Cecily Zander

But you can't pull the center of your army out of place and expect to win a battle.

James Longstreet, who has been recently transferred to Bragg's army because he'd been having a tip with Robert E. Lee, happens to show up at that exact moment.

He crashes through the line.

The Confederates win a victory, but they don't follow up because Bragg has kind of no wherewithal to continue to punch at the United States.

Yeah.

And then Bragg is occupying what's called Missionary Heights.

And if you've ever been to Chickamauga, Chattanooga, or, you know, you can just look at a picture.

These are massive sort of cliffs, ridges that are very common in this sort of part of Appalachian Georgia.

They're almost impossible positions to lose.

Bragg has several hundred feet of elevation over his enemies.

And Ulysses S. Grant shows up and in a matter of days has stormed the heights, kicked the Confederates off, and they're out of Tennessee for the rest of the war and soon to be out of Georgia.

I mean, it's amazing that even in the best, most defensible position that perhaps any Confederate army had during the war, Bragg still managed to concoct a defeat.

Yeah.

And again, sort of we talked about in another episode, these are citizen soldiers.

They aren't professionals.

Bragg is a professional soldier.

He's a West Point trained officer.

He understands military order and discipline, but he doesn't understand that the men under his command do not share those sentiments and do not share that desire for proper order.

And he tries to enforce it and it makes him a tyrant to his soldiers.

He does not have their love.