I wouldn’t doubt Col Dowdy is a good man. Even good and capable people fail to deliver to their boss on occasion. You would know better, he could have been looking out for his men, thought it was too aggressive, could be any number of things.
Command is difficult in peace, and I expect in war the difficulty goes up exponentially. I read something recently where an enlisted guy said “No way I would want to be an officer. I just have to take stupid orders and carry them out. Those officers are in the position of having to give stupid orders...”
Your commanding officer says go 100 miles per hour and don’t stop until you get to the rendevous point, you go 100 miles per hour. And if it’s General Mattis giving the order, don’t even think about stopping.