Bragg fight at Harrodsburg

In "General in Blue and Gray - Volume Two" in the chapter on Braxton Bragg about his Kentucky Campaign it says this:

On October 11, General Kirby Smith joined Bragg at Harrodsburg. With their combined commands now larger than the Federal army, he urged Bragg to attack the enemy: "For Gods sake, General, let us fight Buell here." Bragg considered the possibility but again lost his resolve and did not fight. Many believed he lost a great opportunity.

"Had battle been joined at Harrodsburg," said General Basil W. Duke, "it would have been the only great field of war - east or west - on which the Confederate forces were numerically the stronger, and every other conceivable factor was in their favor. Never was the morale of and army better than that of General Bragg's on the eve of that anticipated conflict...General Bragg ought to have fought then and there, and must have won"

A similar veiw was expressed by General C.C. Gilbert, who commanded the Third Corps of Buell's army: "It was a peice of good fortune for the Union side that the Confederates did not return to renew battle, for they would have had such an advantage in numbers and in the character of their troops that the Army of the Ohio would have been placed in great peril." Gilbert continues: "In not returning to Perryville and resuming the battle, he [Bragg] lost for the Confederacy perhaps the only opportunity it ever had of fighting a great battle with decisive preponderance in numbers and character of its troops"

Bragg explained his reasons in a letter to his wife, attributing it to the fact that Kentuckians had shown little interest in enlistig in the Confederate army: "Why should I stay with my handful of brave Southern men to fight for cowards?"


So what if Bragg had fought at Harrodsburg/Perryville? Is victory a certainty and if so how decisive is it? Should victory be where would Bragg take his army afterwards?
 
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