Posted on 07/17/2017 5:55:06 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
CSA President Jefferson Davis relieves General Joseph E. Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee. He appoints General John B. Hood to command the army. Hood's task will be formidable, facing the AOT outside of Atlanta, GA. is the Army of the Cumberland, Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Tennessee, all under the command of Major General William T. Sherman.
What a mistake that was ...
"Oh, I'm traveling ever southward to tell my tale of woe.
I'm going back to Georgia to see my Uncle Joe.
You can talk about your Beauregard
Or sing of General Lee;
But the gallant Hood of Texas sure played hell in Tennessee."
Hood is a textbook example of the Peter Principal. As a Brigade or Division commander, few rivaled him. He was promoted to his level of incompetence as AOT commander. He ably demonstrated that incompetence in the months to come.
Very true. Always wondered if Sherman’s march to the sea would have happened if if Johnston or Hood had reinforced Bedford Forrest’s command to operate southwest of Sherman as a threat to his rear and supply trains?
It sure would have been slower and much more costly in terms of blood and material.
bkmk
Don’t think it would have made much of a difference. He could have detached one of his three armies to secure his supply lines and still have a significant manpower advantage over the Army of the Tennessee.
Hood was Grant without the endless supply of replacement cannon fodder.
Not so. Grant never lost a battle commanding an army. Hood never won a battle commanding an army.
Yes, it would. Sherman himself foresaw that possibility when he proposed his march to Grant:
Allatoona 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 9th 1864
Lt. Gen. Grant
City Point
It will be a physical impossibility to protect this road now that Hood, Forrest, Wheeler and the whole batch of Devils are turned loose without home or habitation. I think Hoods movements indicate a direction to the end of the Selma and Talladega road to Blue Mountain about sixty miles south west of Rome from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport and Decatur and I propose we break up the road from Chattanooga and strike out with wagons for Milledgeville Millen and Savannah.
Until we can repopulate Georgia it is useless to occupy it, but utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources. By attempting to hold the roads we will lose a thousand men monthly and will gain no result. I can make the march and make Georgia howl. We have over 8,000 cattle and 3,000,000 pounds of bread but no corn, but we can forage the interior of the state.
W.T. Sherman
M. Genl.
Spot-on. Joe Johnston knew the Confederacy was doomed, but he knew how to maneuver his forces and avoid catastrophic defeats. Sherman’s March to the Sea would have reached its inevitable conclusion, but the fight would have been much tougher against Johnston.
Tactically and strategically, Hood was as subtle as a sledgehammer. He favored head-on assaults, even against great odds, and paid the price for his recklessness. Hood was an exceptionally brave man, in a war filled with them. He was wounded at least twice in battle, losing use of an arm (from injuries received at Gettysburg) and the amputation of his right leg after being wounded at Chickamauga. In fact, Hood was so badly injured in that latter battle, the surgeon who removed his leg sent it in the same ambulance with Hood, so he could be buried with it.
Hood was the embodiment of the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. The qualities that often served him well as a division commander made him a disaster in leading an entire Army.
I’m with you. But I’m fuzzy on what happened in The Wilderness clash. As I recall, it more or less wound up as a mexican standoff, where nobody won. Enlighten me if you have other info. Thanx.
Their tactical philosophies were identical.
That is the gruesome battle where the woods caught on fire and a lot of the wounded burned to death. Chilling.
Sherman had already conquered Atlanta, Hood had withdrawn the AOT into Alabama. Yes, if he had decided to occupy Atlanta, They would be a problem. But like Grant working toward Vicksburg, Sherman decided he could abandon his supply line and “make Georgia Howl” Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland was detached to deal with Hood’s AOT, and Sherman abandoned Atlanta heading for Savannah.
Not quite. Look at Grant’s operations South and East of Vicksburg. Hood never conducted a successful strategic campaign, Grant had several to his credit. Explain how, say, the assaults on Malvern Hill or Cemetery, differed from the assaults on Frankin or Cold Harbor. Frontal assaults, regardless of which General used them rarely succeeded. But when there was little better option, that was the tactic to be employed.
The battle of the Wilderness did not stop Grant from moving the Army of the Potomac, South, which was his intention. From that point on, all Lee could is go where Grant took his army. A month later, Grant had Lee bottled up in Petersburg.
I agree. The end was in sight for the Confederacy by then. All any of their generals could have done was delay the inevitable.
Sherman didn’t even have to subdue Georgia. He could have just bottled up Johnson and let Grant wear down the Army of Northern Virginia, then presented the Georgian holdouts with an ultimatum.
The South was doomed by then ... the “forlorn hope.”
Yes. I remember that. A terrible scene. Thanks.
That clears it up. Thanks.
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