Captioning performed by vitac seeds that bear ill fruit. Because on january 11th, against the advice of his staff, he sends a message to his core commanders and basically says you advised me to retreat. Please publicly say so. Put it in writing. We had a conference about it. You told me about it. Put it in writing and let us stand together against the news coming from the press. But he also says something else. He says if i find that i have lost the good faith and confidence of my generals, i will retire without a murmur. And please talk to your division and brigade commanders as well and get their opinions as well. If you are a ceo and you put yourself in front of your subordinates for a referendum on your fitness for leadership, even if you win, that vote of confidence you can never command the same respect, okay . This is a capital error on the part of brag. The replies are very quickly coming. Polk is on leave. Hes got a couple of lawyers and they take a look at this and say is brag really asking us two questions or one. They wait until late january to get back. But the Division Commanders, they get back and say, yes, we advise retreat. Were happy to see that and were convinced as well that a change in the command of this army is necessary, unquote. Poke gets back at the end of january and writes to brag and says, the feedback were getting is this one request or two . Brag says i only meant one question in there. Tries to shut it down. Poke meanwhile decides that its a good idea to write to president davis. Packages all of this correspond which hardy has provided copies for, sends a message to davis and packages it up and says we didnt give your response about the fitness of the command of the army but our opinions, quote, coincide with those of the other corps, unquote. And when davis gets this, he is angry. Hes like, what is this . And he says this, why brag would submit himself to that tribunal is beyond me. And he tells the commander in the west johnson, go to tullahoma, figure out what the heck is going on. So in early february, joe johnston arrives and he meets with the commanders and they provide their very frank views. Theres some evidence that brag wanted to be relieved at this point but he doesnt force the issue by resigning. What johnston finds, he finds morale is pretty good. Theyre feeling confident about their next round against the yankees. Among typical commanders he figures out some of that, but also people are putting on a pretty good face as well even though brag maybe a can can tankerous man, hes still the officer. He writes a favorable report and disappears. You think its smoothed over now, right . Well, now comes the time to do the paperwork and the battle reports for the battle just concluded, okay . Just as these wounds are beginning to scab over, now its time to refight the Stones River Campaign. How many of you have really looked at the official records of the Stones River Campaign . This spills back out into the open. The records for stones river are really, really interesting for two parts. First of all several of them allow their feelings about the emancipation proclamation, the friends, a bunch of other language about the enemy that show up. It makes sense that you consider these reports were written in february of 1863. What you need to understand, brag, who gets all of these reports and writes his own, takes the opportunity, he cannot resist the opportunity to start striking back at those people and painting the people who were most against him in that referendum of sorts in january in the worst possible light. To the point, and ive seen this nowhere else in the official records, to the point when John Breckenridge of kentucky reports his divisional report, brag proceeds to use the polite equivalent of lie as much as he can pointing out where breckenridge was wrong and at fault and pins the loss of the battle on John Breckenridge. He doesnt care for kentuckians anyway. The year before, we must leave the spot of kentucky. It tells you how he feels about the bluegrass face and the fact that breckenridge is from kentucky certainly doesnt help matters. All of this when it gets to the War Department and confederate senate, once again puts publicly this fisher that has opened in the army of the tennessees high command. And jeff davis at this point decides to act. He tells joe johnston, go to tullahoma, take command, and send brag to richmond for consultation. I think we could all ring between the lines on that. Brag is out. Johnston is going to be in. Joe johnston, he would pen it on an exhulted sense of honor, he doesnt like to create the impression hes pulling down a brother officer so he can take the job that he really wants. When he shows up, he has a convenient excuse not to execute the order. Why . Mrs. Bragg is with the army and she has i think drunk some bad water and is down with typhoid. Its very serious illness. Its a very serious illness. She cant travel for a few weeks. So johnston says, mrs. Bragg cant travel. Bragg cant travel to richmond so were going to suspend the orders for the time being. For the next six weeks until midapril heres the situation in the army of tennessee headquarters in tullahoma. You have johne johnston in command, bragg is present, hes not been relieved from the army command, but hes still there, whos in charge . I dont think they ever figured it out. Now, who is the one person that would referee all of this and solve the whole problem . Jefferson davis. And the fact that Jefferson Davis does not is a severe indictment on him as a commander in chief on the confederacy. I do not withdraw the comment now, dereliction of duty. Finally when mrs. Bragg is ready to travel, its early april of 18 getting on toward midapril of 1863. Problem is now, Joe Johnstons virginia wounds have player flared up. Hes unfit for field duty. Is anything else going on in the west that might demand his attention at this point . Thats when grant run the batteries and it becomes clear that the mississippi front is about to get really, really active, which of course it does with the campaign. And so johnston is ordered away with elements of braggs army to go and counter that and that will be the army will be defeated in may of 1863. So where are we as an organization in the army of tennessee at this point . Do you think this is a functioning, happy, organization . Do you think theyre ready to take the field, a good team of leaders . No. Emphatically no. The wounds begin to heal over again once johnston leaves and everybody realizes bragg will still be here and we have to continue to work together. The wounds begin to heal but a few weeks later the scabs are ripped off again. I invite you at some point to go look at the Kentucky Campaign official records. Half of the reports were done in the fall of 1862. The other half were done in the spring of 1863. It rips all those scabs back off again. And at this point bragg, even though in 1862 he had no problem with polks decision to act on his observe initiative in october of 1862. He decides, its the best of the cause, were going to courtmartial polk. He gathers all the evidence, gets everything together and at the last minute decides, were not going to courtmartial general polk. Im hearing some chuckles in the background. Thats the only reaction you could have. And it would you have to laugh because its a tragedy because so many mens lives will depend on this ability of this army to function well and you can see whats happening to it. Do you know when the last actual correspondence related to the campaign was dated . June 20th, 1863. So this is going on literally right up to 96 hours before rosecrans moves to begin the campaign. And theres a letter dated may of 1863 and hardy tells polk, if you want to rip up the Kentucky Campaign, now is the time to do it. In other words, the impending court partial. Polk writes back and says its not the time to do that, but youre right, we need to watch tullaho tullahoma. What does that mean and why is that important . Why is that line important . Who is there . The federal army. The enemy. The army of the cumberland. You need to watch them. Theyre going to advance at some point and youre going to fight another battle with them. Whos in tullahoma . Wheres the army of tennessee headquarters . Its tullahoma. So what hardy and polk are basically saying is, we have two enemies, we have an enemy in the front, but we have an enemy in the rear as well, our boss, bragg. These seeds that were planted in january of 1863 are bearing bitter fruit and they will bear bitter fruit as the campaign progresses. And we will talk more about that as we get closer. Over in murphryboro all is not well either. It doesnt move out of there in force. He will send infantry parties here and there. Sometimes they get the better of the confederates. A lot of times they dont. They will be in that area and they wont move until june of 1863. How do you think that looks in washington, by the way . Second largest army in the federal service, doesnt move for six months. That does not look good, does it . Rosecrans gets in trouble with washington. He can manage people below and around him. One of the essential elements of a ceo or any leader is the ability to manage your relationships above you as well. Managing your relationships with your superiors. And rosecrans finds time to lecture the commanding general and secretary of war about warfare. How well do you think that goes down . Theres considerable evidence that rosecrans did not entertain the personal animosity towards lincoln. But rosecrans is there in 1863. Hes planning a campaign. I will say this. He has a couple of points. The first point is most of his cavalry needs remounts. Theyve been run down. But hes also got another problem and this is something actually i think when people consider the army of the cumberland, they neglect to point out this one thing, and that is this, how far is the army of the potomacs line of communication at any point in its career. 50 miles to washington or to one of the river ports in eastern virginia. Okay . How about the army out in mississippi . They could rely on the United States navy going up and down the mississippi river, right . Good, short, secure lines of supply. What about the army of the cumberland . The army of the cumberlands forward base is nashville. You can supply in through the Cumberland River but the river can be very fickle, shall we say and there are times because of the shoals downstream of the city of nashville, you cant get steamers up as well as you can. The other option you have is the Louisville Nashville Railroad and picks up the nashville and ch chattanooga railroad. Everything you need is going to ride the rails. And theyre going to ride that railroad. Now, once you leave louisville, between louisville and nashville, at best you are going through neutral territory. Even though kentucky has voted to remain loyal to the United States, it is at best neutral territory. And John Hunt Morgan had made a career at this point of cutting that railroad. As a matter of fact from july 1, 1862 to june 30th of 1963, do you know how much that railroad was fully operation . Seven months, 12 days. Almost five full months of that period this railroad was not fully operational. And its not just bridges, taking up rails, there is a 2,000 foot long tunnel which is about 30 miles north of nashville that John Hunt Morgan had blown up and burned and destroyed and blocked and it was out of commission for two months in the fall of 1862. Whenever you think about the army of the cumberland, you must remember when everybody looks and says why does rosecrans operates fits and starts, the reason is because of that nature of his lifeline. Back to nashville, and then back to louisville. Thats why his army always stops to repair the railroad, bring up supplies. Thats not just rhetoric. Thats not just an excuse. He needs it. And the other thing about that railroad is what do you think that does to the armys reverses . The army, by the way, during the winter of 1862 is down to three days worth of reserves in their warehouses. Theyre not far from starvation because of the railroad insecurity. Rosecrans is not going to move before he has good cavalry and hes not going to move before he has sufficient supplies on hand. Especially because hes got forest to his south, to the west of shelbyville, the west of the army of the tennessee, army of tennessee, and who does he have on the eastern flank . Who does he have over in hills aiming back to his ohm state . John hunt morgan. Two of the great raiders in the history of the confederate cavalry. Joe wheeler is not bad either. I would be worried about my railroad too, wouldnt you . One of the things that rosecrans builds up, this is important to remember, he builds up three weeks of supplies, constructs a major fort, you can visit it today, but more importantly, when his troops leave the area, theyll take 11 days of supplies with them. He is going banking on a big reverse. Hes going to ride on a big cushion of supplies and i think this is prudent on his part because he knows theres a pretty good chance hes going to lose communications with the rest of the hes going to lose railroad communications at some point. Now of course what this this look like in washington . Particularly what happens in may of 1863. We talked about what happens in may of 1863, vicksburg. What happens here in virginia in may of 1863 . Of course the battle of chancellorsville. Largest still, by the way, by land area, largest single engagement in north American History. Meanwhile, rosecrans sits in dashville and by june of 1863, the War Department threatens him with relief. Are you going to move any time soon . And rosecrans writes back if now means in se five now means tomorrow, no. But if it means in five days, yes. And so looking for the right opportunity, looking for the right away to go begins to cast his plans to go after general brag. To understand the story im about to tell you, you have to understand something about the geography. You can see the north center part of the map. The major towns, shelbyville, tullahoma, 12 miles straight south, tullahoma, manchester to the north. From tullahoma you go the rail line to the key rail bridge at estl springs. You go through deckard and start climbing up into the mountains to university at University Place which is now the home of the universe of the south. At the time, it had been dedicated, the cornerstone had been laid. And the cornerstone was laid in 1860 by polk who weve been spending time with already in this presentation. The big thing that you need to know about this ground, really two things you need to know. If you look between shelbyville, youll see some dark spots on the map and notations, guys gap, liberty gap, hoover gap. That is known as the high land rim. Those mountains extend anywhere from 500 to 900 feet and theyre very steep. Theres one all weather road that runs out of murphrisboro through beach grove down to manchester and continues southeast towards chattanooga. Thats the ground were going to be fighting over. Forest and joe wheeler are going to be the west along the duck river and out toward columbia. You can see them marked on the map. Up in the Northeast Area between wood berry will be John Hunt Morgan. At least until june 20th of 1863 and then will disobey orders and go into indiana and ohio and be captured. Hes going to disappear right before the Campaign Starts and rosecrans has kind of been waiting for that so he can make a move. Pokes corps is going to be in shelbyville. Hardys corps is going to be camped in and around beach grove and fairfield. And the area around fairfield is going to be alexander p. Stewarts division of about 6,000 men holding that area right there. There are cavalry, the first confederate kentucky cavalry protecting the lines, kind of being an alarm force in case the federals decide to move out, the idea is warn them, theyll have plenty of time to move up into the gaps and stop the federals. Thats the basic plan that braggs army has come up with. Let me read you what rosecrans plans to do. This comes right out of the official records. I want you to follow along on your map and ill unpack a little bit more of what he says. This is rosecranss plan for the operation. Positive information from various sources concurred to show the enemy intended to fight us in his entrenchments at shelbyville. Should we advance by that route and he would be in good position to retreat if beaten which lead up into the barrens and inflict loss to the mountains towards their base. I was determined to render useless their entrenchments and if possible secure their line of retreat by turning their right and moving on the railroad bridge across elk river. Where is the railroad bridge across elk river . Thats estel springs. That is the key ground, the keep point of the entire campaign. Thats rosecrans objective. If he takes that, braggs army is going to be in very deep trouble because they will be cut off from chattanooga. He says this, after that bridge, taking that bridge, it will compel a battle or drive them in a line of retreat. To accomplish this it was necessary to make bragg believe we could advance on him and keep up the impression if possible until we had reached manchester with the main body of the army. Let me translate those orders for you, or that plan. Gangers corps, grand total of 25,000 man, all told. Along with alexandra mccooks corps and keep polk thinking theyre going to try to force guys gap and liberty gap. The bulk of the army, george thoms 14th core, 25,000 men are going to march east and southeast, get through the hills and aim for manchester. At which point they will be in a good position to either operate directly against tullahoma or operate down toward the rail bridge across the elk river there. What do you think of the plan . Good plan, isnt it . Its a good plan. One problem, speed is the vital factor. Its been a real nice, dry summer. But when these troops start marching out on the morning of june 24th, 1863, it starts raining. Of the 17 next days, it will rain at least once, and im not talking about a sprinkle. A good thunder storm at least once 14 of those 17 days. So what do you think these roads turn into . And, by the way, when its not raining, its overcast, 90something degrees with 100 humidity. This is miserable. Those of you familiar with the gettysburgs retreat, the horrible rain they have to go through starting july 4th, well, some of that comes from middle tennes