Union Civil War Generals

[CBR]

Calling the Union generals incompetent seems very similar to calling the WW1 British generals donkeys.

Not really. McClellan was simply not up to the job of leading an army into a campaign. Just look at his behavior in the Peninsula Campaign. If Grant had been in charge Richmond could have fallen in '62. The events leading up to Antietam was perhaps even more pathetic as McClellan had Lee's orders in his hands yet he failed to fully exploit it.

Hooker did somewhat better as he did manage to surprise Lee, yet he hesitated when he finally encountered enemy units which led to Chancellorsville. Of course it it did not help Hooker that he had a corps commander like Howard nor did it help getting knocked out by a shell at a critical time during the battle.

Some commanders have the guts needed to fight and some simply don't.

edit: oh and technology had nothing to do with the length of the war or battles not being decisive enough. It was a simple matter of size of the country coupled with low population density and therefore difficult logistics and occasionally broken up terrain. If technology meant wars could no longer be won by single battles then why where there so many long wars that involved several battles?