Was Braxton Bragg Really That Bad? - Page 6

nbforrest · #51 03-09-2006, 09:04 PM

I'm not sure Bragg really had a place anywhere simply because he was unwilling to cooperate with anyone. I actually think he was slightly better than usually given credit for, but a successful general must work well with others.

Not sure one can really compare Lee and Grant in this case (they were in totally different situations) but your thoughts are well taken.

Respectfully

r_moody · #52 03-09-2006, 09:32 PM

Food for thought is what this is all about. I agree that you can not fully compare Grant and Lee as there situations were quite different. Had the south had more success out west maybe Lee could have let people stay. Lee's job of defending Richmond was IMO easier than defending the west and its thousand mile long front.

Bragg made some very good strategic moves but IMO let his support get too thin for effective counter attack. Only JEJ seemed to make logistics and defensive preperations number one. All he needed was a Longstreet to give him more fight. Speculation of course but, what the heck.

Rick

nbforrest · #53 03-09-2006, 09:50 PM

Bragg pretty much had an impossible task (but what Confederate general didn't?) by the time he took command of the AOT. The damage had been done. He deserves credit for the Kentucky campaign (although he made some significant mistakes). But the Tullahoma campaign sort of counterbalances that. I think he would have been a fine corps commander if he had a better personality.

Respectfully

ole · #54 03-09-2006, 09:55 PM

Quote:

150 years of hindsight and we still can’t agree sometimes. However disagreement is good because it challenges our minds. If we can keep the personal stuff out then everyone will learn.

I'd be hard put to name a general who hasn't been both underrated and overrated at one time or another.

They all had their shining moments -- some to a greater degree than others. They all had their stumbles -- some to a greater degree than others.

I especially appreciated Rick's observation that, under Grant, some very fine generals developed. Is there any other general about whom the same can be said?

Let's just get back to the business of pointing out the success, failures and perceived personalities of the notables, and play nice.
Ole

larry_cockerham · #55 03-10-2006, 01:18 AM

I'm keeping my Confederate yankee butt under the table for a while. Too much firepower.

Tennessee Boy · #56 03-10-2006, 08:09 AM

Wow, things got a bit hairy there for a moment, but my point about Sherman was, he did not win every battle, but history has been kind to him, it has remembered the good and forgotten about the bad. In Bragg’s case, history has remembered the bad and forgotten the good (and he did have a few). Like Ole says, they all stumbled.

NBForrest, ‘he was unwilling to co-operate with anyone’, does not Woodsworth in” Jeff Davis and his Generals” argue that Bragg shows a huge amount of personal restraint in dealing with Polk and despite Polk’s distain, Bragg tried keeping up a communication, at least at first.

Don’t want to start another argument here, but the situation out west was far harder than out east, and General Lee did have a easier theatre to work in; 100 miles north to south, water on the right hand flank, rivers generally running east to west makes easy defense and railroads running north to south for easy communications, only the left flank as a weakness.

Bragg’s task was almost impossible and a top notch general would have struggled, Bragg did his best, a better general could have done better, the west was always the weak point in the Confederacy defensive cordon, it was never addressed at senior levels, but to be far, the Confederacy never had enough of anything to cover the west. Possibly the only way to address that situation was to move the capitol to Atlanta, or kept it in Montgomery.

larry_cockerham · #57 03-10-2006, 10:40 AM

Bragg was given command of the Army of Tennessee by orders of Joseph E. Johnston on March 16, 1865 right before the battle at Averasboro, NC. Bragg was an obvious survivor. Much to be said for that in this war.

ole · #58 03-10-2006, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Don’t want to start another argument here, but the situation out west was far harder than out east, and General Lee did have a easier theatre to work in; 100 miles north to south, water on the right hand flank, rivers generally running east to west makes easy defense and railroads running north to south for easy communications, only the left flank as a weakness.

Agreed! And when the Union got the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers, western theater difficulties increased exponentially. Cutting off supplies from Kentucky and Tennessee left Confederate supply in the clumsy (was going to say cumbersome. Hey! It worked!) clutches of an antiquated, disjointed rail system and mule-power.

Lee had his supplies from the west and south; Bragg, et al., had to scramble for it. And in the west, Grant, Sherman, Rosecrans, Buell, Thomas, etc., etc.

Ole

richard · #59 03-10-2006, 01:17 PM

Maybe that Bragg should have listened to his wife more. It seems that she had very good insite into a lot of things. Especilly about Polk and Smith.

nbforrest · #60 03-10-2006, 06:12 PM

I don't think Bragg could really be credited with showing restraint with Polk. I see the situation as more of simmering hatred that Bragg refused to deal with. Bragg seemed to let matters continue to deteriorate with his fellow officers until finally trying to purge the AOT.

I do agree that the generals out West had a harder situation to rectify That isn't to take anything away from Lee, but he had a relatively small area to cover. Bragg was tasked with somehow defending Tennesse and regaining Kentucky. He did a fairly competent job. Reading more about the Western campaigns has kept me from fulling endorsing a sympathetic reappraisal of Bragg. He just wasn't a great army commander. But he shouldn't be blamed for Confederate failure in the West. And I doubt that any army commander could have retrieved the situation in the West after Shiloh.

Respectfully