The Drought That Changed the War...

5fish

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It was a drought that force Bragg out of Kentucky... No Food... No water... and a lot of munities by the troops... read the article for all the gloom...


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The “great foot race” north in late August and September proved more agonizing still. James Iredell Hall of the 9th Tennessee wrote that “the only water accessible was pond water and that was warm and muddy. The water we were compelled to drink, was so muddy that we could not wash our faces in it.” A Confederate soldier in the 33rd Alabama remembered that “we obtained water under deep limesinks, some of these being partly full of water, and Federals had utilized some of the partly filled sinks as a place to butcher cattle and dumped offal into them, making the water unfit to drink.

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For his part, Bragg’s plan depended upon living off the land as the Confederates marched north, a decision that quickly smashed into a dry reality: drought and the occupying Federal army had left little for them to eat. Bragg changed course with every new rumor of ample foodstuffs ahead. On Sept. 14, acting without orders, Brig. Gen. James Chalmers of Bragg’s army and Col. John Scott, commanding a detachment of Kirby Smith’s cavalry, initiated an ill-advised attack on the entrenched Federal garrison at Munfordville, Ky. Hoping to secure an easy victory, Chalmers had also heard that Munfordville contained large stores of wheat. Worried that the repulse would undermine Confederate sentiments in the Bluegrass State, Bragg veered his entire force to Munfordville and compelled the garrison to surrender.

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So opened the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky’s largest battle, fought in the dusty hills just west of a town where the Chaplin River had all but run dry. Gaining a tactical victory, Bragg decided to retreat to Tennessee when he finally realized that he faced a numerically superior force, and he abandoned Kentucky entirely upon learning that his planned supply base was all but empty. The drought that turned the war in the West would continue for another two years.
 

5fish

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It was La Nina that cause the drought... If Bragg only knew...

 
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