Due to the 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, such as John A. Logan on the Union side or Richard Taylor on the Confederate, developed into competent military leaders and were respected by their subordinates and superiors alike.
Another reason for the appointment of political generals during the American Civil War was the significant expansion of the number of men in each army and many volunteer soldiers.
Men who were prominent civilian leaders, such as businessmen, lawyers, and politicians, were chosen to continue their leadership in command of a volunteer regiment.
Ezra J. Warner noted that during the American Civil War, a large number of political generals, including Sigel and Banks for the Union and Breckinridge for the Confederacy, were undoubtedly popular with their men, primarily because of their ties to the specific groups they represented.
[2] Brooks D. Simpson claimed that the misdeeds of three particular political generals on the Union side, Butler, Banks, and Sigel, "contributed to a military situation in the summer of 1864 where the Northern public, anticipating decisive victory with Grant in command, began to wonder whether it was worth it to continue the struggle—something on voters' minds as they pondered whether to give Honest Abe another four years in office.
In addition, all Lincoln's appointees, even including such controversial figures as Nathaniel P. Banks, Franz Sigel, and Benjamin F. Butler, demonstrated promising results as logistical, recruitment and political managers in the war's tumultuous times.
In addition, several generals, including Logan and Blair, left their commands to participate in the 1864 presidential campaign on behalf of Lincoln, to the displeasure of professional soldiers.
[6] Lincoln, as commander-in-chief, experienced problems not only with political generals but with professional West-Pointers as well, as all were unable to realize on the battlefield the decisive Union's advantage regarding manpower and military resources until Ulysses S. Grant became the general-in-chief in March 1864.