He Almost had Command... Joseph K. F. Mansfield

[5fish]

Here General Joseph K. F. Mansfield, who was recommended by General-in-chief Winfield Scott command an army that went to Irvin McDowell and later would later lose out to George McClellan to command the Army of the Potomac. He was a veteran of the Mexican-American war and worked with a young Robert E. Lee at Ft. Pulaski in his early years. It is one of those 'What if" had Mansfield been given command of an army in the opening days of the war. He would later in life fall in battle at Antietam, fighting against Lee's army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_K._Mansfield

At the start of the Civil War, Mansfield commanded the Department of Washington (April 27 - August 17, 1861),[4] and was promoted to brigadier general on May 6, 1861. General-in-chief Winfield Scott recommended Mansfield for command of the volunteer army being raised in Washington D.C. that spring, but the command went to Irvin McDowell instead. Mansfield was not considered the best choice due to his relatively advanced age and skepticism of volunteer troops and the administration's push for a quick drive on Richmond that would end the war in a few months, and he also lacked a political sponsor in Washington. After the Union rout at Bull Run, George McClellan was put in command of the war effort in the Eastern Theater and Mansfield's hopes of army command were again dashed.

Here an article about his time building Ft. Pulaski. It seems he and Lee worked together for like 3 months...

Major Joseph Mansfield - Fort Pulaski National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

While on Cockspur Island, Mansfield also called for the expansion of the construction village working alongside a young Robert E. Lee who was also stationed on Cockspur Island. The village consisted of small frame buildings, many built on stilts. Some of the structures served as dormitories for workers, while others were reserved for managers. A hospital and storage areas were also constructed.

Following his time at Fort Pulaski, Mansfield participated in the Mexican-American war, he received a promotion to major for the action at Fort Brown, Texas on May 9th 1846. He was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Monterrey. After the war he was promoted to colonel and Inspector General of the U.S. Army in 1853.

 

[5fish]

Here is another article about Joseph Mansfield life... He got Little Mac right... the link works...

Late In Career, Middletown’s Gen. Joseph Mansfield Led 12th Corps At Civil War’s Battle Of Antietam

With its thick, high walls and menacing guns guarding the mouth of the Savannah River, Fort Pulaski was thought to be impregnable. But in April 1862, a devastating two-day artillery bombardment by …

www.courant.com

Born in New Haven, Joseph Mansfield was the son of a sea captain. With help from his paternal uncle, Jared Mansfield, he obtained an appointment to West Point at age 14 and graduated second in his class in 1822. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Over the next 23 years, Mansfield was involved in defense construction. His assignment at Cockspur Island began in early 1831. During those first weeks, he worked alongside another talented young engineer, 2nd Lt. Robert E. Lee, who had mapped the island, located the position of the fort and begun constructing housing for workers

In 1862, Mansfield was serving at Fortress Monroe on the Virginia peninsula. The fort had become a magnet for fleeing slaves following Union commander Gen. Benjamin Butler's order that they would be treated as contraband and not returned to their owners. In a letter March 12, 1862, to government commissioners, Mansfield argued that the slaves should be considered freemen and "entitled as laborers, to all the wages they can earn, and go where they please."

"I regard slavery as a curse on the face of the earth," Mansfield had written in a letter from Virginia to his wife, Jan. 24, 1862. "No man on earth has a right to require the labor of another without an equivalent."

Of Gen. George McClellan, the man Lincoln had pegged to lead the North to victory, Mansfield had little use, describing "Little Mac" to Laura as "Little in every sense of the word. He is awfully conceited & will probably burst... out of sheer self-esteem."