Poor McDowell. He was mediocre, but he could have been a decent division commander if he hadn't been promoted over his head.

Those who refused to serve were shot or hung. About a third of them deserted, however, by 1865.

Not clear why that would be relevant?

That's why I said "captain," not "general." Relieving a general is a political issue. Anyway, Pope went to Missouri and I think McDowell went to Minnesota. By rail and steamboat.

All two million of them?

Major Dundee is great example of how little even intelligent Hollywood writers understand about the Civil War army. No regular army captain or lieutenant would have been serving in New Mexico during the war. They were all out east, where those precious West Point educations would do someone some good. If an officer,…

Sherman has been made an icon of destructive warfare for no reason other than Southerners don't like him. He wasn't the first general to destroy property, and he didn't set any precedent where people weren't using him as an excuse for their own destructive orders. Also, Sherman hung men in his own army who molested…

Rio Lobo is typical of traditional Hollywood. The southern soldiers have characters and motivations. The union soldiers are generic one-dimensional characters. The Southern officers are noble and motivated. The Northern officers are cynical, apolitical, distant professionals. The Southern enlisted are "The Squad", as…

Definitely should have been more restrictions on the senior officers and politicians. They provided the leadership that allowed the Redemptionists to rise repeatedly over the next twenty years.

They made their decision based on what THEY knew and feared, not on what you know and regret.

I'm not quite following you, here. The movie was about Lincoln and other political leaders trying to end slavery. This is something they did, and it was a great victory against human evil. It made no claim to ending racism in America. So, what is the point of your criticism?

Even in old Westerns, where the Union officer was the hero, he was either cynical, indifferent, or apologetic to the Southerners.

A B-movie just appeared on Netflix called 'The Keeping Room.' Two women in a remote cabin in the Civil War south ally with their black female slave to fight off two murderous thugs from Sherman's union army.