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Civil War General?
This my seem very odd, but from one of my history classes a while ago I seem to remember that there was a general during the Civil War who was a brilliant strategist. One of the example of things he did was having his men run around and make a large dust cloud, therefore causing the enemy to think that he had a very large number of men, and they fled. What I can't remember is which general did this, or even which side he fought for. So really what I'm asking is: who was the civil war general who once created a cloud of dust to scare the enemy?
2 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate, used basically the same tactics at Brices Cross Roads (Mississippi). He used one of his mounted infantry brigades, split it in several sections, had them first appear mounted so they were mistaken for Confederate cavalry, then reappear as infantry in another location. Forrest then rode into the Union lines, told them they were surrounded, and got them to surrender.
(Forrest is much more of a claimant to the title "brilliant strategist" than Magruder!)
- WMDLv 71 decade ago
"Prince" John B. Magruder, C.S.A. used the tactic of having his men march past the same position multiple times during the Union siege of Yorktown, during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. He also moved his artillery around and fired liberally, to give the Union forces the impression that his force was much larger than it really was.
"Prince" John's biography is an interesting one - yes, wikipedia has it.
