How precisely does one rate Braxton Bragg as a general in terms of his OTL career and his AH potential? I mean the guy pretty much did resurrect the CS war in the West at Perryville, and had at least the potential to score the biggest CS victory in any semi-realistic scenario of the entire war. His army was still fighting with sticks and stones into 1863, had issues with starvation that made Lee look like Scrooge McDuck swimming in the money bin by comparison, and Bragg also had in Leonidas Polk a general who could teach Starscream lessons in the Backstabbing 101 sweepstakes. While at Chickamauga Bragg won the biggest Confederate victory of the war, and his failure at Chattanooga had to do with yet another instance of backstabbing, this time with James Longstreet playing the major role.
Would it be fair to state that Bragg is the easy fall guy for Confederate defeats in the West? Personally I'd rate Bragg the closest to Lee of any CS general on grounds of being the only guy in the war to actually rout an entire US army, as well as actually *winning* his desperate invasion gamble in 1862 as opposed to Lee's defeat at Antietam. Bragg's big failures were indecision and a predilection to seek scapegoats, exacerbated by a subordinate who really was a backstabbing sonofabitch.
Your thoughts?