Jeff Davis taking field command during acw

As I understand it Davis had been a professional soldier. He has the reputation for micro managing.

Might he have led a rebel army in the Field?

If so could he have been captured and would he be treated as a pow or tried as a traitor?
 

Dirk_Pitt

Banned
As I understand it Davis had been a professional soldier. He has the reputation for micro managing.

Might he have led a rebel army in the Field?

If so could he have been captured and would he be treated as a pow or tried as a traitor?

He was, graduate of West Point mind, but apparently he was of poor quality.
 
If he takes field command and is either captured or killed it would likely be one of the best possible scenarios for the CSA
 
Davis would have preferred to be Commander of the Confederacy's armies rather than President. So given his choice Davis would be in a position more like Halleck than Lee.

His record as an officer in the Mexican war seems to have been decent enough. He doesn't seem to have shied from leading his regiment in combat at any rate. And he called in a favor from President Polk to make sure it was equipped with the latest rifles.

All in all, I don't think his political career tells us very much about how good Davis would have been in field command. All of the good generals in the Civil War went through a learning period after some sort of defeat and came back better generals. That in mind I think Davis in command would be a decent officer in the field with the potential to be a good one if he learns the right lessons.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Jefferson Davis would have been a hell of a lot better than some of the generals the Confederacy had IOTL
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Davis would have preferred to be Commander of the Confederacy's armies rather than President. So given his choice Davis would be in a position more like Halleck than Lee.

But that is pretty much what he turned out to be IOTL. Until Breckinridge became Secretary of War in early 1865, and Lee being made general-in-chief around the same time, Davis was effectively his own general-in-chief. Every Secretary of War before Breckinridge was just a cipher.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, Jefferson Davis would have been a hell of a lot better than some of the generals the Confederacy had IOTL

Pillow, Floyd, Polk, and a few others, sure. But given his prickly personality, I have a feeling that Davis might have turned out rather like Bragg.
 
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