Braxton Bragg: Exactly what was that guy's problem?

General Braxton Bragg

       My old military history professor in college was a guy named Doctor Ikerman. He was the first to explain the difference in an art and a science when it comes to warfare. In science, you can repeat an experiment and it always has the same result. In art, you can get a different result each time. I still use some of his analogies when I give talks today. Historians have spent decades trying to understand the problem with Braxton Bragg's generalship. I think they too often become overly focused on his argumentative personality. While that is a big part of him becoming such a failure, that's not his greatest downfall. The man didn't understand that war was an art. 

       When he planned a battle, he planned it from A to Z. In other words, he figured he would make the first move, his enemy would react a certain way and Bragg would react to that in a sequence. He planned his battle all the way through. When his opponent didn't react as expected, it threw General Bragg into a quandary. An example is the quote Major General Breckinridge made in regard to Bragg's battle planning. He claimed that when Bragg was planning a battle, he would take no advice from his top subordinates, but when things went awry, he would accept the advice of a drummer boy. 

       Historians look at the Battle of Chickamauga and attempt to understand what Bragg was thinking. He'd won the battle, and was informed of the victory by several of his subordinates, yet he refused to believe he'd won. The main question here is why? Bragg had spent days attempting to cut Federal General Rosecrans off from Chattanooga and his base of supplies. On the night of September 18th, he went to bed thinking he'd finally gotten his army beyond Rosecrans's right flank. Rosecrans expected Bragg to do this very thing and during the night extended his left flank beyond the Confederate right. Bragg was surprised in the morning when his flank attack turned into a very costly frontal assault. 

Bragg's frontal assault on the morning of September 19, 1863

       When Rosecrans began to shift more troops from his right to the heavily engaged left, Bragg had an opportunity to strike these forces in the flank, but it went against how he had planned the battle and three of his divisions sat idly by as the opportunity was lost. Once the day was finished, he made another blunder. He changed the order of battle. To completely change the order of battle in the midst of a battle is just asking for mass confusion and that's exactly what he got. In most Confederate armies, a general was in command, lieutenant generals commanding corps' answered directly to the general. Bragg decided to mix matters up by having Lieutenant General D.H. Hill report to Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk who he made the right wing commander. He had Lieutenant General James Longstreet command the left wing and placed Major General John Bell Hood in command of Longstreet's Corps. Are you confused yet, because D.H. Hill and Leonidas Polk certainly were. 

       The blunders didn't end there. The next day, the frontal assault continued, Polk's right wing lost heavily. Luckily for Bragg's army, Rosecrans committed a blunder by creating a gap in front of Longstreet's left wing. Hood managed to attack at the right moment and break the Federal army. Once the Federal army began to retreat, Longstreet begged Bragg for reinforcements from the right wing to help him finish the enemy forces off. Bragg, far to the rear at his headquarters at Reed's Bridge refused to believe he'd won the battle. Without riding forward and observing for himself, he simply refused to send Longstreet any troops. 

       There is a comical story told about a Confederate private who'd been captured by the Federals and then escaped when their army retreated. He made his way to Bragg's headquarters and insisted on seeing the general in person. When he was brought into the presence of General Bragg, he told his commander that he'd won a great victory and that the Federal army was in full retreat. "How would you know what a retreat looks like?" snapped Bragg. "I should know," the ragged private replied, "I've been in your army almost two years."

       Even Bedford Forrest was frustrated with Bragg asking what the man fought battles for anyway. Mary Chesnut said of Bragg when he laid siege to Chattanooga: "Bragg, thanks to Longstreet and Hood, won at Chickamauga. So we looked for results that would pay for our losses in battle, at least. Certainly, they would capture Rosecrans. No! There sits Bragg--a good dog howling on his hind legs before Chattanooga, a fortified town--and some Yankee Holdfast grinning at him from his impregnable heights. Waste of time. How? He always stops to quarrel with his generals."

       That brings us to the second problem General Bragg had. He could never take the blame. At each failure or setback, his first reaction was to find someone to blame. When the repulse of Pickett's Charge occurred at Gettysburg, the first words out of General Lee's mouth was, "It's all my fault." As one historian once wrote, "Bragg would have choked on those words." I give two examples of great leaders. One is Robert E. Lee and the other is former Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Coach Bryant always took the blame for the losses and gave the players credit for the wins. Robert E. Lee praised his soldiers in victory and took the blame in defeat. Braxton Bragg wasn't capable of this at all. It was always someone else's fault. 

       At Shiloh, he blamed Randal Gibson and the Confederate soldiers. At Murfreesboro, it was General McCown and Cheatham. At Chickamauga, he blamed Polk, D.H. Hill, and Hindman. It was always someone else's fault. A leader like Lee had no problem motivating his men to fight. They knew he was there to accept fault for failures even when they weren't his fault. Bragg never!

S.A.M. Wood: Alabama General

Sterling Alexander Martin Wood

       S.A.M. Wood as he came to be called was born in Florence, Alabama on 17 March, 1823. There is a street in Florence today that is called Wood Avenue which is actually named for Wood's brother, a prominent Florence lawyer. S.A.M. Wood would soon return to Florence and become his brother's law partner. In 1857, Wood was elected to the Alabama state legislature and later become editor of the Florence Gazette. 

       When the war began, Wood organized Company K, 7th Alabama Infantry which was known as the Florence Guards. He would only remain a captain for a very short time. The unit was sent to Pensacola, Florida and Wood was there elected Colonel of the regiment. 

Flag of Company K, 7th Alabama Infantry

       On 7 January, 1862, Wood was promoted to brigadier general by Jefferson Davis. Braxton Bragg, Wood's commanding officer fired off an angry letter to Richmond about Wood being promoted ahead of James Patton Anderson, one of Bragg's favorite officers. 

       Just before the Battle of Shiloh, Wood's brigade (which consisted of the 16th Alabama, 8th and 9th Arkansas, 27th, 47th, and 55th Tennessee, and the 3rd Mississippi Battalion, all infantry regiments, including an artillery battery) was placed into Hindman's Division, William Hardee's Corps. This brigade was credited with the opening shots of the Battle of Shiloh. Wood was wounded when he fell from his horse there and momentarily gave up command of his brigade, but soon returned to lead them through the rest of the battle. 

       General Hindman had nothing good to say about Wood's leadership. There was a formal inquiry to Wood's actions as brigade commander, but no wrong doing could be found. He then led his brigade in action at the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky and while his brigade helped to capture an artillery battery there, Wood was wounded by a artillery shrapnel. 

S.A.M. Wood (seated in dark uniform) with members of his staff

       Following the Kentucky Campaign, Wood's brigade was placed into the elite division of Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne commended Wood for his performance at the Battle of Murfreesboro. It seemed Wood's star was on the rise. 

       On the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga, General Wood lost control of his brigade which became separated and only one regiment got in the action. Wood then got the rest of his brigade into a field where they attacked alone and were repulsed with heavy losses. Cleburne was furious with Wood and ordered him to take the remainder of his brigade to the rear. 

       Cleburne failed to mention Wood in his report following the battle, which was considered an insult or a sign of failure in that time period. S.A.M. Wood saw the writing on the wall and resigned his commission on 17 October 1863. It would be the last time he would see action during the war. He moved his family to Tuscaloosa and continued his law practice. He later reentered politics and became a member of the faculty at the University of Alabama. He died there on 26 January 1891.

Timmy and I at the grave of S.A.M. Wood in Evergreen Cemetery less than a hundred yards from Bryant Denny Stadium

Bragg's Light

General Braxton Bragg

       Braxton Bragg was born in Warrenton, North Carolina in 1817. His father was a carpenter and many people in Warrenton looked down on Bragg's family because they were middle-class. He was often teased as a child because of the rumor that his mother had killed a free black man. Rumors were also circulated that Braxton Bragg had been born in prison because of this. Braxton often spoke of his father throughout his life, but never made mention of his mother. 
       Bragg's father secured his son an appointment to West Point and the young officer graduated fifth in the class of 1837 and secured a commission in the artillery. Bragg saw action in the Seminole War, but became a hero in the Mexican War. Upon his return from Mexico to his hometown of Warrenton, the citizens presented him with a sword and cheered his heroism. Many have speculated how Bragg might have felt being cheered by the very people who had made his childhood life so miserable. 
       Braxton wasn't loved by his men. He was known to be a strict disciplinarian and while in Mexico, one of his men tried to kill him by rolling a lit cannonball under his cot. The cot was destroyed by the blast, but Bragg escaped without injury. Ulysses Grant loved to tell a story about the time on the frontier when Bragg was post commander and quartermaster. Bragg had gotten into an argument with himself over supplies. When he notified his immediate superior of the problem, his commander had remarked, "My God, Mister Bragg, you have argued with everyone in the army and now your arguing with yourself!"

       Braxton made a trip to Louisiana where he met Eliza Brooks Ellis. She was the daughter of a rich sugar planter and the two soon fell in love. Bragg tried to take Eliza to the frontier with him, but things didn't work out. She had been raised on a plantation where she had everything a girl could possibly want. On the frontier, the living conditions were rather rough. She soon protested. Braxton tried to please his wife by asking Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to have his artillery battery assigned to Louisiana. When Davis refused, Bragg resigned his commission and moved to Thibodaux, Louisiana with his young bride. 
       He then bought a sugar plantation which consisted of 1,600 acres and 105 slaves. Bragg wasn't a cruel master, but he ran his plantation like a military unit. It didn't take long before Bragg started showing a profit. 
       When the Civil War began, Bragg was commissioned a major general. He would become one of the most controversial generals of the war. He first saw action at Shiloh leading a corps. After Shiloh, when Beauregard fell out of favor with President Davis, Bragg was promoted to general and given command of the Army of Tennessee. He proved to be a great organizer, though not a great military leader. 
       Kirby Smith would talk him into invading Kentucky. Bragg's first major battle as army commander would occur at Perryville. Bragg had pushed the Federal army back almost a mile by the time the first day was over. He then realized he faced a much larger enemy force than he had initially believed. Kirby Smith begged Bragg to stay and fight and Braxton promised he would, only to retreat during the night. 
       At Murfreesboro, he surprised the Federal army under General Rosecrans and bent it back like a hair pin. He failed to destroy Rosecrans' army or cut off their supply line and therefore ordered a retreat. By this point of his career, his subordinates were growing frustrated with his lack of leadership. 
       At the Battle of Chickamauga, Bragg won the greatest victory of the war for the Confederate army in the west. He failed to believe the enemy forces were defeated and refused to pursue. Once he finally realized he had won it was too late. He then went on a head hunting mission with his subordinates. He fought with Bedford Forrest, got rid of Hindman and D.H. Hill, then sent Longstreet to Knoxville which further weakened his army. Although his men had lost confidence in him, Davis kept him in command. 
       When the Federal army struck his force at Chattanooga and caused his army to practically break he offered to resign. The man was truly surprised when Davis accepted his resignation. Davis then made Bragg his military advisor. It wouldn't be the last field command for Braxton Bragg though. At the end of the war, Davis placed Bragg in command of Wilmington, North Carolina. He also bungled this assignment by not taking the Federal force serious. He had a major disagreement with General William Whiting and as a result, Fort Fisher fell and Whiting was mortally wounded. 
       Bragg's life began to spiral downward after the loss. Robert E. Lee was placed in command of all Confederate forces which cost Bragg his job as military advisor. One of his enemies, John C. Breckinridge was made Secretary of War. President Davis felt sorry for his friend and attempted to transfer him to Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi command. The politicians in the west wanted no part of Bragg and that plan fell apart. 
       During the Carolina's Campaign, Davis made Bragg a corps commander under Joseph E. Johnston. He would again make major mistakes at the Battle of Bentonville and Johnston would never forgive the man. 
       After the war, Bragg was broke, his plantation had been confiscated by the Federal government. His friend Jefferson Davis was made president of a life insurance company. Davis offered him a job as an insurance agent. He worked there over a year before becoming frustrated with the low pay and a job he believed was below him. He then went to work as an engineer for the city of Mobile. He soon got into an argument with his superiors and quit that job. He then moved to Texas where he became chief engineer for a railroad. Within a year he got into an argument with the board of directors and then resigned. 
       In September of 1876, Bragg was walking down a Galveston street with a friend (if you can believe he had one), when he collapsed on the sidewalk in front of a drug store. He was carried into the drug store where he was pronounced dead within ten minutes. Braxton Bragg was 59 years old. The cause of death has been listed as heart disease, but we will probably never know for sure. He rests today in Mobile's Magnolia Cemetery. 

Bragg's grave in Mobile, Alabama

       It is only fitting that a man as controversial as Braxton Bragg would leave behind some sort of unexplained legacy. The spot on the street at Galveston where Bragg collapsed has been the sight of some unexplained phenomena. There is a ghost light that appears there from time to time over the years. The locals have nicknamed it 'Bragg's Light'. I have attempted to locate the exact spot where this occurs for this blog, but haven't been able to find it online. I have written a guy who gives ghost tours in Galveston, Texas, but he never replied. Maybe I can update this mystery later. One has to wonder if the light appears as a result of this controversial commander arguing with himself over which direction he should go to spend eternity.