Who was the best union cavalry general of the civil war?

Question

I think it was Custer does anyone disagree

Answer 1

I certainly do. John Buford was probably superior to Custer, while the title of best can be disputed between Phil Sheridan and James Wilson. On the evidence of his final campaign I would give the accolade to Wilson. Benjamin Grierson made one great raid - but was mediocre for the rest of the war.

Answer 2

Custer was all about getting his name in the papers, which he did by becoming a general at a very early age. He got his name in the papers again in 1876 at Little Big Horn. While Custer did have some early success, he was prone to making bad decisions on good intelligence.
John Buford was probably the best Union General...but he was over shadowed by Phil Sheridan's "total war" actions. Buford was a tacticial fighter, where Sheridan's (a very competent general), strategy was to simply overpower and destroy.

Answer 3

Custer was a vainglorious moron who only cared about making a name for himself (which he did by getting himself and his entire unit slaughtered in 1876). And he wasn't a general during the Civil War - I'm pretty sure he didn't get promoted to that rank until quite late in the war.

John Buford was probably the best overall and could have really made something of the Federal cavalry but he, unfortunately, died (of pneumonia, I think) late in 1863.

Sheridan was the best tactician.

Answer 4

An excellent question! Yes, the name Sheridan comes immediatley to mind, and Custer's performance as a Union calvary general was admirable too, but truly the best Union calvary general of the U.S. Civil War was Hugh Judson "Kill-Calvary " Kilpatrick. A Lieutenant in the 2nd New York Calvary, then by 1864 a Brigadier General of the 3rd Calavary Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, and he finished the war in 1865 as a Major General of Volunteers.

Answer 5

This is a long dead question but I have to add my two cents. I vote for Benjamin Grierson. Grierson was not mediocre for the rest of the war following his brilliant contribution to the Vicksburg campaign.

After his service in the Vicksburg Campaign was completed Grierson was injured by a horse and required months of recovery. While it is true that he commanded the Cavalry at the disastrous battle of Brice's Station, that blunder was all on Sturgis. Once Grierson was back in independent command his brilliance burned bright once more. During his strike at the Mobile and Ohio railroad, Grierson's command destroyed more than 100 miles of railroad, destroyed 32 warehouses and captured a substantial portion of Forrest's command at Verona Mississippi where he took hundreds of prisoners. Then three days later he assaulted a Confederate troop train at Egypt and captured 500 men.

When able to take full advantage of his aggression speed and misdirection Grierson was as good as any cavalry commander of the war.

Answer 6

I don't reject the idea that Custer was one of the better cavalry leaders but put it this way, would you have voluntarily joined his cavalry? He sure did have an unusally high rate of casualties, and some of this you can attribute to his agression. I would have prefered to have been in Hamptons cavalry.

Answer 7

Have not done much reading on Union cavalry, but I would lean toward Sheridan or Buford.

Answer 8

Sheridan in my opinion. anything I would say about Custer would be disqualified for bad language

Answer 9

Grant did kinda ok, Custer was a blunderbuss, but had some successes. Sheridan and Sherman were just devastateing

Answer 10

While there were a few very impressive men like Sheridan, Burford and more, I think that in his capacity of the commanding general, by virtue of strategy, boldness and tenacity, it was U.S. Grant. He really turned the tide.