2. Don Carlos Buell was a methodical oranizer and a poor politician.
Don Carlos Buell weas born. March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio. He died Nov. 19, 1898, Rockport, Ky. Buell graduated from West Point in 1841 and was a company officer of infantry in the Seminole War of 1841-42 and the Mexican War. From 1848 to 1861 he acted chiefly as assistant adjutant general. On the outbreak of the Civil War Buell was appointed lieutenant colonel, then brigadier general of volunteers and major general of volunteers in March 1862. Buell aided in organizing the Army of the Potomac and was sent, in November 1861, to Kentucky to succeed General William T. Sherman in command. There he organized and trained the Army of the Ohio, which to the end of its career retained a standard surpassed only by that of the Army of the Potomac. In the spring of 1862 Buell pursued the retiring Confederates under General Sidney Johnston, served under General Henry W. Halleck in the Union advance on Corinth, and in the autumn commanded in the campaign in Kentucky against the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. A period of maneuvering ended in the indecisive Battle of Perryville. The alleged tardiness of his pursuit and his objection to a plan of campaign ordered by the Washington authorities brought about his removal from command. The complaints made against him were investigated in 1862-63, but the result was not published. Subsequently, Buell was offered military employment, which he declined. He resigned his volunteer commission in May and his regular commission in June 1864. After the war he settled in Kentucky, where he engaged in mining. Text adapted from an article in Encyclopedia Britannica.

3. William S. Rosecrans was a brilliant tactician and a poor politician.
William S. Rosecrans was born  Sept. 6, 1819, Kingston, Ohio. He died March 11, 1898, Redondo, Calif. Roserans graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1842, Rosecrans served 12 years as an army officer and then resigned to become an architect and civil engineer in Ohio and Virginia. Returning to active service upon the outbreak of the war, he served under Gen. George B. McClellan and Gen. John Pope, each of whom he succeeded when he moved east to larger commands. During 1862 Rosecrans led Union forces to victory in the battles of Iuka and Corinth, Miss., after which he moved on to Nashville, Tenn., to take command of the Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans fought well at the intense but indecisive Battle of Stones River, or Murfreesboro (Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863). About this time, Rosecrans' earlier aggressive quality seemed to give way to an excess of caution and a disposition to worry and to argue with his superiors, who he felt were hampering the effectiveness of his command. Finally, on June 23, 1863, after six months of delay in the face of official pressure to take the offensive, he began an advance that forced Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg into Chattanooga, Tenn., then manoeuvred him out of the city without a battle. There Rosecrans' customary hesitancy vanished, and he followed Bragg, who turned upon him and precipitated the bloody Battle of Chickamauga (September 19-20). An ill-advised move opened a gap in Rosecrans' lines and allowed Southern forces to pour through and put to rout part of his army, which was driven back into Chattanooga. Only the strong stand of Gen. George H. Thomas on the North's left averted complete defeat. A month later Thomas replaced Rosecrans, ending any important role for him in the war. Rosecrans resigned his army commission in 1867, serving as minister to Mexico during the next two years. Later he represented California in the U.S. House of Representatives (1881-85) and served as register of the U.S. Treasury (1885-93). Text adapted from an article  in Encyclopedia Britannica.

4. George H. Thomas, an astute non-politician,  won every one of his engagements in the Civil War.
George H. Thomas was born 31July 1816 in Southampton County, VA and died 28 March 1870 in San Francisco. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY in 1840, George H. Thomas served in the Mexican War (1846-48) and as an artillery and cavalry instructor at West Point. Despite his Southern birth he remained loyal to the Union when the Civil War broke out. In command of an independent force in eastern Kentucky, Thomas attacked the Confederates on 19 Jan. 1862 at Mill Springs and gained the first important Union victory in the war and thus undermined the entire western defense of the CSA general Albert Sydney Johnston. Thomas then served under General Don Carlos Buell and was offered but refused the chief command. Under General William S. Rosecrans he was instrumental in holding the center with his artillery at Murfreesboro (Stones River), TN on 31 Dec. 1863 and 2 Jan. 1864. Thomas was in charge of the most important part of the maneuvering during the Tullahoma Campaign (22-29 June) and the entry into Chattanooga, TN (8 Sept. 1863). On 19-20 Sept. 1863, after two days of conflict along Chickamauga Creek in Georgia 12 miles (19 km) south of Chattanooga, General Thomas adroitly organized Union defenses after the collapse of the Union right wing and withstood all afternoon long violent attacks on the left wing by the entire Confederate army under Braxton Bragg until the arrival of reserve units under Granger allowed an orderly withdrawal of Union troops back to Chattanooga. For this action Thomas was called the "Rock of Chickamauga" and later promoted to brigadier general of the regular army (maintaining his rank of major general of the volunteers). Thomas succeeded Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland on 19 Oct. 1863. Thomas and his Army of the Cumberland played the determining role in the great victory at Chattanooga (23-25 Nov. 1863). This battle opened the door to the deep South and made possible the subsequent capture of Atlanta (2 Sept. 1864) which helped assure Lincoln's reelection. Before William T. Sherman's march to the sea in the autumn of 1864, Thomas was ordered back to Nashville to deal with the threat to Union communications by the Confederate forces of General John B. Hood. Thomas had achieved his objective by Christmas, checking the enemy army at Franklin, TN (30 Nov. 1864), and finally at Nashville, TN 15-16 (Dec. 1864). At that historic battle, Thomas inflicted on Hood the worst defeat sustained in the open field on either side during the war. It was also the only decisive Union victory of the war in which the USCT played a meaningful role. Thomas then directed the forces which pursued and captured Jefferson Davis (10 May 1865). Thomas was made a major general of the regular army and received the thanks of Congress. Toward the end of the war and afterward Thomas was the military governor in charge of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Thomas wholeheartedly supported the reconstruction policies of Lincoln and Johnson and is recognized as being the most effective of all of the military governors. In 1869 Thomas was placed in charge of the Division of the Pacific with headquarters at San Francisco. He died at the age of 54 in his office in San Francisco. Text adapted from an article in Encyclopedia Britannica.

6. "Fighting Joe" Hooker, liked by his men, disliked by his superiors because he spoke his mind.
Joseph Hooker was born Nov. 13, 1814 in Hadley, Mass., died Oct. 31, 1879 in Garden City, N.Y. Union general in the American Civil War (1861-65) who successfully reorganized the Army of the Potomac in early 1863 but who thereafter earned a seesaw reputation for defeat and victory in battle. A West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War (1846-48), Hooker left his California home at the outbreak of the Civil War to serve as brigadier general of volunteers. In 1862 he participated in all the major Eastern campaigns and was dubbed "Fighting Joe" because of his vigorous leadership in the field and also to the misinterpretation of a terse battle report which he sent by telegram with the words "Fighting - Joe Hooker". When General A.E. Burnside resigned command of the Army of the Potomac after the Union disaster at Fredericksburg (November-December), Hooker was appointed to succeed him. Immediately the new commander effected several much-needed organizational reforms and prepared to challenge the South at the Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1-4, 1863). His defects as a commanding officer became apparent when Confederate general Robert E. Lee, with fewer than half the number of troops, outmaneuvered him and caused a Union retreat. This defeat resulted in the loss of 17,000 Union soldiers. When Lee advanced into Pennsylvania in June, Hooker followed him closely until, rebuffed by Washington in his request for  additional troops, he sensed his superiors' distrust and resigned his command on the eve of battle of Gettysburg. Three months later Hooker was sent by rail in command of two corps of the Army of  the Potomac to help relieve General George H. Thomas, besieged at Chattanooga, Tenn.  On Nov. 24, 1863, he won the "Battle Above the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain. On Nov. 25 he was instrumental in undermining Braggs left flank on Missionary Ridge, clearing the way for Thomas's triumphant charge up the middle of Missionary Ridge. Denied advancement during the Atlanta Campaign in 1864, he thereafter ceased to play any active part in the war. Adapted from an article in the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
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7. Braxton Bragg, a favorite whipping boy of historians, was much smarter than he is made out to be.
Braxton Bragg was born on march 22, 1817 in Warrenton, N.C. and died Sept. 27, 1876 in Galveston, Texas. Confederate officer in the U.S. Civil War (1861-65) whose successes in the West were dissipated when he failed to follow up on them, partially due to dissension among ambitious subordinate generals. After graduating in 1837 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Bragg served in the Seminole Wars and the Mexican War (1846-48). As a major general in the Confederate Army, he commanded a corps at Shiloh (April 1862) and, upon the death of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in that battle, was promoted to full general's rank. In the autumn of that year, having succeeded Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard in the command of the Army of Tennessee, Bragg led a bold advance from eastern Tennessee across Kentucky to Louisville. Tactically, the ensuing Battle of Perryville (October) was a draw. Unabel to fight to a decision, Bragg withdrew into Tennessee. Though he was bitterly censured by some, the preference of Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis kept him at the head of the Army of Tennessee, and in December-January 1862-63 he fought the indecisive Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) against Gen. William Starke Rosecrans. The following September he inflicted a crushing defeat on Rosecrans at Chickamauga and for a time besieged the Union forces at Chattanooga. But large Federal reinforcements were concentrated upon the threatened spot under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and George H. Thomas, and the great Battle of Chattanooga (23-25 November 1863) ended in the rout of Bragg's army. Bragg was then relieved of his command, but President Davis made him his military adviser. After the war he was a civil engineer in Alabama and Texas. Adapted from an article in the Encyclopedia Brittanica.