American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

When George B. McClellan became the first Union General-in-Chief in the summer of 1861 he wrote to his wife that he suffered from incompetent subordinates! "I have not a Brig Genl worth his salt - Morris is a timid old woman - Rosecranz [William S. Rosecrans] a silly fussy goose - [Newton] Schleich knows nothing." One gets the impression from McClellan's comment that he considered Rosecrans to be always agitated and overwrought over the most menial of things, continually re-adjusting things and squaking about to no real purpose. That impression was very unkindly generated, for Rosecrans was a very, competent, if not a little too thorough, commander. But the image has persisted.

But I find myself to be something of a silly, fussy goose out upon those electronic battlefields of ours, always adjusting things and never quite willing to leave things alone! Take for instance the disconcerting discovery that the multiple stacks I had so carefully ordered the last turn have become jumbled by the program in the next. Didn't I specifically have my strongest unit on the bottom of the stack and the weakest on the top? Now I'm going to have to put everything back into proper order! It's a habit that I picked up long ago without really knowing why, although I suppose that there was a reason why I did it then.

A good commander, I thought, is always checking his "forces on the board," culling through their strengths and weaknesses, fretting over their placements and facings, and constantly trying to tweak his army into "good form." He really cannot proceed until he feels that everything is just so. He's been victimized by careless play in the past and does not ever want to be so victimized again. He does this every turn as much out of habit as a necessity to play. He becomes something of "a silly, fussy goose!"

Trouble is, even though I know it's a time waster to be clicking about so each turn (I can easily transform what should be a 5-minute turn into a good half-hour), I 'll do it to some degree all the time!

How about you? Is there any "silly, fussy goose" in you?

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General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC
Union Army Chief of Staff
Commander, Army of the Shenandoah
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
(2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)

The Creed of the Fussy Goose

For want of a trail the progress was slow.
For want of a line-of-sight the cannons did not blow.
For want of a leader the troops were AWOL.
For want of a bullet the ammo was low.
For want of a plan the outcome was woe.
For want of a win there is no fun – just sorrow.

The more I read about Joe Johnston, The more I feel he may have been a "fussy goose" in the sense that I imagine that he would take the time to organize each stack in a specific order before proceeding, not necessarily "squawking about".

It does beg the question though, does Grant or Lee remind you of a "fussy goose?"... I didn't think so.

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Brigadier General Kevin Koch
2/2/VI
AotS

No one thinks John Bell Hood is a fussy goose that's for sure...

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General Scott Ludwig
4/II/ANV