Joe Johnston

[Ter61]

One of Lee's greatest fears was eventually being forced into a seige, a situation that he could never have got out of. With Johnston in command, let's assume he could have held Richmond against a seige. The victories that Lee won that boosted the morale of the Confederates would not have taken place. With the Confederates failing on other battlefields would the war have lasted as long? Maybe it would have, but I agree with Lee, everything possible had to be done to avoid a seige. Once a seige was on the situation was hopeless.

[OpnDownfall]

The problem with the relationship between Davis and Johnston, was the fact that Johnston resisted being under Davis' thumb.
The question would really depend on the resulting clashes between Johnston and Davis over when to evacuate Richmond (they probably, would be manuevering, to get the other to assume the responsibility of the abandonment of Richmond)
With Johnston and McClellan facing each other, it would be a race as to which would be replaced by his Commander-In-Chief, First and When (beore or after Johnston withdrew from Richmond) and most importantly would Johnston's replacement still have been Lee? (Lincoln tended to be more patient with his various army commanders foibles, than Davis, at least, he was early in his administration.)