Our postings are within the limits of this board or we would have been booted by now.

My original post was in response to Mac Hudson.

He said...

"I'm not sure that he could have stemmed the tide"

I said...

"Not alone. Jackson worked better paired with effective generals. He seemed to bring out the best in others and those others looked good working around him."

Then you came in (I think is was you)

"My opinion is the opposite, Jackson was just fine alone, and history cannot deny that. He was an independent thinker and tactician who did not like military bureaucracy in the least."

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The original post by Mac had a suggestion of Stonewall "stemming the tide", unless he was talking about a specific part of a specific battle, which he didn't mention, then he was suggesting that Jackson alone would hold back the Union forces. This suggests a strategical role for Jackson, which suggest a command of an army or the entire military of the Confederacy. Jackson was none of those; he never got there. He was the best Confederate division/corps commander, a tactical level responsibility only, a tactical role that supports the strategical level responsibility of the General of the Army in which he was subordinate to. He had the ability to understand perfectly what his role was in the overall strategic plan. To do that, and do it well he had to work well with the Army commander and the other division/corps commanders and he did, the best they had.

He was a brilliant tactician. I was not focusing on his ability to think independently, I was focusing on his ability as a division commander, district commander and better a corps commander to work well with others. Even during the Valley campaign he was performing the orders of his Army commander General Johnston and had to work well with other division commanders Ewell and Johnson to perform those orders.

His first battle as a division commander and one of the few battles where he was alone he lost...the Battle of Kernstown. His greatest battles were those where he filled the role of Corps commander working with other commanders. He could not have won at Chancellorsville without Lee holding Hookers front. That's why Lee said "He has lost his left arm; I have lost my right." He was a major part of the team of the Army of Northern Virginia...not the only team member. That's my only point.

We're not insulting each other in our argument here; we're just beating two ends of a dead horse. So Jamie doesn't have anything to fear from me.

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David Upton