Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

An Army chief of staff on the great insight of Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War

Deep in the oral history of Gen. Gordon Sullivan, who was Army chief of staff from 1991 to 1995, is this interesting comment on why Grant stands out so much among Civil War generals: The Union generals were unable to turn their advantages into accomplishments on the battlefield. Their advantages were mass production and the ...

Deep in the oral history of Gen. Gordon Sullivan, who was Army chief of staff from 1991 to 1995, is this interesting comment on why Grant stands out so much among Civil War generals:

Deep in the oral history of Gen. Gordon Sullivan, who was Army chief of staff from 1991 to 1995, is this interesting comment on why Grant stands out so much among Civil War generals:

The Union generals were unable to turn their advantages into accomplishments on the battlefield. Their advantages were mass production and the North processed food, munitions, standardized artillery, you name it. The railroad, had waterborne transportation. Grant was the first one who was able to look at all of that and turn all of those advantages on the battlefield. He was able to run large-scale operations. He essentially was writing the book on going from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age, he and his generals in the Army.

I thought, and I still do, that [during Sullivan’s time as Army chief of staff] we were beginning the journey from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. There was a lot that Grant did which was exemplary of the kind of work that we did. I used some of the examples.

(P. 271, with my editing of some punctuation)

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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