Hood's actions gave him no choice. Having spotted the Union cavalry force (which, in Hood's defense, was real despite the post-war claims of Johnston and Mackall), Hood immediately began retreating. He should have either detached a force to deal with the threat or at least communicated with Johnston to ask what to do. Instead, he pulled back so far that by the time Johnston could have done anything about it, the chance to attack was gone.
So, Johnston couldn't/didn't keep track until Hood had thrown this away?
That's . . . kind of disappointing. I suppose we can blame the Confederate habit of undersized staffs, but its still disappointing.
And this is looking at it as favorably as I can imagine, and ignoring the "Okay, we can't attack, we have to retreat" part.
Or in arguing how he was fantastically successful to his supporters like Senator Hill and telling Davis . . . well, I posted it earlier in the thread. Sufficient to say, Johnston saying different things at different times happened before his memoirs were written.Quite true. I am generally a defender of Johnston against Davis/Bragg/Hood, but Johnston certainly didn't help his cause by the illogical use of numbers in his memoirs.
Anaxagoras: The context of "Bragg has been down here, and Davis is sending a telegram asking for specific information now" is "Davis wants more than he has available now".
If Bragg has already been told what he planned (assuming for discussion's sake Johnston had planned anything), why would Davis be asking for specific information if he already has it? Just to waste paper?