Lincoln was a Military Genius - NOT

One myth of the civil war is that Lincoln was some kind of Military genius. This view is probably best expressed in T.Harry Williams Book "Lincoln Finds a General" Where in Wise old Abe keeps promoting Generals, telling them what to do, and the stupid Generals keep letting him down. He keeps telling McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade to get out and fight. And that Lee's Army is their true objective and that if they'd just try hard enough, they'd destroy Lee and win the war. Well, one of the reasons this never happened is that the Army of Potomac never had enough men. They never had enough men, because Lincoln kept scattering the Union Army all over the Map - and attacking in different directions. Here is the distribution of the Union Army in July 1863:

1. Western Theater

• Missouri (Schofield) -25,000 men
• New Orleans (Banks) - 25,000
• Kentucky (Burnside) -40,000
• Nashville (Rosencrans) -85,000
• West Tennessee Garrisons -40,000
• Vicksburg (Grant) -60000
• Total Western 275,000 men

Eastern Theater

• NC Coast -14,000
• SC Coast -16,000
• Norfolk/Ft Monroe -30,000
• DC Garrison -35,000
• WV/Maryland -35,000
• AOP -115,000
• Total Eastern 245,000 men

Total Union Army 520,000 men

Meade's 115,000 men are simply the men present. After deduction for sick, in confinement, non-combatents, etc. leave about 90,000 men vs. Lee's 75,000. This despite the fact that the Union Army outnumbered the Confederate Army by 520,000 vs. 250,000. The 250,000 confederates were distributed as follows:

Eastern Theater

• Lee Army - 75,000
• Richmond and NC 20,000
• WV 5,000
• SC Coast 15,000
• Total Eastern 115,000

Western Theater

• Nashville (Bragg) 45,000
• E. Tenn 15,000
• Arkansas 15,000
• Jackson Miss 25,000
• Vicksburg 30,000
• LA 10,000
• Total West 140,000