OK, let’s examine some Western battles:
1. Chickamauga....Confederate Victory.
2. Shiloh...A draw, and only because Albert Sidney Johnston was killed....otherwise the Union Army would have been totally destroyed.
3. Mansfield: Confederate Victory
4. Galveston: Confederate Victory
For the most part, inept Generals like Bragg, and Hood were the only reason for Confederate Losses in the West. Anytime there were competent Generals, the Confederates won.
My whole point in all of this is YES, no question that the Federals won the war, but it was certainly no brilliant victory, but rather a sheer overwhelming of the South by manpower and resources! If the South had access to the same, well, it would have been a different story.
furthermore, ALL of the major partisan actions in the west & trans-Mississippi were CSA victories.
had there been ANY support from Richmond, we could have held the trans-Mississippi FOREVER! (alas, there was little or no support available.)
the TRUTH is that MOST western CSA units went home UN-surrendered. my ancestor's unit for ONE!
free dixie,sw
Grant was able to establish himself permanently in the vicinity and did not withdraw -- which it had been Johnston's objective to force him to do, if he couldn't wreck Grant's force -- whereas the Confederates, driven from the field on the second day by Grant's reinforcements, retreated to Mississippi.
I've thought about Shiloh a long time, and the Confederates basically didn't have the resources to do what the lay of the field required. Grant's dispositions defended his key landing in sufficient depth to prevent the Southerners from doing what they needed to do in one day's fighting.
JMHO, if Johnston's troops somehow could have approached Grant's base area under cover and avoided Prentiss, they might have had a chance of carrying the field. But fighting through Prentiss and the Hornet's Nest/Peach Orchard line was just too much. They spent themselves before they got close to endangering Grant's lodgement at the landing.
The battle was a mismatch, with Southern forces overmatched by the job to be done and outnumbered by Union forces in the operating area. It was a significant Union victory.
Yes, lets.
Fort Henry, Fort Donalson, Memphis, Island Number 10, Shiloh (a Union victory even if you prefer not to recognize it. The Union repelled the Confederate attack, held the field, and forced the Rebel forces to withdraw), Iuka, Corinth, Stones River, New Orleans, Chattanooga, the Vicksburg campaign, the Atlanta campaign, the march to Sanvannah, Franklin, the Carolina campaigns. Whole Rebel armies captured at Fort Donalson and at Vicksburg. What do you have to offer? Chickamauga (which was against the Army of the Cumberland, not the Army of the Tennessee) and a skirmish at Galveston.
For the most part, inept Generals like Bragg, and Hood were the only reason for Confederate Losses in the West.
And who did Lee run his string of wins up against? Hooker, Pope, Burnside, and McClellan. It the Union wins in the west are due to poor Confederate generalship then the same can be said about the Rebel wins.
Anytime there were competent Generals, the Confederates won.
So...what you're saying is that there were no competent Confederate generals in the west?
My whole point in all of this is YES, no question that the Federals won the war, but it was certainly no brilliant victory, but rather a sheer overwhelming of the South by manpower and resources!
Ha!