Something to Ponder and Debate?

[RJNorton]

(03-17-2019 12:06 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  When he heard the news, Mr. Lincoln sat down and wrote a letter of criticism and disappointment which reflects the intensity of his feeling at the escape of Lee:

Lincoln never signed or sent the letter.

There is a paragraph on this letter in the most recent edition of the Lincoln Herald. The article is written by U.S. Army Major Adam L. Taliaferro and entitled "Lincoln & Clausewitz: An Examination of Lincoln's Military Strategy as compared to the Great Military Theorist." The paragraph reads:

"In the famous letter that Lincoln never sent to General George Meade, Lincoln admonishes General Meade for his failure to pursue and defeat General Lee, following Lee's retreat at the Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln's cause for distress and concern was valid. Lincoln was clear and emphatic in the letter, stating if Meade would have continued to pursue Lee and closed upon him, it would have ended the war. Lincoln was correct in understanding that Lee did not 'appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape,' because Meade arguably could not conceptualize the greater strategy, and the Clausewitzian theory of center of gravity. As Clausewitz explained, "if you can vanquish all your enemies by defeating one of them, that defeat must be the main objective in the war."

The article spends a good deal of time referencing a book written by Prussian military strategist and theorist Carl von Clausewitz. The book is entitled On War. Major Taliaferro writes that "Clausewitz and On War is required instruction for U.S. military officers at the Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force Command and General Staff Colleges."

Clausewitz argues that to win a war the enemy's center of gravity must be attacked. Once the enemy's center of gravity is defeated, his ability to wage war is eliminated. In the case of the Confederacy, the center of gravity was Lee's army. (Centers of gravity can be an army, a government, allies or a leader.)

In his article Major Taliaferro is extremely praiseworthy of Lincoln's strategy and understanding of military tactics. He does not know if Lincoln read On War, but he says that Lincoln understood and believed in Clausewitzian principles, and most of his generals did not. He writes that most of the generals did not understand what the Confederacy's center of gravity was, and that Lincoln's understanding of it was the root cause of all the general-switching that Lincoln undertook.

Major Taliaferro attended the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He served combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.