Why did generals lead from the front?

[Shirkon]

galusha wrote:

I didnt forget that Grant was the overall commander. I really dont give a hoot who is or was the overall commander in this discussion. Again, I thought it was about leading from the front. We got on this Grant /Mac thing after I made a slight about McClellan. He was just an example of the type of general who comes to mind(my mind) of not being there or in contact with the front. I would still say Grant was the type of leader who lead the front because of his proven behavior of being all over the battlefield thruout his career. I am sorry but I am not familiar with any account of Mac having done so. I am sure he did though because he was a capable general and not a coward( he must have done something right to get where he got), but he prove not to be as good a fighting general as Grant and many others. Was it because he didnt lead his men as well from the front during combat? I believe it was so. "Lee to the rear" sounds right, "Mac to the rear" does not to me.

I'll have to agree with you here. Actually for any one above Brigade commander it was frowned on to lead from the very front. Division commander and above had to watch over too much to effectively lead from the front. Being near it on the other hand was necessary for them so that they could feed in reserves or to correct any misalignment of their troops. You hear of many instances of division and even corps commanders having mounts shot out from under them. Brigade commanders just due to the fact that their commands were smaller and thus closer to the action were in much greater danger and lets face it regimental commanders were in the thick of it. The lower they were in the order of battle the closer they were to the action itself. Grant though did get much closer to the action then Lil Mac ever dreamed of. At Shiloh, Grant was so close that he had one of his aides killed at his side. It must be remembered though that Grant was a combat officer even in the Mexican war while Mac was an engineer and had never commanded troops in the field until the Civil War.

[Colonel Dreux]

All true... but he was with the AOTP and calling the shots. He was the brains behind the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Cold Harbor.