the need to attend to every small detail no
matter how irrelevant, Bragg was also
tense, arrogant, and a martinet. Never able
to get along with subordinates, he lacked
the determination to carry through his
plans and shrank from decision making.
In the words of the late Civil War scholar
Bruce Catton, “Braxton Bragg was as baf-
fling mixture of high ability and sheer
incompetence as the Confederacy could
produce.”
True to form, the 46-year-old North
Carolina native and West Point graduate
did not exploit the situation created by his
victory by rushing the disorganized and
dispirited Union defenders out of their for-
tified camp while they were isolated from
any friendly aid. Instead, Bragg spent the
week of September 23-29 throwing Con-
federate pickets around the southern cir-
cumference of Chattanooga, thus initiat-
ing a blockade of the city and the enemy
army that had taken refuge in it. Instead of
waging aggressive war upon the foe, Bragg
spent most of this period attacking his sub-ordinate commanders with a determined
effort to rid his army of them.
In the meantime, Rosecrans’ resolve to
hold on to Chattanooga rose and fell with
the passage of each day. On the 22nd he
wired the administration in Washington,
“We are about thirty thousand brave and
determined men; but our fate is in the
hands of God....” The next day he wrote
to President Lincoln directly: “We hold
this point, and I cannot be dislodged
except by very superior numbers and after
a great battle.” And on October 3 Rose-
crans suggested to Mr. Lincoln that if his
army could remain in Chattanooga, thus
forcing the enemy to abandon its present
position outside the city, Washington
should offer a general amnesty to all Con-
federate officers and soldiers as a way to
end the war!
The president, having previously ordered
that Chattanooga remain in Union hands,
was shocked by Rosecrans’ idea. Again the
leader of the Army of the Cumberland
seemed to be hedging on whether he couldhold the city, and further poking his nose
into political matters by recommending
amnesty for the Rebels. It was about this
time that Lincoln decided Rosecrans
would have to be replaced, but the time
was not yet right. His removal would have
to wait until Ohio, Rosecrans’ home state,
voted in mid-October for a new gover-
nor—either the pro-war Republican John
Brough or the anti-war Democrat Clement
Vallandigham. Congressional seats were
also at stake, and Rosecrans’ support of
the administration had been long and
vocal, going so far as to encourage his sol-
diers to vote for the continuation of the
war effort.
As the political maneuvering in both
camps played out, Bragg finally realized
that his Northern adversary was not going
to oblige him by evacuating his toe-hold
in southeast Tennessee just because he was
semi-surrounded and under siege. Bragg,
seeking some way out of the current
impasse, sought advice from his Army
corps commanders. Of the number of sug-Minnesota Historical SocietyCWQ-Sum16 Wheeler's Raid_Layout 1 4/20/16 5:18 PM Page 57