Rhea Cole
Major
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Location
- Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Stones River VS Gettysburg... Eerily The Same.
Lee & Bragg, which was the genius, which was the doofus?
A long time ago, I came to an understanding of what caused the Civil War, what happened during the war & what was the outcome. Since then my interest has been how the war was fought & the many ways commanders dealt with the challenges they faced. As a lifelong entrepreneur, I am all to familiar how very wrong even the most carefully planned actions can go terribly wrong. Recently, instead of participating in living history programs at Stones River NB, I have been taking a deep dive into what various generals knew, when did they know it & what did they do with that information. It is actually very refreshing to shake off 150 years of second guessing. Absent the saccharine goo of Lost Cause-ism, the CSA war effort is a rather sad affair. Anyways, I started to compare various battles in the east & west in an attempt to understand why the outcomes were so very different. By chance, I came upon a line of inquiry that I had not anticipated.Lee & Bragg, which was the genius, which was the doofus?
The Battle of Stones River, Dec 31, 1862-Jan 2, 1863 could hardly be any different from the Battle of Gettysburg six months later... or could it? I happened to lay maps on the same scale of both battles next to each other. The differences of time & location are, of course, obvious. Bragg & Rosecrans are very different personalities from Lee & Meade. Leaving aside the obvious, what struck me looking at the maps is how eerily similar the battles were.
Lee advanced 40 miles beyond the Potomac, Rosecrans was about the same distance from the Cumberland. Both battles were meeting engagements. In both cases, the CSA commander was surprised to find the opposing army ten miles away from their position. The opening phase of the battles found the Union army arrayed in a compact line that forced the aggressive CSA commander to spread out into a formation that prohibited mutual support. Initial success on the left fell short of victory. U.S. forces were, in both instances, driven back onto unassailable positions were they held.
Both Wheeler & Stuart rode themselves out of the battle. The doctrine of cavalry raiding proved once again that it produced tactical victories without strategic effect. In both cases, when the outcome of the battle was at its crisis, neither cavalry command delivered the decisive results so desperately needed.
On the morning of the big assaults at both battles, the CSA commander ordered attacks without knowing the opposing army's actual disposition. In both cases, the result was ferrous fighting without decisive results. Once the attacks were underway, neither commander was able to manage the disjointed attacks. On the CSA right at both battles, repeated attacks on the Union left resulted in crushing CSA repulses. Regiments suffered over 50% casualties, effectively relegating them to support roles.
On the last day of the battle, both Lee & Bragg ordered head on attacks that were intended to undo the failures of the previous days. Both sent their last reserve headlong into disaster. In both cases, in a matter of an hour or so, they lost half of the attacking force & had no option but to retreat. In both cases, the victorious U.S. commander failed to follow up & finish off the opposing army. Lee & Bragg fell back unmolested to their bases to await further developments. Both had lost the initiative & could only await inevitable defeat at the hands of the same commander, Grant.
With all the similarities between Stones River & Gettysburg, it is fascinating to me that one is a relatively obscure Union victory & the other is the "High Watermark of the Confederacy." Bragg's loss of a third of his army & humiliating defeat made him the object of derision to this day. The Army of Northern Virginia's defeat has morphed into the great mythical event of the war with a deified Lee hovering overall like a benevolent angle. Bragg, the imp from the depths & Lee the demigod both lost their battles. Both CSA armies lost the flower of their officer corps & soldiers.
The more I compare the battles, the more there are differences without a distinction. Stripped of the Lost Cause tropes, Stones River & Gettysburg are far more similar than they are different. Could the same be said of Bragg & Lee's generalship during those battles? I leave that to you.
The question up to discussion is this: Absent the Lee as demigod tropes & the sneering at Bragg's mismanagement cliches, just how different were Lee's decisions at Gettysburg from Bragg's at Stones River? Think about it & let us know what you conclude.
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