Be grateful it wasn't a California condor

            Just sayin'

Who is this guy? Lafayette McLaws was thought of as an incompetent commander by Robert E. Lee. He was later court-martialed by the Confederate Army that he served for neglect of duty in the Knoxville campaign, charged by General James Longstreet, who was his boyhood and West Point friend. 

Ouch!

Savannah reveres him. In fairness to Generals McLaws and one of the Confederacy's most brilliant generals, James Longstreet, both were outgeneraled by William Tecumseh Sherman like so many other Confederate generals up against Sherman and the U.S. Army troops under Sherman's command. 

“My dear wife,” wrote McLaws right after the loss to Sherman at Knoxville, Tennessee. He didn’t mince words in his private letter to his wife when it came to his commanding officer and old friend, General Longstreet. “I think the attack was unnecessary and the whole plan of battle a very bad one. Genl Longstreet is to blame for not reconnoitering the ground and for persisting in ordering the assault when his errors were discovered.† During the engagement he was very excited giving contrary orders to everyone, and was exceedingly overbearing. I consider him a humbug, a man of small capacity, very obstinate, not at all chivalrous, exceedingly conceited, and totally selfish. If I can it is my intention to get away from his command.”††

Although a court-martial charge stuck, McLaws would still be needed by a losing Confederacy that was more and more in need of commanders, especially career officers and West Point graduates. McLaws was later re-assigned to defend Savannah, where of all things he had a rematch with General William Sherman –this time at the end of Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea. 

McLaws lost again.

There is a comeback story here. The city of Savannah erected a bust to revere the Georgian who had settled and thrived here after the Civil War. Confederate McLaws was pardoned for his crime of insurrection by the U.S. government. He worked for the U.S. government's Internal Revenue Service in Savannah. And then he became U.S. Post Master General for Savannah. Even though he owed his livelihood and career to the federal government of the United States, McLaws supported Confederate veterans' organizations whose members had violently battled against the very same federal government of the United States.

---
†Note: I take it that Sherman and those under his command discovered Longstreet's error and successfully exploited it.
††Source: from the book A Soldier’s General, The Civil War Letters of Major General Lafayette McLaws, edited by John C. Oeffinger, pg 2

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Taken in: United States / Georgia / Robert M Hitch Village / Fred Wessels Homes (show map)

Taken on: February 26, 2024

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