Did Jefferson Davis ever express regret for making Hood army commander?

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Davis was tired of Johnston not engaging in battles and tendency to retreat, so Davis promoted Hood. Hood was the aggressive general Davis wanted, so I assume Davis was pleased with his choice.
 
Hood had two serious wounds. He got promotions both times. By the time Hood made it back to the Army, he was a different person. Physically had to be tied to his Horse. Which limited his capabilities. So, it would be curious as to what Hood did, between Resaca and the AOTs march to Atlanta, that convinced Davis of Hoods abilities? Neither Davis or Bragg liked Joe Johnston. Braggs vindictiveness probably had more to do with the Change than anything. How aloof would one have to be to send Bragg West to figure out what was wrong with the AOT?

From Macon, Davis proceeds to Palmetto, arriving on September 25. On the following morning he reviews the troops in company with Hood, the corps commanders, and a cavalcade of staff officers and politicians. There are no cheers, only sullen silence, punctuated by occasional shouts form the ranks of "Give us Johnston! Give us our old commander! Davis, notes General Manigault, looks "thin, care-worn, and angry," with a "scornful "expression on his face. Then, after a speech to the Tennesseans of Cheatham's Division in which he promises them that "within a short time your faces will be turned homeward and you feet pressing Tennessee soil," he spends the rest of that day and the next in private conversations with Hood, Stewart and Lee, Hardee, and some of the division commanders.

Davis has visited the Army of Tennessee twice before, first in December 1862 and again in the wake of Chickamauga. Each time he came under great pressure to relieve its commander (Bragg); both times he refused. This third visit produces no departure from that pattern. On September 28, while on the way to Montgomery to meet Taylor, Davis telegraphs Hood that Hood has Davis's permission to lead the Army of Tennessee in a strike at Sherman's supply line. To replace Hood with someone else, most of all Johnston, would be the same as admitting that it had been a mistake to put him in command in the first place, and Davis is no more prepared to do that than he is to concede that the Confederacy cannot still win the war and its independence. His sole concession to those who are denouncing Hood as incompetent is a meaningless one: Beauregard will be brought from Virginia to head a new "Military Division of the West," combining both Hood's and Taylor's forces, but with authority merely to advise, not order. In addition, Davis finally allows Hardee to escape from the humiliation of serving under Hood by appointing him to command the coastal defenses of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Cheatham, on Hood's recommendation, takes over Hardee's Corps. an appointment that presumably is designed to placate its troops. pp551-552 Decision in the West by Castel
 
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Hood blamed all his screwups on his subordinates. Hood never said he made a mistake, (as far as I can recall off hand),
Hood wasn't as bad as history records.
There are no cheers, only sullen silence, punctuated by occasional shouts form the ranks of "Give us Johnston! Give us our old commander!
In Advance and Retreat Hood talks about that meeting with Breckenridge before he left for the AoT. Breckenridge said, "My dear Hood, here you are beloved by your fellow-soldiers, and, although badly shattered, with the comfort of having done noble service, and without trouble or difficulty with any man." <Seems Breckenridge was warning him of what lay ahead.>
And Hood followed up with this:
In truth the course of my official duties, up to this hour had not, I might say, been ruffled in any degree. My relations with my superiors, as well as with officers of lesser rank, had been of a most friendly character. But alas, after a journey over a smooth sea for many days -- aye three years-- a storm suddenly arose which lasted not only to the close of the war, but a long period thereafter.
~Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies, John B. Hood, Published for the Hood Orphan Memorial Fund, G.T. Beauregard, Texas, 1880. page 68.
1559657440047.png

Cartoon from The National Tribune., March 15, 1906, Page 1.
 
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Davis did not reappoint Johnston to command after the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of his own volition. His hand was forced.

The Confederate Congress passed a bill in January 1865 which appointed Robert E.Lee as General-in-Chief and in the very same bill recommended Johnston be returned to Command of the Army of Tennessee.

Davis willingly appointed Lee General-in-Chief but resisted restoring Johnston for a month, and he wrote a ****ing assessment of Johnston's conduct over the course of the war fully intending to submit it to Congress to fight the call to restore Johnston.

It was not until Lee himself came to Davis with the recommendation that Johnston be reappointed to command that Davis gave in.

So whatever else he might have felt about Hood's time in command of the Army of Tennessee, I doubt very much that any feelings of remorse about it led him to restoring Johnston
Point well taken. Interesting that the Confederate Congress did not evaluate Johnston the way Davis did even though they had the same information.
Leftyhunter
 
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Regarding Davis himself taking an active charge by making himself an Army commander. That never would have happened.Jefferson Davis had suffered poor health for many years. He likely contracted malaria or yellow fever about the time his first wife died. Additionally, as I said earlier, he had his hands more than full just being president.
Plus per William Cooper severe neuralgia. Even at the presidential mansion Davis would not infrequently be bedridden for days due to severe pain.
Leftyhunter
 
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Which means if Davis is in the field there is no effective Confederate Presidency. Davis for practical reasons would be a poor choice to command the AoT.
Leftyhunter
Toombs was not part of the CSA government. If you have confused him with Alex Stephens, who was the CSA Vice President, no matter as Stephens rarely put an apperance in at Richmond. Davis would not have had to relieve Johnston as commander of the AoT. In fact, that would have been counter-productive. He did need to be in Atlanta to explain what he wanted. There was no real need for him to be at Richmond, but if something did require his attention, the telegraph was still operational.
 
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Davis was tired of Johnston not engaging in battles and tendency to retreat, so Davis promoted Hood. Hood was the aggressive general Davis wanted, so I assume Davis was pleased with his choice.

I don't think Davis regretted his choice. Reflecting later on the fall of Atlanta, Davis told a friend, "I was not among those who deemed that result inevitable as soon as the enemy had crossed the Chattahoochee." He claimed if Atlanta had to be given over to the enemy, he only wished that "manly blows had been struck for its preservation." Hood certainly delivered.
 
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Should have Hood made one more blow before he abandoned Atlanta? Davis wanted a general who would attack. So perhaps Davis believed Hood abandoned Atlanta to quickly?
 
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Should have Hood made one more blow before he abandoned Atlanta? Davis wanted a general who would attack. So perhaps Davis believed Hood abandoned Atlanta to quickly?
Imo no. Hoods army had already been beaten up from multiple attacks, some of the time it was Hoods fault, sometimes his subordinates. Atlanta had become untenable. Peachtree was probably his best shot but coordination of attack was a problem, subordinate issues. Ezra's church, i have no idea what SD Lee was thinking, where Hood was, or why Lee was In command to begin with. The AoT seemed to continually shoot itself in the foot.
 
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