American Civil War - Switch the Johnston's

My idea now for the west is that Joe Johnston exagerates his loses and the weakness of his current situation in an attempt to acquire more manpower and supplies for his army - as he was prone to do every now an then - then plan to ambush the Federals near Booneville Mississippi.

But I am unsure of what the actions of the Federals will be now that Buell is in charge and Grant is gone. I am not very familiar with Buell so does anyone have any suggestions as to what he would attempt to do?
 
Here's the start of the next bit for the Western Theater. After this I'm not sure where to take it. I dont want to send the AoM into Kentucky because that would be copying OTL and its not something Johnston would have done anyway, so I need to make Buell take the offensive, but I' not sure where or how he would attempt to strike.

The West - 1862

After being driven from Corinth the Confederate Army under Joseph E. Johnston retired to Tupelo to regroup. The defeat had not been a complete one but it had been damaging, more to Confederate prestige than anything else. But Johnston was never concerned by such things and saw the defeat as a minor set back.

The loss of Kentucky, Middle-Tennessee, Nashville and Corinth appeared to be a major set back to all the political elements in the South, and, indeed, did constitute a considerable blow to emerging war manufacturing industries, and though Johnston often showed complete apathy towards political concerns he was aware of how the situation appeared to political elements. As such he sought to use this to strengthen his own position.

Throughout 1861 he had been handicapped by the situation forced upon him by Polk and Politics of holding a forward line in Kentucky and by having troops and supplies from the Deep-South denied him. Now he used the set-backs of the winter months of 1861/1862 to pressure the government and state legislatures into providing him more support.

He exaggerated his losses in a report to the Confederate High Command in Richmond and requested reinforcements and greater supplies. Davis was reluctant to provide them as it would mean stripping coastal positions and treading on the feet of state politicians to do so but eventually gave in and ordered approximately 10,000 men under Braxton Bragg and 7,000 men from New Oleans under Mansfield Lovell to be sent to Johnston’s Army of Mississippi and gave Johnston freedom to acquire whatever supplies he could from Mississippi and Alabama.

With these extra troops and supplies Johnston intended to engage the Federals somewhere near Booneville, deliver a powerful, if not destructive, blow to the Federal Army, and drive them back into the Tennessee and maybe beyond. Characteristically, Johnston did not plan this thoroughly but was preparing to rely on his ability to deal with things in the moment. Ideally he would want to ambush the Federals but that would depend on the mentality of the man opposing him.

Johnston’s opposing Commander was Don Carlos Buell. He was considered somewhat slow and lackadaisical by his contemporaries but also was recognized as a highly intelligent man and a very professional soldier full of ambition and pride. However he did not take criticism well and though he had been responsible for the failure to completely defeat the Confederates at Corinth he had passed the blame onto Grant.

With Grant being unfairly drummed out of services his Army of the Tennessee was absorbed by Buell’s Army of the Ohio, becoming two Corps under Sherman and McClernand, this making the army a three Corps system with Thomas commanding the other.

Buell had been jubilent after Grant's courtmartial and cashiering, for it left him in command of the only Federal Army in the West, and althought Helleck had been promoted to command the entire Western Theater, Buell felt that he could do whatever he wanted as it was he who commanded the largest concentrated body of Federal troops in the theater.

In his jubilent mood he had decided to march on Chattanooga. He spent just over a month preparing for this advance but once it began it went at a slow pace and he soon had to abandon it after raids by Confederate Cavalryman-cum-partisan, Nathan Bedford Forrest, threatened and disrupted his supply lines. Returning to Corinth he found himself the focus of accusations from Northern newspapers of southern sympathy (for refusing to allow his soldiers to ransack southern towns) and, even worse, incompetance.

Thus Buell was still sat at Corinth and Johnston still sat in Tupelo three months after the Battle of Corinth had been fought.

With Bragg and Lovell joining the Army of Mississippi Johnston's Army, that had lost 8,000 at Corinth and 3,000 to desertions, swelled to approximately 46,000 men, though many were still poorly armed despite the weapons coming into Confederate ports from Europe and weapon manufacturers springin up cities like Atlanta in Georgia and Mobile in Alabama, and many still lacked uniforms and even shoes. This enlargement required Johnston to reorganize his force.

Johnston chose a to employ a system of two Infantry "Wings".

One Wing Commander was Bragg. Bragg had impressed everyone with his professionalism, his discipline, his training abilities and his selflessness - he had offered to exchange his trained, experianced troops for raw recruits before - and all of these traits cemented him in Johnston's mind as one of his most talented and trustworthy subordinates. Under Bragg were the Corps of Leonidas Polk and John C. Breckinridge.

The second Wing Commander was G.W. Smith, initially. Smith was a skilled administrator and a prodigious writer of plans, memos and letters, a learned man who Johnston had once stated was capable of commanding the Army in his place, but as winter turned to spring and spring turned to summer Smith's failing health left him often incapable of exersizing command and instead Hardee stepped in to become de-facto commander. Under Smith were the Corps of William Hardee (often commanded by James Patton Anderson when Hardee stepped into Smith's shoes) and Mansfield Lovell.

In addition to his two infantry Wings, Johnston wanted to consolidate his Cavalry into one major force but did not see a stand out candidate for the role so for the time being he left the Cavalry forces as regiments attatched to the Corps. And finally W.H.C. Whiting was assigned to command the Artillery arm of the Army of Mississippi.
 
I re-read the other entries and forgot I had sent Beauregard out west. I think, then, that his arrival with the AoM will change the situation. He'd likely take over Smith's Wing while Smith gets moved to an administrative position to the rear and Beauregard will call for a more aggressive stance in the west.
 
The West - 1862

As summer began to arrive the situation in the western theater remained static.

Joe Johnston's defensive plan required Buell to make the first move and as such his army had done little but sit at Tupelo, train and recieve what supplies or reinforcements could arrive while it awaited the first federal action.

Buell, on the other hand, had occupied his time in petty quarrelling with his nominal superior Halleck and even some of his subordinates. The chief issue of the quarrel between Halleck and Buell was the attempt to build a new Federal Army at Nashville.

Halleck had wanted to transfer some of Buell's army to Nashville and build upon it and from their advance on Chattanooga, Buell had refused this request and opposed the building of a new army at Nashville as he was concerned it would divert supplies from him. In the end the matter was taken before General-In-Chief McClellan who sided with Buell as McClellan believed that Buell's approach was most in line with his own. The matter was far from settled though and Halleck began his army building project in Louisville Kentucky instead.

The result of that and other petty squabbles meant that Buell had sat as idle as his adversary through the spring month after his abortive attempt to advance on Chattanooga.

It was to be a General in East-Tennessee who broke this deadlock.

General Edmund Kirby Smith had restored order to the pro-Union area of the state and rebuild the command lost by Zollicoffer and Crittenden. He could now call upon approximately 6-10,000 to police his district, but being so close to Federal controlled Kentucky he could keep a closer eye on their movements than could Johnston. Inspired by the lack of activity on his front or in Middle-Tennessee, and perhaps also inspired by the success of John Hunt Morgan's raid into Kentucky in July, Smith contacted Johnston with the suggestion of advancing into Kentucky itself.

Johnston was not prepared to push so far north, given the preponderance of the Federal capacity to raise troops and supplies, but the lack of movement in front of him and the apparent lack of movement into Middle-Tennessee, despite there being no Confederate forces in the area to protect it, had him convinced that he could advance upon Nashville, force Buell to follow him, defeat the Federal Army in detail and re-take Tennessee, if only for a time.

Johnston and Kirby Smith continued to debate this issue, with Smith advocating the advance into Kentucky vehemently, until Johnston brought the matter before a council of war. There he discussed the matter with Generals Bragg, Beauregard - General G.W. Smith having been re-assigned following the failure of his health to an administrative position at Chattanooga while Beauregard had taken command of his Wing - Hardee, Polk, Breckenridge and Lovell. Though all generals were in favor of Kirby Smith's proposal they accepted Johnston's worry about over-reaching and agreed that, for the time being, aiming to recapture Nashville was a worthy goal.

It was thus decided that the Army of Mississippi would march into Middle-Tennessee and meet Kirby Smith's command coming out of East-Tennessee and march on Nashville. This movement was expected to draw Buell in persuit where they could fall upon him and defeat him.

So the Army of Mississippi moved via Decatur to come back into Tennessee and march on Shelbyville where they linked up with Kirby Smith, taking the command to approximately 56,000 men.

Buell's reaction to the dissapearance of the Army of Mississippi from his front was initial panic. His Army of the Ohio saw more action in those first few days searching for clues as to where Johnston's Army had gone than it had seen in months. Eventually news came throught that the Confederates had been seen near Decatur and were heading North. Buell immediately set out to follow them.

Buell was three days behind the Confedeates and by the time he reached Columbia the Confederates had already begun their march on Nashville. In desperation to catch them and prevent them from reaching Nashville ahead of him he sent Thomas's Corps ahead of the others to intercept the Confederates and delay the rest of his army arrived.

Luckilly for Buell the addition of Kirby Smith's command to the Army of Mississippi had caused some command confusion and the Confederate's march to Nashville had not started well and been slow going. Thus Thomas was able to take up position before Nashville and begin to entrench.

But Thomas was outnumbered almost 3 to 1 and once the Conferated engaged it would not matter how fierce his defense was it would be only a matter of time before he was overrun or would be forced to withdraw.

Johnston's army arrived three hours after Thomas and upon deciding that this was a Federal Corps isolated from the rest he decided to strike and break it before the others Corps arrived. For this task he set Bragg and Kirby Smith upon the Federals. The battle was more difficult than the Confederates had first thought it would be for Thomas's position was not easy to flank and his Corps fought hard when the attempt was made. Thomas threw back five seperate major attacks in two hours when news reached him of the approach of McClernand's Corps.

McClernand led the march from Columbia and came upon the battle at Johnston's left flank but for some reason he was not aware of this. Instead he halted for an hour and entrenched while he sent scouts out to discover where the enemies flank lay. This left Thomas to bare the brunt of further harsh fighting and gave Johnston time to set Beauregard's Corps in position to resist a Federal attack.

After an hour General Buell arrived with Sherman's Corps and was furious that McClernand had done nothing. He immediately ordered and attack but McClernand's delay had allowed Beauregard all the time he needed and the Federal attack was thrown back.

At last Thomas's Corps began to give way after almost seven hours of continuous fighting, and the failure of the other Federal Corps to reach him and link up almost ensured his defeat. He managed to hold on for half an hour more before his flank gave way and he was forced to fall back. If not for a late charge by Benjamin Grierson's Cavalry brigade then the Confederates would have rolled up Thomas's entire Corps. Thomas fell back in order into Nashville and none of the Confederate fancied fighting in the streets of a city so insteat Bragg turned most of his Wing - leaving Kirby Smith to watch Thomas - to face the other Federals.

The battle had been long and hard for Bragg's Wing as well but with victory in sight they were filled with energy and broke upon the Federals. Sherman's line held and drove him off but Beauregard then launched his own attack against McClernand who's line collapsed under the weight of the assault and fled, forcing Buell to abandon the field to the Confederates.

The Battle of Nashville ended with the Confederates in charge of the field. This victory had been a result of the lack of cohesion of their enemy. Thomas managed to smuggle his Corps across the Cumberland River as night fell while Buell moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky to regroup. Johnston's army was hit as hard as the Federals by the victory and had to halt in Nashville to recover but as his aim had only been Nashville anyway Johnston felt justified in reporting this campaign to be a resounding success to the Confederate Government.

Buell had lost the support of the Federal Commanders as a result of the campaign, and this was not help when he tried to pass the blame off onto McClernand - though McClernand was a big part of the failure it was Buell's haste more than anything that caused it - and he was relieved with immediate effect. Halleck offered Thomas command but did so before Buell had been removed so Thomas declined the offer. Command instead went to Rosecrans.
 
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