Anaxagoras
Banned
Um, I doubt a Southerner would earn a Departmental Command under the Union Army so early in the war.![]()
They tried to give the command of the Army of the Cumberland to George Thomas several times before he accepted it IOTL.
Um, I doubt a Southerner would earn a Departmental Command under the Union Army so early in the war.![]()
They tried to give the command of the Army of the Cumberland to George Thomas several times before he accepted it IOTL.
Then Lincoln's statement of "Let the Virginian wait" is not true?![]()
I'm not sure. IIRC, when they got rid of Buell, they offered Thomas command instead of Rosecrans and he refused. I'd have to double check.
Also, to his misfortune he generally went up against the best generals the Union had being Grant and Sherman while Lee went up against mainly 3rd string losers like Burnside and Little Mac. Once Lee went up against a second stringer who wouldn't panic, like Meade, he no longer enjoyed big victories.
Why not in TTL have Johnston go west?
I'm not questioning your word or knowledge, its just hard for me to believe that Thomas would ever say no. Especially if it meant becoming Rosecrans' superior.
also, I think Johnston like a lot of southerner U.S. prewar officers would go south regardless. I believe that he and Lee were close in Mexico and even in the years leading up to the war.
Because I thought it was more realistic for him to be in the East. He had seniority over pretty much every field commander in the Federal forces and was highly rated by Scott - almost to the same extent as Lee - so it would only be expected that he would gain command of the most important Federal field army should he have moved to a line rank. The only way to prevent that is to remove him from the picture for a while - hence, why I had him going into self-enforced retirement and sit out the first year only to be tempted out by McClellan.
Except his seniority was in the staff (QMG), not the line; realistically, odds are he probably would have spent the war as QM, and would be about as well known as Montgomery Meigs is...as a loyalist Virginian, he would have had some notice, but that's about it.
Except his seniority was in the staff (QMG), not the line; realistically, odds are he probably would have spent the war as QM, and would be about as well known as Montgomery Meigs is...as a loyalist Virginian, he would have had some notice, but that's about it.
Best,
Well, this alternate Johnston's motivations remain unexplored; so again, why?
Johnston spent weeks on end prior to Virginia's secession debating the matter of his own loyalties to himself. People would come to see him at the Quartermaster General's office and find him pacing the room restlessly and so pre-occupied that they chose not to disturb him, others had to repeat themselves several times to get him to answer because he was so lost in his own thoughts.Is there any evidence JE Johnston ever expressed misgivings prior to resigning?
Winfield Scott tried to ensure Johnston's loyalty just as he did Lee's. In particular he attempted to convince Lydia - Joe wife - to join him in efforts, only to be shot down when Lydia told him she could not imagine her husband staying with the Army that would invade his native state and that he had no other means to support himself and his family except through the military.And, although the offer was made to Lee, I wonder if Johnston would have gotten the same offer - having him serve quietly but efficiently at the QM Department might have been seen as a more appropriate path.
Which, in the particular case of Johnston, still supports me when I say he would have taken a significant field command, because it was not in Johnston to sit idle in an office when there was a major war and Johnston was one of the most famous and highly regarded soldiers in the pre-War US Army. If Quartermaster General Johnston requested to be transfered to a line command - and he would have, there is no doubt about that whatsoever - his pre-War reputation would ensure that he would command a major army.And as far as staff officers serving in line positions, such appointments (depending on their place in the hierarchy) were at the disrcretion of the president, secretary of war, and/or general-in-chief or department commander, not the individual staff officer. Essentially, they had to "offer their services" and it woud be considered; no staff officer simply asserted rank over line, any more than a volunteer or militia officer did over a regular, absent duly constituted authority issuing orders for such.
snip.
If he remains loyal, does he make a Terrill-like request and get sent west...
JE vs AS in the Western theater, or (perhaps) JE vs Price et al in the Transmississippi...
Best,
I'm not questioning your word or knowledge, its just hard for me to believe that Thomas would ever say no. Especially if it meant becoming Rosecrans' superior.
He'd probably prefer not to fight against Virginia directly but if that was what his fate led him to do he'd do it.