Civil War History - The South & Western TheatersCheck this forum for all South and Western Theater Questions. Included are the Western, Pacific, Trans-Mississippi, & Lower Seaboard and Gulf Approach Theaters.
In the East you have Robert E. Lee who is just about the undisputed best General in that theatre of the war. But what about in the west?
Who in the West comes the closest to Lee's immortality as a Civil War General?
My choice would have to be Nathan B. Forrest. He was a man constantly in the thick of the frey, and was always being wounded having horses shot out from underneath him as a result. In 1864 and 65, if you heard of any Confederate successes in the West, you can bet Forrest was the major player.He defeated Samuel D. Sturgis at Brice's Crossroads, and was victorious in sacking Fort Pillow. He also despised Braxton Bragg which only adds to his luster.
Not foolish Forrest, lets go with real soldiers like Cleburne, Polk, Cheatham, Stewart, or Hood. I must live the rest of my life with this Forrest fan club.
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"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
Not foolish Forrest, lets go with real soldiers like Cleburne, Polk, Cheatham, Stewart, or Hood. I must live the rest of my life with this Forrest fan club.
Forrest was just about the most succesful CS commander in the west. He was almost constantly outnumbered, under supplied and under supported. He made do w/ less and was far more of a bogeyman to the US forces than any other CS commander in the theatre. He was superb at what he knew how to do; fight.
__________________ Few take the trouble to understand or to view the American scene with perspective. And we Americans love to find ourselves guilty of something. However, it is never I who am guilty, but those other Americans, the past or present government or the other political party. Americans almost never find other countries guilty. It is always ourselves or our fancied influence in other countries. Louis L'amour
You guys need to think west of the Mississippi sometimes. How about Jo Shelby? A man who did much with nothing.
Shelby's reputation is based largely on his skill in covering retreats... a skill he got a great deal of practice at serving as he did under Marmaduke, Hindman, Price, and Holmes.
I hate to say it but it would probably be Bragg, the others were fine generals but never commanded a whole army so we really don't know what their performance would have been, at the command of a whole army how many would have reached their level of incompetence as some many did north and south. Bragg actually routed for the most part the AOC so he actually had the greatest actual success.
Yes. Bragg, for all his faults and shortcomings, was the best (shudder) the Confederacy had to offer in the West. Too much personal baggage for one man to shoulder but, in the final analysis, the best there was. Close, but no cigar.
ole
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Hood, if he had been in one piece instead of in pieces...He was the aggressive commander the west needed early in the war...He came to command earlier in the war it would had made a big difference then later in the war...Think of a healthy Hood smashing into Grant before and at Vicksburg there would have been no surrender....
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"States Rights are about States Wrongs" - Jesse Jackson
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