America's Worst General
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Who was the worst American army general of all time?
It's 2 a.m. on a March morning in 1847 during the Mexican-American War. Under a canvas canopy somewhere in the countryside, a U.S. Army captain sleeps fitfully. Around him in their own tents, his troops snore and breathe and mutter in their dreams. Out on the camp's perimeter, the night watch whispers to each other. There's all the normal sounds of night. Crickets, cicadas, frogs, an owl hoots in the trees. And then there's that hissing under the captain's cot. He bolts upright, dives into the night a split second before a 12-pound artillery shell detonates, shredding his tent with shrapnel. Enemy attack? Hardly. In fact, one of his own men had planted the explosive with intention to harm, if not kill.
How awful do you have to be at leading men for one of your own to try and murder you? And how does such a dreadful officer live to lead another day, only to be finally named general? General. Hey, it's American History Hit. Thanks for listening. I'm Don Wildman. Across the span of America's wars, in which so many citizen soldiers have courageously fought and died, the leaders of those wars, the generals, are so often brilliant at executing strategy, supply, and even political maneuvers. Today's episode isn't about them. Instead, it's about the blunderers, the overreachers, the outmatched and outsmarted, the disastrous decision-makers who put their forces and their nation into harm's way with what proved to be, well, general ineptitude.
Who were America's worst generals? Today, we look at a few outstanding examples of those who, if history is our guide, had no business calling the shots. And we'll proudly do it with a returning voice in such matters, Professor Cecily Zander of the University of Wyoming, author of a new book just out there on the horizon entitled Abraham Lincoln and the American West coming out at the end of this summer. as well as Army Under Fire, Anti-Militarism in the Civil War. She is an expert in Civil War history, who has joined us for a number of previous episodes about U.S. Grant, as well as others. Welcome back, Cecily Zander. Ready to dive into the inglorious leaders we'd rather forget?
Hey, John, it's great to be back. Unfortunately, I think I've spent most of my career studying these guys and not the good ones. So, yeah, I'm absolutely ready.
Yes, they always get the attention. We've got a list of six. There could likely be more. But if a great general is, in the broad sense, one who sees the field, the tactics of forces, the terrain, the time of battle, who makes the decisions of clarity and conviction, ours today, as I mentioned, did not. So what qualifies a bad general in general?
It's a great question. I would sort of put maybe sort of two related issues forward things that that tend to hold back military officers. I think one is inability to put ego aside. I think we're going to talk a lot about a lot of guys who had really big egos and thought they knew best and in a related fashion. didn't feel the need to consult anyone else or to get along with anyone else and i think something that makes a great general is the ability to get along with superiors and subordinates and we have a list of guys today who really failed to do that and often sometimes even actively tried to undermine their superiors and in so doing undermined the national war effort
Sure. And they lack tactical ability would be, I think, another. Sure. And they can be, I don't know, if downright coward, it applies. Yeah. As someone who never served, I'm fearful to call anybody that. But anyway, let's start with Braxton Bragg, a name for the books if ever there was. He was a Confederate general in the Army of Tennessee, possibly the most hated general on our list. Why so?
Braxton Bragg had a lot of problems, not least of all his single eyebrow, which I think, you know, as sort of, you know, and again, I encourage our listeners to just Google and admire. I mean, he truly looks like a Muppet more than a human being. But, you know, Braxton Bragg, He didn't have a lot going for him.
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