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Author's Note:

This timeline is written with the assistance of Earl J. Hess's overview of Braxton Bragg's career, which presents a more favourable view of him than most. As you can probably infer it is the result of my mentally comparing Bragg and Lee, and given that they were reassigned to different theatres within a month of each other in early 1862, I decided to experiment with switching them around, although I freely admit that my POD is clumsy and unrealistic.

February 1862:
After the debacles at Mill Springs and Fort Donelson, it became clear to Confederate commanders in the Western Department that a real emergency had come upon them. G. T. Beauregard, commander of troops in Mississippi and western Tennessee, began planning for the concentration of the Western Department's forces at Corinth, a strategic rail centre. The department's overall commander, A. S. Johnston, was in direct command of the Army of Central Kentucky. With Fort Donelson and Nashville under Union control, Johnston's position in his army's titular location became untenable. Johnston, was, however, able to escape encirclement and withdrew southwards to join Beauregard. However, the route he was forced to take as well as the sheer distance delayed his arrival in Corinth to 24 March.

Seemingly unrelatedly, Governor of Alabam John G. Shorter suffered a severe stroke on 21 February [1]. He had already begun the process of sending troops in reponse to Beauregard's call. This was halted by his incapacitation, but only temporarily.

March 1862:
The Confederate government in Richmond intervened at this juncture. Davis and his cabinet saw Beauregard's plan as a high priority. However, they were faced with the dilemma that the Confederacy hardly has any reinforcements to send. The Army of Northern Virginia was heavily outnumbered by its opponents and could spare nothing more. The Army of Pensacola under Braxton Bragg, and the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida under R. E. Lee, held critical positions defending the Confederacy from naval attack, but at the moment Corinth was even more vital. Due to the layout of relevant rail lines, in practical terms they were equally distant from Corinth. Furthermore the gauge changed twice on the route between Pensacola and Corinth. Davis judged it simpler to use Lee's troops in the West [2]. Thus, on 13 March the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida was merged with the Western Department. Of its troops, the majority were sent to Corinth by rail, along with their commander, R. E. Lee. Ruggles's garrison in New Orleans was also sent to Corinth.

Lee arrived in Corinth on 17 March, raising the number of troops there to 31000.

On 29 March, A. S. Johnston arrived and took command of what was now known as the Army of Mississippi. His troops brought the total force to 63000 men. The Army of Mississippi was divided into three "wings" (each consisting of six brigades, except for Polk's wing which had four), commanded by Leonidas Polk, Robert E. Lee, and G. T. Beauregard. Though formidable in numbers, this force was poorly armed and trained.

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General Robert E. Lee


In late March Bragg's troops were moved northwards. Some were deatched to Georgia and South Carolina, but 8,000 continued into Virginia. Bragg became a military advisor to Davis in Richmond, while his troops were organised into a division under James R. Chalmers. Bragg set to work on better organising the state of affairs and improving the supply system. Davis also promoted him to full General.

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General Braxton Bragg


In Virginia, Johnston had withdrawn from his advanced positions near Washington to Culpeper. At the same time, Union troops under Nathaniel Banks entered the Shenandoah Valley in pursuit of withdrawing Confederates. At Kernstown they were surprisingly counterattacked by Stonewall Jackson. Although this resulted in a Union victory, the battle worried the Union government and reinforcements were dispatched to the area.

April 1862:
Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley were able to counterattack and take Harrisonburg, though Jackson eluded them.

On 4 April [3], 50000 men of the Army of Mississippi set out from Corinth towards U. S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. Johnston planned to defeat Grant before reinforcements could reach him and cut off his line of retreat by taking Pittburgh Landing. However, their advance was delayed by lack of organisation and bad weather. By the time they reached Grant, the Army of the Ohio under Don Carlos Buell was preparing to cross, with 8000 troops already across, and 2200 waiting to. Although Beauregard suspected that the Union troops may have heard their approach, Lee and Johnston insist on pressing the attack. In fact, despite their greater strength of around 7400 men, the Union troops were unprepared for Johnston's attack and taken by surprise.

The Confederate forces suffered from a lack of agreement about their plan of attack. 3/7 of the full generals of the CSA participanted in this one battle. Beauregard, Lee, and Johnston had different battle plans. This issue was not satisfactorily solved by the time the battle begun. The disposition that had been worked out had Lee on the right, Beauregard in the centre, and Polk on the left.

Grant's troops were mostly bivouacked carelessly near the Shiloh Church a few km away from Pittsburg Landing, a facility on the Tennessee River that allowed the transport of supplies and reinforcements to Grant. The total number of Union troops west of the river was 52000. Around 5:30 AM on 6 April, the Confederate attack began, initially with significant success. Union troops were repulsed from their forward encampments. As Grant was not present, Don Carlos Buell served as acting commander for the first half of the day, unfortunately resulting in discoordination as some division commanders of the Army of the Tennessee would not take orders from Buell.

Soon afterwards, however, Nelson, Sherman, and McClernand were able to form a strong defensive line along the Purdy Road. Confederate charges at this line continued until noon, and were repulsed bloodily. Lee and Beauregard were able to pierce the Union line by destroying Hurlbut's division, which was left behind as other Union units retreated. As this occurred, more troops from the Army of the Ohio were crossing the river as the battle progressed. Thrown piecemeal into the fray, they did little, but by 2:00 PM the breakthrough had been contained. Around this time Grant arrived on the field and took charge.

Seeing the stalling situation, Sidney Johnston gathered several of Lee's brigades, and personally led a massive charge at the extreme Union left, which wavered and then buckled. Lee's corps was able to advance to take Pittsburg Landing. Grant and Buell were able to direct an attack by McCook and Prentiss's divisions, checking Lee's advance. At this point much of Grant's army had been scattered by Confederate attacks, although he still defended the Purdy Road. Conversely, the Confederates were exhausted and disorganised from the long day of fighting. However, their original plan had succeeded, since Grant was now cut off from resupply, as well as from the 14000 Union troops that had not been able to cross the river. Several Union breakout attempts were launched, but failed to achieve their goal due to lack of coordination. Grant was very reluctant to surrender, but Buell convinced him that there was no other option, given that they had little hope of extricating themselves through the swamplands. In the early morning of 7 April, Grant and Buell surrendered the Army of the Tennessee and most of the Army of the Ohio, totalling some 53714 men[4].

Command of the remaining 14000 men of the Army of the Ohio devolved to Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood. Rather than risk engagement with the 53900 strong Army of Mississippi, Wood withdrew northwards to Nashville. With the only significant Union force in the area out of the picture, Sidney Johnston entered Jackson on 11 April. In light of the accelerating disaster, Henry Halleck took the field with a hastily assembled army of 39000 men to contest the northward Confederate advance. Halleck's troops engaged Johnston at Humboldt on 15 April. Though with numerical superiority, the Confederates were in poor shape and after a few hours of battle Johnston, Lee, and Beauregard withdrew back to Jackson.

After this point, however, the Army of Mississippi split into three independent armies. Breckinridge's Army of the Gulf (7200 men), R. E. Lee's Army of Central Tennessee (21000 men), with 25600 men remaining under Johnston's command. Beauregard served as Johnston's second-in-command. On 30 April, Lee defeated Wood at Brentwood, just south of Nashville.

Meanwhile, in the west events had gone significantly better for the United States. The Army of the Potomac landed on the Yorktown Peninsula on 5 April with 58,000 men, with continual reinforcements expanding this to over 100,000. The Confederates there numbered only around 57,000 men. However, the Federal commander, George B. McClellan, was cautious and overestimated Confederate numbers. As a result of this the Federals did not attack in strength.

On 18 April, US navy under David Farragut bombarded Ft. Jackson and Ft. St. Phillip, which protected New Orleans. Not making headway, Farragut decided to rush past the forts on April 29, taking New Orleans.

Footnotes:
[1 - POD: Shorter's telegram contacting Bragg urging him to assist Beauregard is not sent]
[2 - I fully concede this to be contrived]
[3 - Without Bragg's organising and disciplinary focus, the preparations for the campaign likely would have taken longer. Of course, the Confederates have more men]
[4 - During the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, also known as the Battle of Lick Creek, the Federals sustained 1300 killed, 6000 wounded, 8300 missing (for a total of 15600 casualties), and the Confederates sustained 1600 killed, 6800 wounded, and 700 missing (for a total of 9100 casualties)]
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