November 15th, 1864, Sherman dies... What if?

5fish

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On the eve of what will be know as Sherman's March to The Sea, Sherman fill ill and died. Would Grant have pulled the plug on the march or would he have put another general in charge of the march?

If Grant pulled the plug on the march, would the army in Atlanta then gone after AoT?

If the march was allowed to proceed who would Grant have put in charge of the march?

It would not have change the out come of the war but it would have change the final stories of the western war?
 

diane

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I don't think Grant would have pulled the operation but I do think only Sherman could have done it with the effectiveness it had. He was a psychological fighter and the mind of the South was what he wanted to attack. He was going for the confidence of the people in their military and in their government. A general needed a certain type of ruthlessness for this and Sherman had it. This was a campaign whose heart was the personality of the man who led it.
 

Jim Klag

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I don't think Grant would have pulled the operation but I do think only Sherman could have done it with the effectiveness it had. He was a psychological fighter and the mind of the South was what he wanted to attack. He was going for the confidence of the people in their military and in their government. A general needed a certain type of ruthlessness for this and Sherman had it. This was a campaign whose heart was the personality of the man who led it.
I don't do what-ifs, but as for generals who could have pulled off the march to Savannah, Black Jack Logan or Phil Sheridan could have done it. But Sheridan was busy and Logan was not senior enough to promote to the command of the whole shebang in Georgia. Grant himself could also have done it of course, though he too was otherwise occupied.
 

5fish

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What about this Major General that March to the Sea... He was in charge of the 1st Div.

Joseph Anthony Mower (August 22, 1827 – January 6, 1870) was a Union general during the American Civil War. He was a competent officer and well respected by his troops and fellow officers to whom he was known as "Fighting Joe". Major General William Tecumseh Sherman said of Mower, "he's the boldest young officer we have".

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_A._Mower
 

5fish

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We have a German Major General in charge of the XV Corps

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Joseph_Osterhaus

Peter Joseph Osterhaus (January 4, 1823 – January 2, 1917) was a German-American Union Army general in the American Civil War and later served as a diplomat.

Osterhaus then participated in the Atlanta Campaign but a month-long sick leave caused him to miss the crucial Battle of Atlanta. However, he returned to command and played a significant role in the Battle of Jonesborough. After the capture of Atlanta, he received command of the XV Corps, one of the four corps into which the army was consolidated, in the Sherman's March to the Sea.
 

Jim Klag

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What about this Major General that March to the Sea... He was in charge of the 1st Div.

Joseph Anthony Mower (August 22, 1827 – January 6, 1870) was a Union general during the American Civil War. He was a competent officer and well respected by his troops and fellow officers to whom he was known as "Fighting Joe". Major General William Tecumseh Sherman said of Mower, "he's the boldest young officer we have".

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_A._Mower
Mower was only a division commander and not nearly the most senior and he was young four corps commanders above him. There were two wing commanders and four corps commanders above Mower on the march to the sea.
 

Jim Klag

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We have a German Major General in charge of the XV Corps

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Joseph_Osterhaus

Peter Joseph Osterhaus (January 4, 1823 – January 2, 1917) was a German-American Union Army general in the American Civil War and later served as a diplomat.

Osterhaus then participated in the Atlanta Campaign but a month-long sick leave caused him to miss the crucial Battle of Atlanta. However, he returned to command and played a significant role in the Battle of Jonesborough. After the capture of Atlanta, he received command of the XV Corps, one of the four corps into which the army was consolidated, in the Sherman's March to the Sea.
Major General doesn't mean he could have commanded a whole army divided into two wings marching separately. One of Sherman's great strengths was logistics - the movement and supply of large bodies of troops. Remember the saying of the rebel soldier in North Georgia upon blowing up a railroad tunnel on Sherman's supply line, "Of course Sherman probably has a spare tunnel in his supply train." That joke was not all that far fetched. Sherman was a brilliant logistician- his troops did not go hungry and did not run out of ammo.
 

diane

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What about this Major General that March to the Sea... He was in charge of the 1st Div.

Joseph Anthony Mower (August 22, 1827 – January 6, 1870) was a Union general during the American Civil War. He was a competent officer and well respected by his troops and fellow officers to whom he was known as "Fighting Joe". Major General William Tecumseh Sherman said of Mower, "he's the boldest young officer we have".

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_A._Mower
Mower was indeed a promising young officer and he was one of them gave Forrest a beating at Tupelo. However, he didn't earn the promotion to major general Sherman promised him if he pursued and killed Forrest. (If he'd done it, I'm not sure Sherman could have gotten out of a war crime charge since it was in writing 'pursue and kill'.) He also failed in destroying Forrest after Tupelo. So...he wasn't with Sherman on his march!

I don't do what-ifs, but as for generals who could have pulled off the march to Savannah, Black Jack Logan or Phil Sheridan could have done it. But Sheridan was busy and Logan was not senior enough to promote to the command of the whole shebang in Georgia. Grant himself could also have done it of course, though he too was otherwise occupied.
Sheridan is a good option but he'd definitely have left nothing but smoking rubble. He hated the South and Southerners and all things Dixie - his motto was the same as the Hulk's - smash! We have his Shenandoah Valley campaign and later the Plains campaign against the tribes. Sherman loved the South - he didn't want to destroy people he genuinely cared about, which is one reason he was a little bit crazy. Grant himself would have done much the same as Sheridan - he ordered the Shenandoah Valley destroyed so that a crow would have to pack a lunch to fly over it. The trick Sherman managed was to illustrate very vividly what the Union was capable of, destroy the will of the people to back the insurrection yet leave a pathway to reconciliation. After the war, Sherman was very well received in the South. It took a special balance to walk that extremely fine line between being a true vandal and teaching a strong lesson.
 

5fish

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If Grant could not find a general to March to The Sea, would Grant just have knew the knew general hunt down Hood army.
 

5fish

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:oops: What's that you say, 5fish? George "Come to Papa" Thomas?
He(Thomas) would have been a good choice to replace Sherman... What about bringing back General Rosecrans? He has a winning record in battles...
 

diane

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Yes, Rosecrans was a good general, but he just didn't have the necessary mean streak!
 

Jim Klag

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Yes, Rosecrans was a good general, but he just didn't have the necessary mean streak!
Rosecrans was the Catholic McClellan only a little better tactician.
 

diane

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Rosecrans was the Catholic McClellan only a little better tactician.
I think a good deal of his problem was Charles Dana's negative reports about him. At Chickamauga, when the Confederates were overrunning his headquarters, Rosecrans paused for a quick prayer - which seemed like a good time for one! Dana took it to mean he'd lost his nerve and was too scared to fight. As it turned out, he probably should have gone back when he heard Thomas was hanging in there but Dana convinced him the battle was lost. Then...he got crossways of Grant, which would never have a good outcome.
 
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