Political Generals

Kevin Baker’s “In the News” column (”Violent City,” February/March 2003) refers to “incompetent ‘political generals’ drawn from the ranks of those same Protestant Republicans.” The implication is that Democrats and the Irish didn’t produce such men. On the contrary, officers who made their mark in the party of Jackson included Benjamin F. Butler —one of the most disappointing of the Union’s political generals— as well as John A. Logan and John A. McClernand. As for Ireland’s sons, Baker could have mentioned Gen. Thomas F. Meagher, who was as Irish as anyone who ever wore a shamrock.