What if Joe Johnston opposed Grant in Mississippi?

Well, reading the book I just finished on Vicksburg (The Final Fortress), Pemberton's fear was that his attempt to join Johnston would end in the capture of Vicksburg. Meanwhile, primary sources indicate that Johnston's plan was to strike at Grant's supply base.


Oh I get what you mean now. Still, in order to get to Grant's "supply base" Johnston would still have to battle Grant somewhere around Jackson first. Then he could move on Grant's beachhead on the Mississippi.


Such a plan would not interfere with Grant in the least because he planned to abandon his supply base and live off the land in the interim. Also, in OTL, Grant felt comfortable dispatching Sherman from the siege of Vicksburg to face Johnston alone outside of Jackson (Johnston never arrived). Surely in this scenario, he would possibly attempt the reverse, leaving Sherman to take the weakened defenses of Vicksburg while facing Johnston with his own forces.


Actually that's not entirely true. Grant still had a link with his beachhead, which also acted as a supply depot, at Bruinsburg & Grand Gulf. It is true, though, that he was prepared to move, at times, without letting his supply columns slow him down. The thing is Grant's army, without or without Sherman, still have to secure their rear, meaning Jackson has to be taken. And if it doesn't involve the entire army, but is either divided up, as in the OTL, or as per your scenario, whilst Johnston & Pemberton have united their forces, then the Union should suffer a major defeat as a result of being smaller in number & divided.
 
That would be the case only if Sherman fails to overpower the smaller Confederate garrison in Vicksburg. If Sherman were to take Vicksburg, Grant's army, intact, if beaten, would be able to fall back on Vicksburg, which would be virtually untakeable as long as Union gunboats control the Mississippi.

At this point, we've established a scenario that could go in either direction depending on the whim of the author.
 
That would be the case only if Sherman fails to overpower the smaller Confederate garrison in Vicksburg. If Sherman were to take Vicksburg, Grant's army, intact, if beaten, would be able to fall back on Vicksburg, which would be virtually untakeable as long as Union gunboats control the Mississippi.

At this point, we've established a scenario that could go in either direction depending on the whim of the author.


Well for starters Grant will have to drastically alter his plans as in the OTL Sherman was the first to reach Jackson from the south. Plus you had McPherson in a position, coming from the west, to outflank Johnston meaning he knew he really couldn't stay in Jackson even if he wanted to. Have Pemberton's 30 000 troops there, though, & it's a different story, where Sherman can be hit first, which will leave McPherson's corps dangerously isolated. McPherson either has to withdraw or can be, well maybe not annihilated, but certainly suffer a heavy defeat.

Grant's only other major corps present belonged to McClernand, who Grant didn't trust at all, as McClernand wasn't overly competent as a corps commander. In fact the moment Grant could find an excuse to sack him he did.

Furthermore, even if Sherman was completely redirected towards Vickburg, considering its garrison would number about 10 000 troops, fighting behind substancial fortifications, I highly doubt that Sherman in trying to breach those fortifications, all by himself, will be able to as he hasn't got a great track record of ever doing so in the OTL. Hence I highly doubt it here either.
 
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I was involved in a similar discussion on another site, it was a scenario of Pemberton joining up with Johnston rather than what I imagined which was Pemberton not even being in command of the Vicksburg defenses, and this is what we decided would be the likely outcome:

A smaller garrison would be in place at Vicksburg and would be able to hold out for a while but would fall soon enough.

A campaign between Grant and Johnston would start with Johnston adopting strong defensive positions and Grant testing him there but failing to make any ground.

Once Grant realised he should just attack Johnston like that he would attempt to fight a war of attrition against Johnston but Joe would refuse to engage the Union in any battle where he had not chosen the field.

The campaign between them would continue with Grant and Johnston dancing around each other, both trying to bring the others army to battle where they want to on a field of their own chosing.

Without Davis' interferance Johnston would eventually have looked to pull out of Mississippi entirely as the Union presence in that state grew and fall back to prepared stronger positions, maybe linking up with Bragg but more likely not.

With Davis interferance Johnston would have conducted a campaign where he lost few men and opposed Grant for a long time but lost quite a bit of ground. Davis would soon replace him with a more offensive commander and the Army of Mississippi would be destroyed by Grant.
 
Letting yourself get trapped inside a city is rarely a winning move. Yes, the Union would have kept it after they took Vicksburg but they lost it anyways and 30,000 men besides.
 
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