Confederate Officers

A brief look into three prominent Confederate Officer's and their personal impact on the weapons and tactics of the Civil War.

The Officers

None of the Confederate tactics or weapons of the Civil War could have been used effectively if it weren’t for the help of the excellent capabilities of Southern officers. Often, these men had to fight an enemy that outnumbered and outgunned them while exhausted and hungry, yet for quite some time; they held back the onslaught of Union invaders. It started with the unusual well-read nature of the officers, for contrary to popular belief, these men were often enthusiastic academics and readers who sought to use their education to gain an edge against the enemy. Of these officers, Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, and John S. Mosby stood apart because they could win battles when heavily outnumbered. With this in mind, these brilliant commanders had to strategically utilize their limited resources to defeat forces with far greater resources.

Robert Edward Lee

Lee's Tactics

As the commanding general of the Confederate forces, General Lee was a master of strategy. Lee trained most Union officers during the Civil War at West Point Military Academy. He showed a lot of potential as a general, and at the start of the war, Lee was offered an opportunity to lead the Union forces. Lee declined, however, and would become one of the most renowned commanding officers in the history of warfare, who, second to Napoleon, commanded troops in more battles than any other general. His strategic approach, in large part, revolved around Napoleon’s, in which he utilized his strengths to exploit a more significant force’s weakness. Throughout much of the war, Lee used his men’s extreme discipline to win battles by advancing upon the Union troops of lower discipline and advancing until they either surrendered or ran. The Union forces had size, but the South countered this with esprit de corps and skill (“Robert E. Lee’s Tactics During the Civil War”).
While some argue that the “problem with Robert E Lee’s tactics was his propensity to devise battle plans which either required impossible coordination and timing or which dissipated his limited strength through consecutive, instead of concurrent, attacks,” (“Robert E. Lee’s Tactics During the Civil War”) this approach was necessary as Lee had to attack, at times, in situations when math or common reason would have said that it was illogical. The beauty of Lee was that he could fight impossible odds to win a battle. Tactically, Lee was a genius, given what he had and how he used his supplies. He was almost always outnumbered, yet, he drew out a war that should have lasted for a month into a 5-year war of attrition between two unlikely equal forces (“Robert E. Lee’s Tactics During the Civil War”).

James Ewell Brown Stuart

Stuart's Tactics

“Jeb” Stuart, as he was known, is widely regarded as one of the greatest cavalry commanders of all time. The reason for this lies in his daring exploitation of Union forces. He is especially well known for riding around the Army of the Potomac in order to avoid almost certain defeats in order to claim victories at the Battles of Bull Run. He gathered crucial inteligence for Lee’s elaborate attacks and proper defense of the Confederacy. History.com states that “Stuart’s skill at providing reconnaissance, screening Confederate positions and harassing Union pickets (or forward defensive positions) proved indispensable during the Second Battle of Bull Run—when he intercepted Union battle plans that helped clinch a Confederate victory—and the Battle of Fredericksburg.” Many of Mosby’s tactics and early experience result from serving under General Stuart in the early half of the war. Stuart utilized a wide variety of tactics, which made him a versatile commander as he could and would command infantry and cavalry units alike during the war ("J.E.B. Stuart").
However, Stuart’s favorite attack strategy was flanking, and as mentioned, his indirect attack style devastated Union supply lines and fronts alike. In this manner, Stuart could both gather intelligence, capture supplies and prisoners, and set up to fight on his terms. Unlike Mosby and his Rangers, Stuart and his men utilized a much wider range of weapons, from swords and sabers to muskets and carbines; however, he and his men still preferred pistols when available. Stuart utilized pistols throughout the war and advocated for replacing swords with them ("J.E.B. Stuart"). Through his victories and conquest, Stuart changed the role of cavalry in warfare forever, from a supporting role to the main portion of an attack.

John Singleton Mosby

Mosby's Tactics

Col. John Mosby was infamous in the ranks of the Confederacy and Union alike. His fast guerilla fighting style was notorious amongst Union Cavalry ranks, who tried their best to avoid interactions with his group of Rangers. His primary weapon was, by and large, the Model 1861 Colt Navy Revolver, which he preferred due to its compact size and fast fire rate. Mosby’s focus was on fast-paced combat, so the speed of the Colt Navy made it an obvious choice for a primary arm. Mosby shunned swords and carbines, believing that swords were impractical and suicidal while carbines were too unwieldy in most situations. His primary strategies involved either using the terrain or feigned withdrawal. He was a major fan of this “false” withdrawal, as it allowed him to determine the position and location of the actual fighting. His fighting tactics helped bring an end to line warfare. This is where Mosby used his speed and knowledge of the land to gain an advatage over attackers, or as Jeffery Wert puts it in his book Mosby's Rangers,“So Mosby and his men rode from Fauquier to Loudon, striking in the dark of night or in the glare of day, at unexpected places, in good weather or bad. It was warfare predicated upon speed, mobility and surprise attacks-the tactics of thrust before parry. It’s nature, however, generated bitterness between antagonists,” and with this in mind, it is easy to see why line warfare proved utterly useless against officers like Mosby (Wert 35).

As Jeffery Wert wrote in his book Mosby’s Rangers, “Mosby believed that an enemy’s rear was the most vulnerable section of his lines. ‘A small force moving with celerity and threatening many points on a line can neutralize a hundred times its own number,’ he argued. ‘The line must be stronger at every point than the attacking force, else it is broken.’ Continuing, he wrote: ‘The military value of a partisan’s work is not measured by the amount of property destroyed…but by the number he keeps watching’” (Wert 34). Mosby’s fast-paced combat was perfect for breaking the poorly disciplined lines of Union infantry. The most critical role that Mosby played, however, was placing a certain amount of fear in the invading Union soldiers. Through both his speed and the fear factor he created, Mosby had a major impact on the Civil War and warfare in general.