Western Concentration Bloc & Lee's Invasion of Pennsylvania

Andy Cardinal

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I have been doing some preliminary reading about the "Western Concentration Bloc." The situation in May 1863 was this:
  • 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.)
The proponents of the Western Concentration Bloc wanted Lee to send a large force consisting of Longstreet's corps to Bragg with the idea that Bragg could then take the offensive against Rosecrans. The idea was that an overwhelming offensive against Rosecrans would reclaim central Tennessee, perhaps forcing Grant to detach troops from Vicksburg. Lee countered this proposal with one of his own -- the invasion of the north. Ultimately Lee's plan was approved and he launched his invasion at the end of the month.

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.
 
I have been doing some preliminary reading about the "Western Concentration Bloc." The situation in May 1863 was this:
  • 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.)
The proponents of the Western Concentration Bloc wanted Lee to send a large force consisting of Longstreet's corps to Bragg with the idea that Bragg could then take the offensive against Rosecrans. The idea was that an overwhelming offensive against Rosecrans would reclaim central Tennessee, perhaps forcing Grant to detach troops from Vicksburg. Lee countered this proposal with one of his own -- the invasion of the north. Ultimately Lee's plan was approved and he launched his invasion at the end of the month.

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.

Johnston indeed was forced by Davis to send reinforcements to Bragg but did so miserly. See That Terrible Sound, Peter Cozzens. He writes a good deal about this in the opening chapters.
 
Johnston indeed was forced by Davis to send reinforcements to Bragg but did so miserly. See That Terrible Sound, Peter Cozzens. He writes a good deal about this in the opening chapters.

Johnston dispatched the newly formed division of W.H.T. Walker to Bragg as a part of the operation to reinforce Bragg during the Chickamauga campaign. With the exception of Gist's Brigade, originally from Beauregard's department in South Carolina, most of Walker's Division had originally been part of Bragg's army: McNair's Brigade, Ector's Brigade, and Wilson's Brigade had been part of McCown's Division and had left the army shortly before Tullahoma following McCown's relief from service. Additionally, Gregg's Brigade, originally part of the Port Hudson defenses but attached to Walker, was dispatched.

However, Johnston placed a caveat on this troops. They were only to serve as a relief for Bragg's troops garrisoning Atlanta. McNair's and Gregg's troops were not to leave Atlanta. Furthermore, Johnston made it clear that he expected them to return soon as they were only a loan. Bragg promptly ignored this, forwarding Gist's Brigade to Rome, taking part of Walker's Division and establishing it as his Reserve Corps with a new demi-division under St. John Liddell, and forming a provisional division under Bushrod Johnson with McNair and Gregg.
 
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.

Johnston was engaged in a defense of Jackson against a very strong Army of the Tennessee with what was essentially a large corps (Loring's Division, Walker's Division, French's Division, Breckinridge's Division, and Red Jackson's cavalry). In July he would abandon the city when Sherman advanced on him. Johnston was very conservative and had his hands full. Even later when he was not in an active operation he would place caveats on returning troops to Bragg. Tullahoma forced him to return Breckinridge's Division, but I don't think the Confederacy ever considered a major transfer of the troops under Johnston in Mississippi (who constituted the last Confederate troops in the field in that state).
 
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It seems that the inability of the confederacy to adequately reinforce Bragg concurrently with Lee's northern raid was due to a lack of a General Staff to plan and coordinate those kind of strategic moves.
 
Johnston was engaged in a defense of Jackson against a very strong Army of the Tennessee with what was essentially a large corps (Loring's Division, Walker's Division, French's Division, Breckinridge's Division, and Red Jackson's cavalry). In July he would abandon the city when Sherman advanced on him. Johnston was very conservative and had his hands full. Even later when he was not in an active operation he would place caveats on returning troops to Bragg. Tullahoma forced him to return Breckinridge's Division, but I don't think the Confederacy ever considered a major of the troops under Johnston in Mississippi (who constituted the last Confederate troops in the field in that state).
I am not familiar enough with the Vicksburg Campaign to know & understand what Johnston was doing. I know he didn't have enough men to do much to help Pemberton, but he did apparently have enough to force Grant to account for his presence with Sherman.
 
I am not familiar enough with the Vicksburg Campaign to know & understand what Johnston was doing. I know he didn't have enough men to do much to help Pemberton, but he did apparently have enough to force Grant to account for his presence with Sherman.

Yep. The Army of Relief was too little too late and robbed Bragg of a key division right before Tullahoma for the good it did.
 
Well we do know what Bragg was likely to do when "reinforced"--argue, alienate, and eventually leave the reinforcing commander to hang on his own petard---using the Chickamauga experience as a guide.
I have a feeling that no matter how many troops might have been sent to Bragg in the fall of 1863 the outcome would be the same.
 
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