Best in the West?

[Elennsar]

(Albert Sidney) Johnston tried and failed in 1861-(Early)1862 and failed pretty disappointingly.

There's little to indicate that he would have been a great general post-Shiloh if he'd survived that battle.

Look at how badly his defensive line crumbled when Grant moved. Even allowing for having some truly terrible subordinates (Even as the Western theater went), he failed.

As a guess, I would say he could have handled a division and possibly a corps. Army command, particularly when that really meant theater command, was beyond his skills.

[ole]

Cut the man some slack. I'm personally figuring about exactly where you are coming from, but he did have some potential -- at least as good as Lee's.

But where I fault him is that he gave over virtual command to Beauregard and the twit that wrote the orders for the advance to Pittsburg Landing. He had command and gave it away. Not a mark of a commander of an entire theater.

[Elennsar]

I'll put it this way. I can imagine that he might have grown into army command (I doubt it, but I'd be willing to accept it as possible).

His actual performance...what he actually did while a living reality...is someone whose level of skill and understanding was sufficient for a division or a corps.

In my opinion, he would have done much better in the West as an equivalant of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah...that sort of command (level of responsibility and available forces) might well have suited him.

Its just that he very clearly could not manage the entire Western theater and did not demonstrate any gift for managing the Army of Tennesee (to be).

Still, I acknowledge that he should be given more than just criticism. He had far too tough a job for anyone to step into and handle competently without experience.

But he could definately have handled the issue of withdrawing from Nashville and holding the river better. Maybe he just guessed wrong when judging if his subordinates could take care of things.

Full agreement on Beauregard. Beauregard had his strengths. Realistically assessing a situation when things are falling apart around him (or seeming to) does not seem to be one of them.

That said: Could anyone have made the battle of Shiloh work for the Confederacy, of the commanders on the scene? Somehow or another it seems like it was almost doomed to collapse in a disorderly way.

[5fish]

There were no warriors in high places in the Confederates High Command in the west. It was a bunch of pencil pushers with good looking resumes but without the warrior spirit.

I just want to bring up is the south just rotated their generals at the high level instead of promoting up younger battle tough generals....It is always the same cast Johnston, Beauregard, Lee, Bragg, and late to the game Hood gets a shoot. There was something wrong in the south because Davis kept rotating the same generals never looking for a young warrior just went with a bunch of old dogs that could not hunt...

I see issues...