[Cleburne]

The Confederate high command was almost always lousy, though the rank and file commanders and soldiers were of fine material. But with incompetent men like Bragg and Hood leading them, they were little more than heroic cannon fodder. Bragg missed a fine chance to hold Kentucky for the Confederacy, but he squandered it. Was he replaced? No, he went on to lose Tennessee in a long, humilating retreat that could have quite easily been halted (Middle Tennessee is littered with ranges of limestone hills and crossed by deep-bedded rivers, fine defensive ground), then, coming into Georgia, squandered a victory at Chickamauga, argued with Longstreet and squandered his forces, and, to top it off, pulled off a miserable "seige" of Chattanooga. His army would likely have been destroyed had it not been for Pat Cleburne's stand in the gap south outside of Ringgold.

[wardaddy]

You are incredibly wise and astute for your years. Bragg was indeed one piss poor military leader. One wonders if the Tennessee theater might not have fared better (from our viewpoint) had Albert Sydney Johnston not been killed at the Peach Orchard at the battle of Shiloh Church. A.S. might very well have survived his wound had he noticed it and called for an available surgeon early enough before he collapsed from his horse.

A little synopsis of his death from www.swcivilwar.com:

There was also hard fighting in a peach orchard and Johnston himself led the final charge that drove the Union defenders out of it. Shortly afterward he was hit in the leg by a Yankee bullet which severed his femoral artery. Having sent his surgeon to tend to group of wounded Federal prisoners, he bled to death for lack of appropriate medical attention

It's comforting to see young folks with as keen a sense of history as yours are still around.