The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood by Stephen M. Hood

Author:Stephen M. Hood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781611211832
Publisher: Savas Beatie
Published: 2014-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Army of Tennessee Troop Strength Calculations

Even before the end of the war Joseph Johnston and John Bell Hood engaged in a public debate. Each blamed the other in their official reports for the loss of Atlanta, and continued the dispute in their published postwar recollections.

Hood castigated Johnston for ceding so much territory to Sherman without pitched battles to dispute the Northern drive into the state, and for destroying the morale of the Army of Tennessee by the persistent retreating. According to statistics provided to Hood, Johnston lost between 20,000 and 25,000 troops from the opening of the campaign to the crossing of the Chattahoochee River in July 1864. Most of these, he alleged, were due to desertions. Johnston jabbed back, contending his retreats were strategic in nature and that the army lost only 9,972 troops during his command tenure.1 Brigadier General William W. Mackall, Johnston’s chief of staff and close friend, refused to serve under Hood. Mackall resigned just one week after Johnston’s removal and took with him many of the records from the army headquarters. Mackall’s actions made it impossible to calculate the precise beginning troop strength of the Army of Tennessee (and much other related information), which in turn has prevented historians from accurately ascertaining Johnston’s losses.2

Several letters in Hood’s recently found personal papers support his heretofore widely doubted contention that the Army of Tennessee, during Johnston’s tenure, lost over 20,000 troops. Letters supporting this claim reached Hood from several sources: W. J. Byrne, the surgeon for the 9th Kentucky (June 26, 1874); E. B. Wade (November 18, 1865); and John Smith (June 21, 1865). Wade’s and Smith’s letters were sworn affidavits attesting that they had been told of Johnston’s 25,000 losses by Maj. Kinloch Falconer, a member of Johnston’s staff during the Atlanta Campaign. In addition, Johnston’s former chief of ordnance, Col. Hypolite Oladowski, complained about understated casualty claims by Johnston in a letter to Braxton Bragg dated May 29, 1874, a copy of which was obtained by Hood.

* * *

8.1 F. A. Shoup to J. B. Hood, March 15, 1865

Richmond

March, 15. 65

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