Vicksburg as seen by Strategy & Tactics magazine.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
The newest issue of Strategy & Tactics magazine has Vicksburg Joint Operation in the American Civil War as the lead article
their May/June 2021 issue. I read the article by Joseph Miranda and it gave me some food for thought. Sadly the article is a bit short to go in to great detail on the subject. One question I have after reading the article is that Joseph E. Johnston wanted Pemberton to abandon Vicksburg and join forces with him. The combined armies would allow Johnston to have sufficient forces to maneuver and fight a decisive battle. I am not sure this would have occurred. Johnston was a maneuver and maintain a viable army kind of stragitic thinker and not so much a risk it all on a deceive battle kind of general. Keeping an army in being in the west while the war was won in the east does makes some stragitic sense. If Johnston could have pulled off a decisive victory it could have been a game changer but having his army decisively defeated would have been a disaster for the Confederacy.
 
Like all lead articles in Strategy & Tactics magazines a tactical game on the subject is advertised. In this case it is Vicksburg: the Assult on Stockade Redan designed by Eric Harvey. This does look like an interesting game for our game player forum members.
 
I see the magazine at the book store but rarely buy it. I needed something to read in the motel last night so purchased the newest issue. The Vicksburg article was alright and did give me some thing to think about.
 
Gen Pemberton did not take orders from Johnston, he took order from Jefferson Davis and Davis ordered him to hold Vicksburg and Post Hudson.
 
I understand the value of maintaining an army intact and manouverable, but it always stuck me that the Confederacy had to defend Vicksburg. The loss of Johnston's "Kentucky line" opened up significant avenues of military invasion, while politically undermining the Confederacy's ability to claim it was able to defend its territory. The same applied with the potential loss of Vicksburg/Port Hudson, especially given their importance to impeding traffic on the Mississippi River. I'm not sure what the best option would have been, with forces split between Pemberton and Johnston, but abandoning Vicksburg would have been a problem. Perhaps not waiting in Jackson for so long, and moving to intercept Grant sooner, allowing at least a level of cooperation and communication with Pemberton (i.e., Pemberton striking south/south-east while Johnson strike west)?
 
The newest issue of Strategy & Tactics magazine has Vicksburg Joint Operation in the American Civil War as the lead article
their May/June 2021 issue.
Is that a regional publication? I don't think I have ever heard of it.
 
I understand the value of maintaining an army intact and manouverable, but it always stuck me that the Confederacy had to defend Vicksburg. The loss of Johnston's "Kentucky line" opened up significant avenues of military invasion, while politically undermining the Confederacy's ability to claim it was able to defend its territory. The same applied with the potential loss of Vicksburg/Port Hudson, especially given their importance to impeding traffic on the Mississippi River. I'm not sure what the best option would have been, with forces split between Pemberton and Johnston, but abandoning Vicksburg would have been a problem. Perhaps not waiting in Jackson for so long, and moving to intercept Grant sooner, allowing at least a level of cooperation and communication with Pemberton (i.e., Pemberton striking south/south-east while Johnson strike west)?
Vicksburg was a key citadel on the Mississippi River and the leg between that place and Port Hudson was the last remaining link that the Confederacy had to its western region, a vital source of beef cattle and supplies deriving from the Texan Gulf Ports. So in that sense, it was important for the Confederacy to maintain that link, but how to do it was the question. Johnston's belief was that an intact Army of Mississippi under Pemberton stood a greater chance for threatening Union forces in the Mississippi Valley, and that maintaining a fluid battlefield situation was preferable to being cooped up in a besieged Vicksburg. As things turned out, the decision to hold Vicksburg was a mistake; whether or not the alternative strategy would have succeeded any better is a matter of debate.
 
Gen Pemberton did not take orders from Johnston, he took order from Jefferson Davis and Davis ordered him to hold Vicksburg and Post Hudson.

The article discusses this a couple of times. The article compares the command structure of the Union and Confederate armies during the Vicksburg Campaign and seems to indicate that the deviided Confederate command structure impacted the outcome of the battle.
Is that a regional publication? I don't think I have ever heard of it.
No I believe the magazine is national. It is in many hobby store but not in every book store. It has been published for years.
 
Is that a regional publication? I don't think I have ever heard of it.
S&T is a VERY old magazine aimed specifically at the population of board wargamers which has definitely shrunk over the past three decades due to the proliferation of computers and computer wargaming. Back in their heyday in the 1970's there were many notable historians who worked for or contributed to both the magazine and the games, the best-known possibly Albert Nofi, a prolific writer on both Civil War and Napoleonic subjects. I still have MANY of their games in my closet!
 
S&T is a VERY old magazine aimed specifically at the population of board wargamers which has definitely shrunk over the past three decades due to the proliferation of computers and computer wargaming. Back in their heyday in the 1970's there were many notable historians who worked for or contributed to both the magazine and the games, the best-known possibly Albert Nofi, a prolific writer on both Civil War and Napoleonic subjects. I still have MANY of their games in my closet!
It actually has its own Wikipeida entry! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_&_Tactics
 
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