Pemberton was a good commander with limited resources and confused by Grant- Discuss

The West was not considered as important as the war in the east. Therefore the West ended up with officers who had been wounded,as Johnston had been, or he ones considered inferior. Johnston had been a good commander in the East until he was severely wounded. That took a lot of the fight out of him. Pemberton was on his way to combine his forces with Johnston, but ran into the union forces at Champion Hill. And then in the early days of the siege, when he was camped along the East bank of the Big Black River, he had enough men to relieve the siege. But he did nothing. It has been said that if Johnston had been in charge of the Confederate troops, and McClellan had been in charge of the union troops, there never would have been any battles. They would have spent the whole war outflanking each other.
At times trading space/resources for maneuver can be a valid strategy, however if your the one with limited space/resources you can ill afford to sacrifice what you do have.

And if the one with less numbers/resources, one of the best ways to offset the disadvantage is by seizing the initiative and forcing them to have to react to you......not passively waiting for the larger side to continually flank you.
 
I still maintain that Pemberton was in over his head, but do not fault him for his decision. The following excerpt from the Official Records (OR Series 1, Volume XXIV, Part 3, pg. 842) is the last communication I find from Davis to Pemberton discussing holding Vicksburg. (Bold font is mine). Davis did not equivocate and Pemberton knew his desires and acted accordingly. He was between a rock and a hard place; do we suppose he would not been blamed had he evacuated Vicksburg to join up with Johnston.

RICHMOND, May 7, [1863]-11. 30 p. m.
Lieutenant-General PEMBERTON:

General Beauregard insists that he cannot spare more than the 5,000 men sent. I hope he may change his views. The prisoners taken at Post of Arkansas will be sent to you as soon as practicable; number, say, 3,000. Four thousand arms have been sent to Colonel Stockton. Will endeavor to send more, if more are required, to arm the militia furnished to you. Accounts given of troops about Columbus, particularly cavalry, indicate great want of proper commanders. If Lieutenant-Colonel [S. W.] Ferguson is disposable, he might, with temporary rank, render them efficient. Am anxiously expecting further information of your active operations. Want of transportation of supplies must compel the enemy to seek a junction with their fleet after a few days' absence from it. To hold both Vicksburg and Port Hudson is necessary to a connection with Trans-Mississippi. You may expect whatever is in my power to do.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.​
Interesting if not perplexing ; why send 3k prisoners to Vicksburg which is under threat. 3 k men to be useful as day emergency labor to build fortifications will require a tremendous amount of good plus tie town many soldiers or Militia.
Leftyhunter
 
Interesting if not perplexing ; why send 3k prisoners to Vicksburg which is under threat. 3 k men to be useful as day emergency labor to build fortifications will require a tremendous amount of good plus tie town many soldiers or Militia.
Leftyhunter
Some of those 3,000 prisoners were Missourians and were sent to Bowen who needed them after the casualties his division suffered at Port Gibson. He would use them at Champion Hill. IIRC, the Union navy transported them across the river per prisoner exchange policy. I will try to find the documentation for that.
 
Some of those 3,000 prisoners were Missourians and were sent to Bowen who needed them after the casualties his division suffered at Port Gibson. He would use them at Champion Hill. IIRC, the Union navy transported them across the river per prisoner exchange policy. I will try to find the documentation for that.
That makes sense it wasn't clear in the OR.
Leftyhunter
 
Pemberton should have abandoned Vicksburg but decided to save the military supplies and guns there.
 
If for some reason Grant pushes across the Big Black and withstands your counter-attack, the defensive line you fall back on needs to rest between the hills north of Vicksburg and Snyder's Bluff. Snyder's is your last supply line, no sense attempting to hold Vicksburg if you can't hold Snyder's.

But Hayne’s and Snyder’s Bluffs are up the Yazoo River - not on the Mississippi. That plan would concede Vicksburg to Grant and Porter’s navy, allowing him to simply move his base there and fortify for good.

It might work if Pemberton could hold out until Johnston arrived via Mechanicsburg Corridor. But Lord only knows what excuses Johnston would have used to delay moving to Pemberton under that scenario. Whatever the case, the Confederates would have to attack an entrenched city to retake it.

It would have been ideal to hold Hayne’s and Vicksburg but not enough troops to do that I guess.
 
The West was not considered as important as the war in the east. Therefore the West ended up with officers who had been wounded,as Johnston had been, or he ones considered inferior. Johnston had been a good commander in the East until he was severely wounded. That took a lot of the fight out of him. Pemberton was on his way to combine his forces with Johnston, but ran into the union forces at Champion Hill. And then in the early days of the siege, when he was camped along the East bank of the Big Black River, he had enough men to relieve the siege. But he did nothing. It has been said that if Johnston had been in charge of the Confederate troops, and McClellan had been in charge of the union troops, there never would have been any battles. They would have spent the whole war outflanking each other.
That is true that Lee sent guys like Loring and Johnston and D.H. Hill to the west due to their insubordination or abrasive behavior, or loss of aggressiveness. The one exception is Stephen D. Lee, as far as I know, he was sent west to help shore things up. I am not aware of any problem that caused him to be sent west. It seems like the west also got short shrift on equipment and war materiel.
 
That is true that Lee sent guys like Loring and Johnston and D.H. Hill to the west due to their insubordination or abrasive behavior, or loss of aggressiveness. The one exception is Stephen D. Lee, as far as I know, he was sent west to help shore things up. I am not aware of any problem that caused him to be sent west. It seems like the west also got short shrift on equipment and war materiel.
I agree there was no problem with Stephen Lee. He was worthy of promotion, but there was no slot available for him. Likewise with Hood a year later.
 
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