- Joined
- Feb 27, 2017
- Location
- Ohio
I have been doing some preliminary reading about the "Western Concentration Bloc." The situation in May 1863 was this:
My question is -- was any thought given to sending Johnston's force to Bragg to launch the proposed western offensive in conjunction with Lee's move? It would seem to me that a simultaneous offensive from both Tennessee & Virginia in June 1863 might have increased the pressure on the North similarly to the parallel advances in September 1862.
- Lee had just defeated Hooker at Chancellorsville.
- Bragg's Army of Tennessee was positioned behind the Duck River in Tennessee. Bragg had retreated from Murfreesboro after a severe battle there at the first of the year. The battle was a tactical stalemate, although a strategic Union victory due to Bragg's withdrawal. Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the Cumberland, so far showed no disposition to advance from Murfreesboro.
- By mid-May Pemberton's army was encircled in Vicksburg.
- Joseph Johnston was gathering another force of up to 20,000 men in Mississippi to relieve Vicksburg. Johnston soon let his government know that he was too late to save Pemberton. (Johnston had wanted Pemberton to abandon Vicksburg and join forces against Grant, but Pemberton refused to give up the city and soon became entrapped.)
My question is -- was any thought given to sending Johnston's force to Bragg to launch the proposed western offensive in conjunction with Lee's move? It would seem to me that a simultaneous offensive from both Tennessee & Virginia in June 1863 might have increased the pressure on the North similarly to the parallel advances in September 1862.