Braxton Bragg General Of The Confederacy

As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer. While Hess analyzes Bragg's many campaigns and battles, he also emphasizes how his contemporaries viewed his successes and failures and how these reactions affected Bragg both personally and professionally. The testimony and opinions of other members of the Confederate army--including Bragg's superiors, his fellow generals, and his subordinates--reveal how the general became a symbol for the larger military failures that undid the Confederacy. By connecting the general's personal life to his military career, Hess positions Bragg as a figure saddled with unwarranted infamy and humanizes him as a flawed yet misunderstood figure in Civil War history.

General Braxton Bragg is often described as a despicable, friendless man, the most hated general of the Confederacy. Historians have denigrated Bragg by accepting without challenge the self-serving accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, each of whom sought to explain their own failures by assigning them to Bragg. This biography, without dodging Bragg's deficiencies, refutes much of this false testimony. The result is a balanced view of this controversial general, from his early rise to power in the Western theater to his subsequent fall from grace in the latter years of the Civil War.

In the Summer of 1863, Confederate General Braxton Bragg was commander of the Army of Tennessee, still reeling from its defeat in January at Murfreesboro, Tenn.

During the civil war that followed, not a day would pass when Confederate military prisons did not contain political prisoners."--BOOK JACKET.

A Civil War history classic, now back in print. Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Volume I, examines General Braxton Bragg's military prowess beginning with his enlistment in the Confederate Army in 1862 to the spring of 1863. First published in 1969, this is the first of two volumes covering the life of the Confederacy's most problematic general. It is now back in print and available in paperback for the first time. A West Point graduate, Mexican War hero, and retired army lieutenant colonel, Bragg was one of the most distinguished soldiers to join the Confederacy, and for a time one of the most impressive. Grady McWhiney's research shows that Bragg was neither as outstanding nor as incompetent as scholars and contemporaries suggest, but held positions of high responsibility throughout the war. Not an overwhelming success as commander of the Confederacy's principal western army, Bragg nevertheless directed the Army of Tennessee longer than any other general, and, after being relieved of army command, he served as President Davis's military adviser. Of all the Confederacy's generals, only Robert E. Lee exercised more authority over such an extended period as Bragg. Yet less than two years later Bragg was the South's most discredited commander. Much of this criticism was justified, for he had done as much as any Confederate general to lose the war. The army's failures were Bragg's failures, and after his defeat at Chattanooga in November 1863 Bragg was relieved of field command.

A Civil War history classic, now back in print. Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Volume I, examines General Braxton Bragg’s military prowess beginning with his enlistment in the Confederate Army in 1862 to the spring of 1863. First published in 1969, this is the first of two volumes covering the life of the Confederacy’s most problematic general. It is now back in print and available in paperback for the first time. A West Point graduate, Mexican War hero, and retired army lieutenant colonel, Bragg was one of the most distinguished soldiers to join the Confederacy, and for a time one of the most impressive. Grady McWhiney’s research shows that Bragg was neither as outstanding nor as incompetent as scholars and contemporaries suggest, but held positions of high responsibility throughout the war. Not an overwhelming success as commander of the Confederacy’s principal western army, Bragg nevertheless directed the Army of Tennessee longer than any other general, and, after being relieved of army command, he served as President Davis’s military adviser. Of all the Confederacy’s generals, only Robert E. Lee exercised more authority over such an extended period as Bragg. Yet less than two years later Bragg was the South’s most discredited commander. Much of this criticism was justified, for he had done as much as any Confederate general to lose the war. The army’s failures were Bragg’s failures, and after his defeat at Chattanooga in November 1863 Bragg was relieved of field command.

On July 20, 1864, the Civil War struggle for Atlanta reached a pivotal moment. As William T. Sherman's Union forces came ever nearer the city, the defending Confederate Army of Tennessee replaced its commanding general, removing Joseph E. Johnston and elevating John Bell Hood. This decision stunned and demoralized Confederate troops just when Hood was compelled to take the offensive against the approaching Federals. Attacking northward from Atlanta's defenses, Hood's men struck George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland just after it crossed Peach Tree Creek on July 20. Initially taken by surprise, the Federals fought back with spirit and nullified all the advantages the Confederates first enjoyed. As a result, the Federals achieved a remarkable defensive victory. Offering new and definitive interpretations of the battle's place within the Atlanta campaign, Earl J. Hess describes how several Confederate regiments and brigades made a pretense of advancing but then stopped partway to the objective and took cover for the rest of the afternoon on July 20. Hess shows that morale played an unusually important role in determining the outcome at Peach Tree Creek--a soured mood among the Confederates and overwhelming confidence among the Federals spelled disaster for one side and victory for the other.