Phillip Kearny. Command Potential

In August 1852 Maj Gen Phil Kearny commanding the Union Army 3rd Division was killed at the battle of Chantilly. His reputation as a combat leader was high & there were rumors he was on Lincolns list of potential commanders of the Army of the Potomac. Assuming Kearny survives, is elevated to corps commander Shortly after August 1862, what are the odds of him being choosen for the Army of the Potomac or and other army command, and how would he have done at that level?
 

Japhy

Banned
Corps command is pretty inevitable if he survives. And there's a case to be made that overall Army command is in reach for him. In place of Burnside I'd generally assume.

That said I don't have much faith in his ability to preform at higher levels. As a divisional commander he was another glory hound who didn't know how to lead a staff and whom didn't offer much in the way of tactical thinking.

There's a distinct chance that his command could lead to the word Custerite being spelt differently. Though of course, that puts me in the minority on this site for folks who have read about him.
 
Phil Kearny in command instead of George Meade during the Gettysburg campaign? Assuming it ends in Lee retreating back to Virginia, I can see Kearny making a real effort to destroy him north of the Potomac.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
He might have been yet another example of the Peter Principle, a Union version of John Bell Hood: magnificent brigade commander, outstanding division commanders, mediocre corps commander, walking disaster as army commander.
 
The bios have various remarks about how well trained his commands were. Specifically the brigade he first commanded & then the division. But then McCellan had a rep for training as well. The staff thing would of course be critical. Need more information there. The odd back story about him is he ended his US Army career in the 1850s to return to France & serve with a Chassuers regiment, fighting in the Battle of Solfierno as a French officer. A couple decades earlier after graduating from West Point he had attended a French military school and trained with the Chassuers.
 
Weidermeyer attended the Kriegsacadimie. But somewhere along the line the attitude changed. I recall how one of my peers in the US Marine Corps had somehow finagled it that his Annapolis Midshipman cruise was with the Rhodesian Army. A number of other officers in my battalion thought that a complete waste & several thought it somehow treasonous. Tho they could not identify exactly why :confused:? In Japan we had on paper a exchange program with the JSDF, but I never saw any Marine officers spend any time with a Japanese unit. I did spend a lot of time questioning the JSDF officers that trained with us, but my peers were singularly uninterested in anything they did.
 
The bios have various remarks about how well trained his commands were. Specifically the brigade he first commanded & then the division. But then McCellan had a rep for training as well. The staff thing would of course be critical. Need more information there. The odd back story about him is he ended his US Army career in the 1850s to return to France & serve with a Chassuers regiment, fighting in the Battle of Solfierno as a French officer. A couple decades earlier after graduating from West Point he had attended a French military school and trained with the Chassuers.

I thought Kearny didn't attend West Point? ...... Hell, his family made sure he didn't, IIRC. He went to Columbia University to study Law, but still when the Mexican-American war broke out he ended up getting a commission. And from there he expanded his resume to overseas....
 
You are correct. It was the law school @ Columbia. He graduated from that school in 1833. After settling his grandfathers estate in 1837 he sought a commission in the Army & was posted to the 1st U.S. Dragoons, who were commanded by his uncle, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny. Both his deceased father & grandfather were reputed to be among the wealtist men un New York, so Kearny was something of a 19th Century Patton. He could have idled his life away between the country estates and city clubs. Instead he threw himself into a military career. In 1839 he obtained orders to attend the French cavalry school at Samuar & was in combat with the Chassuers d Afrique in Algeria. Exactly how much combat is not clear. He returned to the US and the 1st Dragoons in 1840, contributed to rewriting the Army Cavalry Manual. Did some staff time with Gen Macomb & the Gen Scott. Returned to the 1st Dragoons. Resigned his commission in 1846, reapplied for a commission a few weeks later when the Mexican war started. Served in that war as a captain of Dragoons, raised and trained a troop from volunteers in Indiana, commanded Scotts bodyguard, was with the dragoons in the battle of Contreas, got his left arm shot off in the battle of Churubusco but returned to duty after recovering from the amputation.

Served with the 1st Dragoons on a frontier campaign in Oregon, then resigned his commission again in late 1851 & returned to France to rejoin the Chassuers in 1859.Evidently NY Club life did not suit him. Fought in the Italian campaign with the Chassuers & was in the battle of Soliferno. Returned to the US after two years service to France. Was recomissioned in the US Army and assigned to a brigade of infantry recently formed from volunteers & militia regiments. The regiments were of the New Jersey militia, so he may have used his NY connections to gain that & the commission.

If you made a movie of this guy who would you get to play him ? Does not matter i guess. Its to big a story to believe. Rich kid fights in three major wars for two different nations & assorted frontier campaigns on two different continents.
 
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