Couple questions - Expert needed

I overhead a guy on the subway a couple of weeks back, I think he was a teacher at UIC or something, and he was talking about someone in the Confederate army who was woefully underqualified. Someone who had parents that had high enough stature that the kid was pushed up the ranks and given a commanding position of some type, something with some responsibility and the kid was a disaster. I am under the impression he was a well known person but I can't seem to find info anywhere.

Also, what was the best training facility for Confederate soldiers? Would fighting soldiers have trained at a different place than generals or other people whose responsibilities were more tactical?

Thanks, any help would be amazing!

i dont know if this is him-george crittenden's dad was famous politician from kentucky,george drank too much and he lost his job-his bro was a usa general who was inept without the drinking.he lost his job twice.-soldiers were trained in camps in state they joined up in,best one would depend on who was running the camp,thats a very good question i bet alot got on the job training.after bullrun training got better,generals learned from previous experiances,militia's,military schools,west point,and again on the job training or from reading military manuals-great questions id like to know more

I can't answer your question about the general, but the best training a confederate could have received was at the virginia military institute.

I would have to agree that when it came to training, it would be up to the local militia or regiment. I attended VMI and of course VMI fought in the battle of New Market and were originally to be used only as reserves and more for show than anything else, however they did capture union artillery and achieved victory. As you probably know many of the officers came from West Point i.e. Grant and Lee. Most films and books protray soldiers being trained locally. Hope this helps.

There were a significant number of generals on both sides who attained their positions of leadership merely from family connections and/or their influence as politicians. Some were good, most adequate, a few so dreadful that they caused many, many needless deaths.

As to training -- the average soldier or field officer didn't have training in a dedicated facility, at least as we know it today. Such training as they got came at their encampments -- extreme OJT.

Just as everyone else has already stated, the soldiers were trained where their regiment was raised, or if they were mustered together such as to Richmond before 1st Manassas, they would continue to drill wherever they were stationed, just like in today's military. In the Napoleonic methods of fighting, drill was everything!

Also as mentioned, the North had West Point, and the South had V.M.I.

soldiers were trained where their regiment was raised,

Depends. In the Confederacy after conscription was instituted (Spring 1862) conscripts were supposed to be trained at "Camps of Instruction" and were then to be assigned to existing regiments where needed.

Many potential conscripts though were allowed to volunteer and I assume these went straight to regiments raised in their general neighborhoods or into newly formed regiments.

Also many "true conscripts" deserted at the first opportunity (including a G Grandfather of mine)and went home to become "mossbacks" so I would assume that relatively few of those trained at these "Camps of Instruction" actually saw combat.