[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from September 30 (reply #19).

William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Today’s posts:

“Jefferson Davis, American,” reply #25
“William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life,” reply #26
Elisha Hunt Rhodes, #27
Links to 5 items at Civil War Notebook, #28

[BroJoeK]

"William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American"

"Today" Davis visited Confederate troops near Washington, DC, and conferred with his senior generals.

"After some discussion of army organization, the generals raised the point that most interested them -- going on the offensive.
They wanted to cross the Potomac, flank the Federals, force them out of their fortifications and attack them.
An obviously interested president listened...
...the generals insisted they needed substantial reinforcements of seasoned troops.
Davis told them they were asking for the imnpossible.
No such body of experienced men existed...
Thus with the decision that Johnston's army would retain its defensive posture, Davis on October 4 returned to Richmond."

Now, based on reports like this one, FR posters like central_va have long argued the Confederacy was on the "strategic defensive" and did not actually threaten the Union itself.
But as of September-October 1861, Confederate forces have successfully invaded and defeated weaker Union units in Union New Mexico, Oklahoma (Indian Territory), Missouri, Kentucky and even West Virginia.
In due time the Confederacy will claim New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kentucky as Confederate states/territories, and thus, despite their caution in Virginia, Confederates are already on the strategic offensive in every Union state & territory they can reach.