackson and his troops did. Therefore he won.

It wasn't the naps. They were just a synecdoche of my general disdain for the accepted notion of Jackson as a military genius. My point in this article was that it was his highly competent and innovative subordinates (notably the timely arrival of A.P. Hill, whom Jackson loathed) who saved his bacon…while he napped.

Also, when you consider that Jackson enjoyed a 2-1 superiority over Banks and that Banks himself was no genius (see my scathing criticism of his mistakes in the article), the scale of the contest doesn't reflect all that highly on Stonewall.

In the final analysis, neither side really "won" this battle. Banks pulled out that evening. Then Jackson did a few hours later, leaving the battlefield to the buzzards and crows. And Pope arrived (a day late and a dollar short) the next day to reclaim the lost ground. Both side's newspapers hailed it as a great victory. But it was just a fiasco.

Do you enjoyed the map? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Tango01: I have never been able to make up my mind about Stonewall and I seems I never will. However its a very interesting and thought provoking article. John Miller

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

One problem with analyzing Jackson is that although there is a strong case that can be made that Jackson wasn't as good as his hagiographers claimed, he still was good. While Jackson might have denied he failed at Cedar Mountain, I suspect he'd take a "do-over".