ABSTRACT
In an authoritative analysis of military effectiveness, a case study of seven nations involved in both modern world wars, Allan R. Millett and Williamson Murray concluded that an examination of individual military leadership is a valid way to assess effectiveness and a crucial element for understanding the broader political, strategic, operational and tactical issues. Further, these scholars propose that ‘one must include in the analysis non-quantifiable organizational attitudes, behaviors, and relationships that span a military organization’s full activities’ at the political, strategic, operational and tactical levels. 1 To this must be added the contextual variables such as socio-economic and religious factors that influence not only events but also the performance of men in combat. This combination of individual leadership characteristics (traits and behaviour) as modulated by the context of the period and culture and human dynamics thus provides a model for assessing the military performance of leading commanders in the Civil Wars and for judging their impact.
