WI: Bragg in the Trans-Mississippi?

In a similar vein to my Beauregard in the Trans-Miss thread, I wanted to ask the same question, but with Bragg.

In January 1862, Davis offered command of the Trans-Mississippi Department to Braxton Bragg, then commanding at Pensacola. Bragg turned it down, with the position then being offered to Henry Heth (who also declined) and Earl Van Dorn (who accepted).

What could be the consequences of Bragg commanding the department? Personally, I think several aspects of his reputation are exaggerated or distorted, and while he was by no means great, he was better than most give him credit for.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Bragg was quite talented when it came to logistics and organization. His movement of the Army of Tennessee from Corinth to Chattanooga by rail in the late summer of 1862 was one of the great masterpieces of the war. Nor was he a bad strategist. His problems were in terms of personal relations with his subordinates, for he had a paranoid and abrasive personality (never a good combination). He might not have done badly in the Trans-Mississippi, where the distance between his headquarters and his subordinate commanders might have negated his flaws.
 
The flip side is who would be running the AoT and how it would fare. This not just as army commander. For example, Bragg stopped the promotion of Patrick Cleburne from division commander to corps commander because of his black troop suggestion. Lee in comparison had AP Hill who opposed slavery as a corps commander.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
The flip side is who would be running the AoT and how it would fare. This not just as army commander. For example, Bragg stopped the promotion of Patrick Cleburne from division commander to corps commander because of his black troop suggestion. Lee in comparison had AP Hill who opposed slavery as a corps commander.

Hardee would be the most likely choice. He certainly would have been better than Bragg. During his short tenure between Bragg's resignation and Johnston's promotion, he did a fairly good job at restoring order to the AoT in the aftermath of Missionary Ridge.

While Cleburne's memorandum probably was the decisive factor in Cleburne's lack of promotion, it was not the only factor. Cleburne was foreign-born and had not gone to West Point or any private military academy. Moreover, Hardee probably did not want to lose his outstanding subordinate and may have realized that Cleburne's talents were best suited to division-level command. He may well have been right about this last point, for Cleburne fared rather poorly during his only stint at corps-level command at Jonesboro in August of 1864. Perhaps, like A.P. Hill and John Bell Hood, he would have fallen victim to the Peter Principle.

As for A.P. Hill's opposition to slavery, it's one thing to quietly state one's opinion privately to friends and family and quite another to declare it in a memorandum read aloud to all the senior officers of the army and requesting that it be forwarded to the President.
 
It seems likely that events west of the Mississippi will spill over into Tennessee and Kentucky. It's possible Johnston may not be killed, meaning there's no need to find another commander for the main army in the West. Polk was senior to both Bragg and Hardee, Bragg was appointed because of Davis' high opinion of him (they didn't really become friends until after the war). If Johnston can't command for whatever reason anyway, Davis will likely choose his friend Polk over Hardee.
 
In a similar vein to my Beauregard in the Trans-Miss thread, I wanted to ask the same question, but with Bragg.

In January 1862, Davis offered command of the Trans-Mississippi Department to Braxton Bragg, then commanding at Pensacola. Bragg turned it down, with the position then being offered to Henry Heth (who also declined) and Earl Van Dorn (who accepted).

What could be the consequences of Bragg commanding the department? Personally, I think several aspects of his reputation are exaggerated or distorted, and while he was by no means great, he was better than most give him credit for.

If the Battle of Pea Ridge happened at all it would be entirely different because Bragg would not recklessly advance so far ahead of his supply train, and, as a consequence, the Army of the West would not be destroyed as an effective force due to poor organization, management and battle losses. McCulloch might survive longer and Bragg might succeed in defeating Curtis where Van Dorn failed, but the Trans-Mississippi will become an even worse nest of vipers with him being there because Bragg had a natural talent to sow discord wherever he went, and McCulloch and Price were already at each other's throats as it was.
 
If the Battle of Pea Ridge happened at all it would be entirely different because Bragg would not recklessly advance so far ahead of his supply train, and, as a consequence, the Army of the West would not be destroyed as an effective force due to poor organization, management and battle losses. McCulloch might survive longer and Bragg might succeed in defeating Curtis where Van Dorn failed, but the Trans-Mississippi will become an even worse nest of vipers with him being there because Bragg had a natural talent to sow discord wherever he went, and McCulloch and Price were already at each other's throats as it was.
McCulloch seems to have had the potential to be a Leonidas Polk west of the Mississippi. If Bragg can delay Sibley's New Mexico Campaign, he might be able to put McCulloch in command of it.
 
Given Bragg’s flaws when dealing with his subordinates, he’s better off as a paper pusher in Richmond than in a field command.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
If the Battle of Pea Ridge happened at all it would be entirely different because Bragg would not recklessly advance so far ahead of his supply train, and, as a consequence, the Army of the West would not be destroyed as an effective force due to poor organization, management and battle losses. McCulloch might survive longer and Bragg might succeed in defeating Curtis where Van Dorn failed, but the Trans-Mississippi will become an even worse nest of vipers with him being there because Bragg had a natural talent to sow discord wherever he went, and McCulloch and Price were already at each other's throats as it was.

So say Pea Ridge see a surrender of Union Forces at the battle. What do you see as the impact on the war?
 
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