American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Pemberton Gets Help

It was April 15th and President Jefferson Davis stood in Gen. Robert E Lee's HQ in Fredericksburg. General Lee had just agreed with the Davis that there simply was no one to take Pemberton's place at Vicksburg. He also pointed out to Davis that even if Pemberton was out of his element he had performed adequately over the past 6 months. Davis agreed but stated flatly that he was certain Grant would make a move in conjunction with Banks south of Vicksburg. He simply did not trust Pemberton to be up to the challenge of maneuvering south of the city with his 5 divisions.

Lee pointed out that if that was true perhaps Pemberton just needed some help. He emphasized that a couple of corps commanders could go a long way towards relieving some of the mounting pressure on Pemberton. He added a good corps commander can make decisions on the spot and wield sufficient forces to avert a disaster while Pemberton maneuvers other corps to an advantageous position.

Davis liked the idea so much that he had a telegram sent straight from Lee's HQ to Gen. Johnston on the spot. Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor in Alexandria Louisiana, Maj. Gen. John C Breckinridge and recently promoted Maj. Gen. WHT Walker in Tullahoma all headed to Vicksburg three days later with orders in their pockets directly from the theatre commander Gen. Joe Johnston. Johnston being very familiar with the forces Pemberton commanded had already assigned divisions to each corps commander. Taylor would divert to Grand Gulf and his newly minted I Corps would be responsible for the vital port and the surrounding area south to Port Gibson and East to New Auburn. Walker took the train to Jackson MS where his III Corps AoM would be based. He would receive Forney's small division now also traveling by train to Jackson, but the rest of his forces would not arrive for some time. Breckinridge arrived in Vicksburg to take command of Maj. Gen. WW Loring's large division and the division of Maj. Gen. ML Smith. This composed all of II Corps until his old division arrived from Tullahoma. Breckinridge would be responsible for Vicksburg and the railroad East to Bolton until Grant's plans were known and Vicksburg was considered safe from direct assault.

Note to the reader: If you are familiar with the Vicksburg Campaign you recognize that the only real change I have made to history is to organize the Army of Mississippi into three corps. Why? As you play the campaign (especially as the Rebel commander) you will quickly realize that in reality these are almost like three separate armies. I did this because corps commanders had a great deal of autonomous authority during the Civil War. They were expected to act independently when necessary and execute both offensive and defensive operations without direct supervision or for that matter direct orders. The terrain in this campaign prevented the Rebel army commander from maintaining direct control over the vast area he had to defend. Plus once the Union army and its trajectory was identified there needed to be a commander with enough authority to marshal forces with enough power to actually react to the situation. The question that has been posed for the players to answer is this: Without proper cavalry for scouting operations could the three independently commanded corps have cooperated well enough to slow Grant's advance or perhaps even stop him and exact a defeat great enough to force Grant to retreat back to the Big Muddy.

The Armies

The Army of Mississippi

I Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor

Bowen's Division commanded by Maj. Gen. JS Bowen
“The Missouri Brigade”
Green's Arkansas Brigade

Stevenson's Division commanded by Maj. Gen. CL Stevenson
Barton's Brigade
Tracey's Brigade
Cummings Brigade
Reynold's Brigade

II Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. JC Breckinridge

Loring's Division commanded by Maj. Gen. WW Loring
Buford's Brigade
Featherston's Brigade
Tilghman's Brigade

Smith's Division commanded by Maj. Gen. ML Smith
Shoup's Brigade
Harris's Mississippi State Troops
Baldwin's Brigade
Vaughn's Brigade

III Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. WHT Walker

Forney's Division commanded by Maj. Gen. JH Forney
Hebert's Brigade
Moore's Brigade
Waul's Texas Legion

Independent Units
Gregg's Brigade
Maxey's Brigade

Total 46,403

Army of the Tennessee

The only change made to Grant's army was the addition of Brig. Gen. John McArthur's Division which historically did not arrive until the siege of Vicksburg.
Total 52,930

This organization probably would have helped, particularly having an intermediate commander between Loring and Pemberton. But when I was reading about the Vicksburg Campaign it occurred to me that what Pemberton lacked most of all was a veteran cavalry division.

_________________
MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA

Gen. Mihalik,

And thus the brilliance of Grierson's Raid. This pulled almost every southern cavalry unit between Memphis and Baton Rouge in to the chase. I did not offset this by giving the Rebs any cavalry. That would have been too easy. Nope the Southern players have to contend with the same problems Pemberton had and win through maneuver and a much better command and control than they had historically.