Quote Originally Posted by Rob Thornton View Post
Steve,
You know - I'll bet that could be a book (along the one done on the inter-war years between WWI & WWII) that focused on adaptive leadership between the Civil War and the Indian War - at the very least it'd make a hell of a fine article.

Best Regards, Rob
Yeah...I've been kicking around an idea like that for some time now. Best get started...though I still owe Marc a bit of stuff on AF history....

I've always considered most examinations of Indian Wars Army leadership to be too focused on the CCM effect (Custer-Crook-Miles), with little attention paid to many other fine officers who managed to transition between two very different types of warfare. Personally, I don't think either Crook or Custer did a very good job (Crook had served on the Frontier before the war, so he just continued what he'd been doing before) of making that transition. Mackenzie and Miles had no pre-war Frontier experience, and they proved to be two of the best. Devin also did a fine job, along with Carr and Hatch. Interesting bunch, to be sure.