Political general

A political general is a general officer or other military leader without significant military experience who is given a high position in command for political reasons, through political connections, or to appease certain political blocs and factions.

In the United States, this concept was most prominent during the American Civil War.

Most of the top generals on the Union and Confederate sides came from West Point and, besides military training, many of them had a battlefield experience gained during the Mexican–American War. Due to necessity of raising large-scale citizen armies, both presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, for various reasons appointed a number of the so-called political generals. Some of them, as John A. Logan on the Union side, or Richard Taylor on the Confederate, developed into competent and respected by their troops commanders, some others turned out to be "disastrously incompetent."

The most important reason for appointing political generals was to appease important blocs of voters. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln used such appointments as a way to get the support of moderate Democrats for the war and for his administration ("War Democrats"). The first three volunteer generals Lincoln appointed, (John Adams Dix, Nathaniel Prentice Banks and Benjamin F. Butler) were all Democrats, and therefore these three officers were the most senior major generals in the Union Army. Republicans were also appointed including Richard James Oglesby of Illinois.

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