only two career politicians rise to the rank of major general, howell cobb, almost as fat as winfield scott, he has permanent shadows on his shoes, he can't get out of them, so he never commands in the field. [ laughter ] and the other is, so he winds up commanding things like conscription of the draft in georgia and the other is john c. breckenridge who turns out to be a decent division commander but not given too much responsibility until he's already demonstrated himself. the confederacy doesn't have as many of these enclaves to please, though there are still plenty of them and virtually every tole tigs politician in t confederacy thought he ought to be a general. lincoln in order to hold the coalition together he's got no choice but to make generals out of people who have no business being generals. >> before we go back to the generals i want to spend a few minutes talking about the common soldier, because you've both written so many important things about each of these commanders' relationships with the common soldier, which was important, and i'd like you each to address how the