On this day in 1837, Brig. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was wounded in a duel by Brig. Gen. Felix Huston. Johnston had been sent by President Sam Houston to replace Huston as commander of the Texas army. Huston considered the lack of confidence in his leadership such an affront that, in spite of his esteem for the senior officer, he challenged Johnston to a duel. Johnston's wound was so severe that he was unable to take command.

What if the wound had been fatal? Did the Confederacy have anyone of his equal to lead troops in the western theater? We saw after Shiloh that his loss was significant, much like Jackson in the ANV.

Johnston didn't ever establish that he was equal to the hype. His campaigns before Shiloh weren't raging successes.

His plan for the attack at Shiloh was terrible

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What if the wound had been fatal?

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Some people think it was, there is a theory that the nerve damage caused by Huston's ball caused Johnston not to feel the wound behind his knee at Shiloh and thus he bled out.

The plan at Shiloh was Beauregard's not Johnston's, but it was terrible and Johnston should have said no.

Johnston is even less of a what-if than the death of Jackson in my mind. Johnston was daring and brave but had no strategic or tactical sense, i.e. giving up Kentucky, losing Nashville and accepting the plan of Beauregard for Shiloh as just the highlights. At Shiloh he was little more impactful than a brigade commander going from regiment to regiment to inspire the troops versus trying to direct the flow of battle. That is why it devolved into a battle with no organizaiton for the Confederates. He was certainly not up to the challenges of Confederate command in the west, frankly no general in the war was up to those challenges.

I like to think I know stuff, but when it comes to the Civil War, BQ78 really knows stuff. Any analysis I could provide would be "subject to whatever BQ78 says."

Ah shucks aalan.

SRBS said:

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His plan for the attack at Shiloh was terrible

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Yeah, but he almost won anyway. Had they not gotten bogged down attacking "The Hornets Nest" and instead advanced to the river and mowed down those defenseless Union troops who broke and ran during the initial assault, things would have been much different. Grant's career would have ended before it began, and events in the Western Theater would have spun off into a vastly different reality.

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JFS61:

The Hornet's Nest delay was in the afternoon, the attack plan really fell apart on contact with the enemy, well before that. The corps front lines and the lack of leadership above the brigade level (except for surprisingly Bragg) doomed the attack immediately. The plan was to throw the Yanks into the Tennessee with the Confederate left wheeling them into the river, instead they did the opposite with the right more or less wheeling the Yanks toward the swamp in the west. Johnston, Beauregard and the corps commanders (except Bragg) failed miserably that day despite their advantages of surprise, initiative and the offense. Johnston probably had the worst day of the war for any general based on the Clausewitzian principle of Unity of Command. He also gets low marks for losing sight of the objective and not using a simple plan as Clausewitz advocated.

Perhaps the biggest loss associated with Johnston's death is that Jefferson Davis never found a general who he could trust implicitly like he could Lee in the east. Had Johnston lived, Davis would have trusted him like he did Lee until congressional and public opinion forced him to remove Johnston when the war in the west played out about like it did anyway.