TFSmith121
Banned
Yep, but don't forget - a big part of why AS Johnston's forces
Yep, but don't forget - a big part of why AS Johnston's forces were never much greater than ~45,000 effectives (roughly the size of Grant's force ALONE, never mind Buell) is the rebels also had to (try) and defend the Gulf Coast ports from Pensacola to the Rio Grande from the USN and USA (which launched division+sized amphibious operations as early as 1861), as well as guard some defensive point on the Mississippi, as well as (unless they want to hand the rivers over to the USN) somewhere on the Tennessee and the Cumberland...
And they were still trying to contest Missouri in early 1862 (much less the Indian Territory and New Mexico)...
There just weren't that many rebel troops to go around, which is why every rebel commander from Sibley to Price to McCown to Buckner et al ended up being defeated in the winter-spring of 1862...
3 to 1 odds in population remain 3 to 1 odds.
Best,
I'm going to differ from the majority here; a strategy of concentrating forces in the west (meaning between the Mississippi and the Appalachians) while maintaining holding forces in the East and Trans-Mississippi, would serve the Confederacy better than their OTL strategy. The goal here is to keep Tennessee in Confederate hands so as to deny the Union access to Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia from the north.
This does not mean stripping Virginia of troops; as noted, the presence of the Union and Confederate capitols in that theater in close proximity to each other means that the Union will allocate large forces to that theater, which will in turn require a sizable Confederate commitment to keep them at bay. A commitment not much smaller than OTL, in fact. But it does mean maintaining a strictly defensive posture and forgoing any invasion of Northern territory in that theater so as to conserve men and materiel for other theaters.
That said, the best that can be hoped for is to prolong the war sufficiently for a peace candidate to win the US Presidency in 1864, who will then offer a compromise peace which gives the Confederacy its independence. And the chances of that occurring are somewhere between slim and none.
Yep, but don't forget - a big part of why AS Johnston's forces were never much greater than ~45,000 effectives (roughly the size of Grant's force ALONE, never mind Buell) is the rebels also had to (try) and defend the Gulf Coast ports from Pensacola to the Rio Grande from the USN and USA (which launched division+sized amphibious operations as early as 1861), as well as guard some defensive point on the Mississippi, as well as (unless they want to hand the rivers over to the USN) somewhere on the Tennessee and the Cumberland...
And they were still trying to contest Missouri in early 1862 (much less the Indian Territory and New Mexico)...
There just weren't that many rebel troops to go around, which is why every rebel commander from Sibley to Price to McCown to Buckner et al ended up being defeated in the winter-spring of 1862...
3 to 1 odds in population remain 3 to 1 odds.
Best,