As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I doubt anyone knows this, so the Lame Cherry will ask, in the American Civil War, who was the most successful commander in the east in the spring of 1862 AD in the year of our Lord.
In this stage, General Joseph Johnston was in command of the Confederates defendin Richmond, and General McClellan of the Army of the Potomac, a massive army was sitting in camp.
In the West, General Grant, against orders to only "present" his forces against the Confederates at Fort Donelson, instead, in noting the exuberance of his cornhusker troops, attacked and defeated the Confederate force.
For this, General McClellan was in agreement with the theater commander, General Halleck that Grant should be arrested for disobeying orders........but as Halleck noted, it was kind of hard to arrest a General who just had won a battle, the first in the West.
Into this a budding commander arose in the East. On May 4th, he ordered the Secretary of War to alert General Wool of Fortress Monroe to prepare his men for an advance.
The Commander, Secretary of Defense and War, boarded a steamer and drove down to the Fortress and went out to the flag vessel, the Minnesota which has just been run aground by the Merrimack, and the Commander ordered for them to sail down to Norfolk, in the Naval works there to shell them whichthe Minnesota did with effect in silencing one battery.
Not content, the Commander, also known as President Abraham Lincoln, boarded a tug and scouted down the coast in the Confederate positions. Lincoln's aggressive movements convinced the Confederates to fire the supplies at Norfolk and evacuate them.
Lincoln though was furious as he expected the Army to follow up and occupy Norfolk, but did nothing. So summoning the generals, he threw his hat on the floor and issued a handwritten order to advance which the army did in occupying Norfolk and the entire coast.............as General McClellan sat in camp
All of this came about, from another Lincoln meeting where he had ordered McClellan to advance and he did not move, to which Lincoln screamed at McClellan's junior officer heard, "Then why in hell an damnation is he not moving!" That was the extent of Lincoln's foul mouth.
This was the first time and only time a United States President actually commanded US forces in combat as Commander in Chief. If Lincoln had not moved, the Confederates would have held the entire peninsula until the end of the war. It was a remarkable action and a successul one which Lincoln was never given any credit for.
Credit is due when it is earned and Abraham Lincoln earned this as personally leaiding thee American forces on sea and land.
Nuff Said
agtG
