Tuesday, July 17, 2007
This Day in American History
On this day in 1864, Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced General Joe Johnston with General John Bell Hood as commander of the Army of Tennessee and the defender of the vital hub of Atlanta. He did it in none too kind a telegram either: "You failed to arrest the advance of the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, far in the interior of Georgia, and express no confidence that you can defeat or repel him, you are hereby relieved from command of the Army and Department of Tennessee, which you will immediately turn over to General Hood." Thus, Davis sealed the already leaning that way fate of the Confederacy. Tyros of the Civil War think and talk about Gettysburg as a turning point. The cognoscenti know it's the fall of Atlanta that kept Lincoln in office and bent on surrender Democrat McClellan out. Hood did as he was told, and went on offense, disastrously, three times and ruined the army so that Atlanta fell before the elections rather than after, as savvy Joe Johnston would have accomplished.
Labels: American Civil War
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 9:11 AM 
