Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience

Braxton Bragg and Jefferson Davis

133 Braxton Bragg and Jefferson Davis With Jefferson Davis at Buena Vista was Braxton Bragg, commanding a battery of artillery. Bragg would go on to be a full general in the Confederate Army, commanding the Army of Tennessee. It would be a tumultuous and controversial command and one in which the relationship between Bragg and Davis would play a key part. Many would conclude that the confidence Bragg earned from Davis at Buena Vista lasted long after it should have in the Civil War. But while Bragg was able to get along well with Davis, he had a very different effect on his men. In Mexico, the seeds were sown both for Davis’s Civil War support of Bragg and for Bragg’s Civil War reputation as an unnecessarily harsh authoritarian. BRAGG AND HIS MEN Bragg was a rigid disciplinarian in Mexico. He had an enthusiasm for drilling that seemed excessive, and many characterized him as “humorless, exacting and petty . . . dull, sour and pedantic” (Kuehl 55). Most considered him a martinet. Bragg’s attention to detail and insistence on precision undoubtedly were critical to his success as an artilleryman, but such an attitude also made him unpopular with many of the rank and file. In October 1847, a report surfaced that a soldier had placed an eight-inch bombshell under Bragg’s bed and ignited it. While the explosion was terrific, Bragg escaped unharmed. The account of the incident could offer no explanation for the attempt on Bragg’s life “except that 134 THE CONFEDERATES some of his men think he is too severe in his discipline. This is the second attempt upon his life” (McWhiney, Bragg 97–98). Bragg would continue this ability to incite passionate vindictiveness among the rank and file in the Civil War. One private wrote, “Breathe softly the name . . . Bragg, it has more terror than the [enemy] army,” and “We . . . did not . . . so much love our country, as we feared Bragg” (Hattaway and Jones 315–316). Daniel Kuehl observes that the army of Zachary Taylor in which Bragg served in Mexico “was in some ways similar to the Confederate army, composed of volunteer soldiers of whom Bragg had been openly contemptuous. Men who distrusted the regular army could be led to greatness by a great leader—this Bragg was not. The attention to minutia and strict discipline that made him a successful battery commander in Mexico were not the traits needed to inspire an Army” (64). But while Bragg’s soldiers may not have liked him, his president seems to have. BRAGG AND DAVIS Bragg’s poor performance in the Kentucky Campaign “caused nearly every Confederate except Davis to lose confidence in Bragg” (McWhiney, Bragg 329). His problems continued when, after Chickamauga, a petition signed by such high-ranking officers as James Longstreet, Simon Buckner, Patrick Cleburne, D. H. Hill, Leonidas Polk, and William Preston requested that Davis remove Bragg from command, contending, “[t]he Army of Tennessee, stricken with complete paralysis, may deem itself fortunate if it escapes from its present position without disaster” (Hallock 95–96). The situation was serious enough that Davis himself visited the army to investigate. Cleburne told Davis that Bragg’s failures “had totally lost him the confidence of the army, and . . . this fact alone destroyed his usefulness.” Longstreet stated that Bragg “could be of greater service elsewhere than at the head of the Army of Tennessee” (Hallock 98–99). Nonetheless, Davis upheld Bragg as commander. Only after the loss of Chattanooga did Davis replace Bragg, and then only after Bragg had asked to be relieved. Even at that, Davis did not turn against Bragg. In February 1864, Davis appointed Bragg as his military adviser, charged with respon- BRAXTON BRAGG AND JEFFERSON DAVIS 135 sibility for “the conduct of military operations in the Armies of the Confederacy ” (Hallock 163). Throughout it all, Davis clearly had a soft spot for Bragg. A newspaper reported, “It is said the President wept when he heard of General Bragg’s misfortunes at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Certainly the President was very much attached to the General” (Hallock 150). WHY? The roots of Davis’s attachment to Bragg stem from Buena Vista, where both men earned early and enduring glory. Bragg’s batteries, along with those of Major J. M. Washington, were firing with support of the Second Indiana Regiment . The infantry was forced out of...