Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper

Author:William J. Cooper [Cooper, William J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77264-0
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Eastern Theater, July-December 1862.

From W. J. Cooper and T. E. Terrill, The American South: A History (2d ed.), with permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies

Bragg had worked on organization and training and now felt his army ready for action, though he had not been permitted to reshape his officer corps fully. He requested that the president waive regulations requiring promotion by seniority so that meritorious young generals could be advanced to replace some less able senior men. Among those Bragg had in mind in the latter category was his ranking major general and Davis’s friend Leonidas Polk, who detested his commander. Davis would not relax the rule, however.65

Considering his options, Bragg decided on an imaginative and daring plan. When the Confederate commander in East Tennessee called for help, Bragg dispatched a division. The rail trip from Tupelo to Chattanooga was long and involved—some 800 miles, south to Mobile, by ferry across Mobile Bay, up to Montgomery, over to Atlanta, and finally Chattanooga. In addition, different gauges on the rail lines necessitated several changes of trains. Bragg watched this single division make a successful transit and then decided to follow with the bulk of his command. Reaching Chattanooga before Buell would not only secure the city but also open up the possibility of a Confederate advance into middle Tennessee or even into Kentucky. In an impressive operation Bragg put his infantry into motion on July 21, transferred it to Chattanooga in less than three weeks, and arrived ahead of Buell.

Like Lee, Bragg did not ask for Davis’s specific permission to implement his strategy, but he too kept the president informed. Davis was delighted with the possibility that the Confederates could retake Tennessee and possibly move into Kentucky. He was also satisfied that Bragg had left a sufficient force in Mississippi to protect the state, and even to mount a concurrent advance into western Tennessee.66

In Chattanooga, Bragg thought about his movement northward and attempted to coordinate operations with Major General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Department of East Tennessee. A full general, Bragg outranked Smith, only a major general, but the War Department issued no order extending his official authority over Smith’s department. When they were together, Bragg was clearly in charge, but when apart, the relationship turned murky. The trouble stemmed in part from army organization. In structuring army commands, Davis basically used geographical boundaries, the system widely employed in the pre-1860 U.S. Army and by his opponents between 1861 and 1865. These departments could be huge or small and their limits could change. Sidney Johnston’s Department No. 2 had originally extended from the Appalachians across the Mississippi; after his death and Beauregard’s dismissal, it eventually became several departments, including the Department of East Tennessee. Each departmental commander reported directly to the War Department in Richmond, in reality to President Davis, who was literally as well as constitutionally commander in chief.

Although Davis has often been faulted for this departmental structure, it had nothing intrinsically wrong with it. The fundamental arrangement was logical, though arguments can be made about the appropriateness of particular borders.

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