George Crook

The admired but forgotten general.

He's more well known for his Indian fighting, but should not be known just for that. he did good work in the Army of the Potomac, with Sheridan in the Shenandoah and west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Sheridan was his best friend, and yet, he was the one who took all the credit for Crook's battle plans if they won the battle.

Sheridan, like Sherman, Joe Johnson, John Bell Hood, etc. etc. crafted memiors that told stories that were "spoiled by eyewitnesses".

The only two Civil War memoirs that actually admit to mistakes are those by Richard Taylor and U.S. Grant.

That's really the bad thing. Too, many generals wouldn't admit that other people were just as good.

it's noit quite that they say others were not as good--Sherman would place Grant above himnself, for instance, and Hood did not think Hood was beter than R.L. Lee.

They just did not want to admit that they personnaly made a mistake that led to a defeat and cost lives.

Getting back to Crook, he was good calvary commander in the east and the west, decent as an infantry combined arms commander, and the best Indian fighter the U.S. ever produced.
He lost one battle against the Indians--some Oglala Sioux chief named Crazy Horse beat him a week before the Little Bighorn.

A year later, more or less, when Crazy Horse surrendered, he made sure it was to Crook because Crook "never lied to us".

Crook also captured Geronimo. Geronimo escaped, and Miles was sent in to get him, but Miles used all the techniques Crook poineered to deal with the Apaches.

Not nesseccarily. It was more of a draw, because the Indians never forced him off the field. But, he was too hurt to be of any help at Little Bighhorn.

Crook himself called it the only defeat he ever suffered when facing the Indians. And he fought them before the Civil War also.