Lee goes west

I was wondering what the results if Robert E. Lee was sent to the western theater at the start of the war.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
He would not have been happy, as he would have very much wanted to be in command of the forces defending Virginia. But he was a good soldier and would have gone.

How Lee would have dealt with the strategic situation that faced Albert Sidney Johnston IOTL is hard to say. The defensive line was spread from Columbus, Kentucky on the Mississippi all the way to the Cumberland Gap. Lee's strategic instinct was always for concentration and the seeking of a decisive battle, but the instructions from Davis (to defend every inch of Confederate territory) would have not allowed this to happen. He certainly would have appreciated the vulnerability of Fort Henry and Fort Doneslon better than Johnston did, not that this is saying much.

As he did with the Army of Northern Virginia IOTL, Lee would have bent his energies towards building a team with which he could work. He would have recognized quitequickly that Polk was not fit to be a major, let alone a major general, and would have tried to get rid of him (Polk was one of those friends Davis tended to protect, so I doubt Lee would have gotten what he wanted in this case). Lee knew, liked and respected Hardee, so he would have made sure he had a bigger role than IOTL. How Lee would have dealt with Bragg is anyone's guess. Perhaps Lee would have been able to achieve what no one else could and worked well with him.
 
From what I recall, Ft. Henry is kind of a tricky spot; to economize manpower on the cordon, you want a spot that's within easy marching distance of the Cumberland, above the railroad to Memphis, but below the Kentucky state border, which limits your options. Dispensing with KY neutrality altogether after Camp Dick Robinson opens would be an option, but potentially very risky.

I would like to think Lee would have done a better job defending TN than Johnston, as Johnston failed to ensure that his orders to fortify Nashville were obeyed, thus allowing the city to fall without a fight when Fort Donelson could no longer shield it. I've heard north TN is very defensible terrain, with concentric rings of hills, so if Lee plays his cards right, you could have a much protracted struggle over TN, which is good for keeping the US out of the Confederate interior.
 
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