Lincoln as Commander in Chief

[Thomas Thorne]

A general is like a surgeon who is unable to perform his profession in peacetime and when he operates on his first patient discovers the internal organs are differently constituted than he believed and may be in different locations. In the Civil War the best generals were those who were not slaves of outmoded Napoleonic doctrine and could adapt tried and true techniques to the new environment of the deadly rifled musket.

For the Union it was sad that Winfield Scott was too old to function as General in Chief. Certainly Scott erred in asserting that the brigade was the highest official formation a General could effectively command. No doubt he was correct that precious few Union officers could do so in 1861.

Scott was the designer of the "Anaconda Plan";a much more offensive variant of which became the Union grand strategy. His expedition to Mexico City in 1847 produced a tribute from the Duke of Wellington who deemed him the greatest soldier of the age.

Scott resigned his post due to the infirmities of age in late 1861 and retired to West Point where Pres Lincoln more than once traveled to solicit his advice. Too bad we do not have transcripts or recordings of their conversations.
Tom