Great thoughts! I have always been partially to A.J. Smith, John McArthur, and Alpheus Williams and am glad that they were brought up. To add another general, I have also thought James B. Steedman to be a good general, even if he had a lower-standard for his personal affairs. For lower officers, Charles Harker, Samuel Carroll, and Emerson Opdycke are certainly among the greats.
Steedman is a good choice. I also just remembered two other lower ranking officers that impressed me:
Brig Gen Manning F. Force. The man was the brigade commander of the best division of the Army of the Tennessee. He earned a Medal of Honor for seizing Bald Hill from Wheeler’s cavalrymen and withstood a counterattack by a Texan brigade of Cleburne’s Division. The man went out of his way to inspire the troops by staying mounted on his horse under the deadly hail of canister and rifle fire.
On the next day, July 22, he found himself in a predicament: to his front, there was a division of Confederate forces at Atlanta and to his rear, an entire Confederate division was about to assault. When asked what to do, he calmly told his subordinates to turn their backs to the Confederates at Atlanta and his division commander, Mortimer Leggett, ordered the rest of the division to do the same.
His men were charged by Cleburne’s men and his skirmishers reported movement from the rebels at Atlanta. He called for one of his staff officers to fetch him the colors. His staff officer brought back a piece of white cloth. Gen. Force furiously yelled, "Danm you, sir! I don’t want a flag of truce! I want the American flag!" He was later wounded in the battle but his brigade held itself together and later repelled another attack by Cleburne.
Charles C. Walcutt was also an excellent brigade commander. He was distinguished himself in the Atlanta Campaign and was crucial to winning the Battle of Atlanta on July 22. When the rest of the XV Corps had been routed by Cheatham, Walcutt’s brigade came under severe fire and was ordered to fall back. But Walcutt knew that retreating meant leaving the XVII Corps encircled by the rebels. When Leggett, the senior division commander of the XVII Corps, came to ask Walcutt not to go, Walcutt told the division commander that he was going to accept the responsibility of ignoring orders. Walcutt ultimately served as a rally point for the rest of the XV Corps, which had been rallied by Logan, and he thus arguably made the decision that won the battle.