Who should have commanded...

[ewc]

Johnston should not have been removed, so I voted for Johnston, but it's hard to say Johnston should have replaced Johnston. Hood was a bad choice- evident immediately, judging by the glee of the Union commanders at the news.

So if Johnston must be removed, and Davis is not such a dope as to put Hood in command, then Hardee, distinguished and long with that army, or DH Hill who was also available. Hardee would have assessed the situation carefully and cautiously and not have committed his men to futile headlong attacks. But Davis wanted a rash attacking Hood type. Hill may have been more audacious than Hardee and no doubt less prone to just put down his head and plow forward than Hood. And Beauregard is a good option, but with all the objectionable features (for Davis) that Johnston possessed so this appointment would be just replacing one headache for another with Davis.

So no Johnston, then I would rate a new commander as Beauregard first, Hardee second, and right behind- Hill. If Johnston could make Davis see red with little to no effort, Beauregard could make him see redder, hence no Beauregard. Hardee had been sounded out in the past and had proved unwilling to move up to overall command, that plus his outs with Bragg put Hardee behind the 8 ball. Hill had the ability to a marked degree of being able to tick off everybody, friend and foe without distinction. This inability to get along plus his own dust up with Bragg and Davis's wariness of him opted Hill out of consideration.

I'm sure the thought crossed Davis's mind of sending Bragg back. However, he was not obtuse enough to know that the Army of Tennessee would have pulled up stakes and gone home at the sight of their hated former commander, and Bragg had to stay where he was- far away in Richmond.

The last possibility is Davis himself. He never did take the field, but if there ever was a time.... this battle was make or break for the Confederacy. Hearten the troops and the home folks with his presence, listen to the wisdom of his commanders, and do the thing he wanted done- no intermediaries to **** it up. The call to duty in the field for Davis must have been very great, and surely he could read the signs of the times and know how utterly dire the circumstances were. But Davis never could abide leaving civil affairs where others could get their grubby hands on them in his absence, specially Alec Stephens and the 'faint hearts' who would steal the Confederacy back into the Union if Davis didn't keep an ever vigilant eye on these rats to see no such dastardly work was in the offing. So in the end, no Davis either. He's left with Hood... and bye-bye Confederacy.

[johan_steele]

I think the AoT (CS) could have used a stable methodical man like Hardee... then again a blind, geriatric psychotic chihuahua would have been a better choice than Hood.

[Borderruffian]

I'll go with Cleburne but failing Cleburne, I'd say Cheatham or Breckinridge would have been good choices also.

[whitworth]

So it really had little meaning in the result. Hood merely shortened the war with his attacks around Atlanta and his winter campaign in Tennessee.

The Confederacy had run out of commanders who could win the war. Hardee would never get the slot and Cleburne was a foreigner and never went to West Point.

Many Confederate "territories" were already lost and unregainable. No Confederate commander was going to pull the "rabbit" out of the hat. Not even R.E. Lee.

[ole]

I've often wondered why Cheatham wasn't given a bigger role -- other than not being a West Pointer. He seems to have been a solid, reliable commander with tons of experience dating almost from day one.

ole

[Borderruffian]

With Cheatham it could have been the allegations of him being drunk at Stones River. His performance there was slow and he sent forward alot of piecemeal attacks. I believe he was in the Hardee/Polk camp as far of his opinion of Bragg. And woe betide anyone who dare speak ill of Jeff Davis' fair haired 'lil Braxton.

[ole]

So we can't get past good ol' micromanaging Jeff Davis? Imagine, if you will, good ol' Abe exhibiting such loyalty to his buddies. He did, but not to the extreme of pitching a budding country to the wolves in favor of a pal.

ole

[Borderruffian]

IMO and IMO only had Jeff Davis not considered himself the military genius he wasn't the prosecution of the war in the West and Trans-Miss would have been much different.

[whitworth]

was if the South had not seceded. It lacked enough troops and logistics to defend a good deal of the Confederacy in the first year of the war.
Even R.E. Lee couldn't save the western counties of Virginia. Again steamboat and logistic superiority to sending and keeping troops in the western counties by the United States.
By 1864, it was a matter of slowing down the Union army; never of defeating and destroying that army.

Even by early 1863, the size and the amount of United States appropriations, in the billions, staggered the imagination of Gen. R.E. Lee. The Confederacy was getting dwarfed by the war; bravery wasn't enough.

Johnny Reb wasn't going to lick seven Yankees. Johnny Reb wasn't going to lick even two well equipped Yankees.

[cw1865]

If its not going to be Johnston it probably should be Beauregard. Frankly, I don't think he's going to do any better, but that's the beauty of what ifs. At the time he is at least theoretically senior to Hood, though he seems to be in a 'consultants' role at the time.