Whose Death Would Help Save Atlanta?

Whose Death Will Help Save Atlanta?

  • Jefferson Davis

    Votes: 20 64.5%
  • Joe Johnston

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • John Bell Hood

    Votes: 8 25.8%
  • William Hardee

    Votes: 2 6.5%
  • Joseph Wheeler

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Total voters
    31

Anaxagoras

Banned
On January 1, 1864, one of the people in this poll has a sudden heart attack and dies. Whose death would make it more likely that the Confederates will be able to hold Atlanta against Sherman?
 
Of the choices, yes definitely Davis.

But if we canot kill off Sherman, just because it would be too obvious (agreeing with dante), could we do the next best thing and kill off Thomas?

In the campaign proper, Thomas prevented Sherman from making at least 2 horrible frontal assaults. In TTL, Sherman will still reach Atlanta, but perhaps a week later and with easily 10,000 fewer men. This is assuming that any of the vastly lesser commanders of the AotC does not make any stupid blunders that stop the campaign before then.

If the campaign lasts all the way up to Peachtree Creek, then with no Thomas, the AotC is caught napping, and even Hood can implement Johnston's plan. It almost worked in OTL, and failed because Thomas had enough presence of mind to ready the artillery, and exerted great personal force on his men. With neither of these, the flank falls apart and Sherman has to postpone his railroad-destroying trip to keep the armies intact.

At the very least, all of this will buy Johnston/Hood enough time for Forrest to come east and start making real raids against Sherman's RR. With some better luck.....well, in OTL by the time the armies reached Atlanta, Sherman only had 100,000 men versus Johnston's 70,000. With no strong Army commander, the Union forces could be crushed in detai.
 
I also voted Davis, but what if - Hood falls over dead, and Johnston is removed in favor of ... Leonidas Polk!!! Sherman takes the city much more easily, and ends up not burning it. I know it's not the original post, but it would "save" Atlanta... :D
 
Without Davis micro-managing military affairs Lee is likely in charge of the military. If he is, Johnston remains in command and he grinds Sherman down with every step he takes and perhaps even steals a small victory, or two. Friends of Davis like Polk would fare poorly and be replaced by more competent officers from Lee's command. No way Atlanta falls by election time in this case. Perhaps we even have an electoral loss for Lincoln if things go very poorly.
 
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Anaxagoras

Banned
how about Sherman, to obvious?

But if we canot kill off Sherman, just because it would be too obvious (agreeing with dante), could we do the next best thing and kill off Thomas?

I decided to limit it to Confederate personalities, for the sake of a good debate.

I myself choose Hood. I have been reading a great deal about the Atlanta campaign in recent months, and have basically come to the conclusion that replacing Johnston with Hood was perhaps the worst mistake Davis made during the war.
 
It's really not a dislike for Davis, but knowledge of his policies. He disliked Johnston so Johnston did not get the support he deserved. When Johnston was fighting a brilliant defensive campaign Davis decided to replace him because he wasn't agressive enough, which how you're to go on the offensive against Sherman who outnumbers you more than 2 to 1 I have no idea.

That's why I don't really blame Hood, because Hood did exactly what Davis wanted him to do. He went on the offensive to draw Sherman out of Georgia, but Sherman simply ignored him and let Thomas handle the affair.

Davis was bound to replace Johnston. Had it not been Hood it likely would have been a re-tread like Beauregard. There is little hope he would've replaced him with anyone who could have made a difference like Forrest, or Cleburne.
 
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Yeah, killing off Davis would keep Hood on the shelf and give Johnson full command.

Not to mention if he's say assassinated by a northerner, it does give the South a drum to beat politically that could effect the November election.
 
On a tactical level the death of Wheeler would be a great help to Johnston. Wheeler, being a glory hunting ego driven general and a Bragg cronie, hindered the effectiveness of Johnston's Army throughout the campaign by rufusing to scout, seeking fights and constantly complaining to Bragg that Johnston wouldn't let him go off on a raid.

The death of Wheeler, furthermore, depending on when he died, would likely lead to the rise of either Forrest or Wharton as Cavarly Corps Commander. Wharton would be a better choice as he works better with the Army than any of the other Confederate Cavalrymen (but Stuart) but Forrest would be a good choice anyway.

Also on a tactical level the death of Hood would aide Johnston in the Atlanta Campaign. Without Hood leading his Corps on meaningless assaults (as at Resaca and Kolb's Farm), criticizing Johnston to higher powers behind the scenes and blowing the atack at Cassville Johnston's chances for success improve.

It would all depend on who would get command of the Corps in stead of Hood. Personally I favor the three Corps system at Dalton with the Cops Commands going to Hardee, Cheatham and Cleburne or alternatively Hardee, D.H. Hill and Cleburne with Polk joining them at a latter date. Regardless these set ups are more likely to see success than the OTL set up of Hardee and Hood with the later addition of Polk.

On a strategical level the death of Davis is a better help. Davis was forced, against his will, to install Johnston in command and made it perfectly clear that he didn't like, trust or support Johnston and didn't like, want or support the type of Campaign Johnston was fighting. Furthermore he accepted and relied on the reports of the ambitious Hood and the bitter Bragg and the glory-hunting-Bragg-cronie Wheeler not because they were the only ones he was getting but because they said what he wanted to hear about Johnston - that he was a failure and was going to give up Georgia without a fight.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
BUt with Davis dead, what about of Alexander Stephen

He would not have interfered in military affairs the way Davis did, and would probably have let Lee and Johnston fight their campaigns as they saw fit. Stephens was a brilliant man (and sadly underappreciated by history) but was not a military man and knew it.
 
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